Do people really write “yeah” as “yea”? Why isn’t that pronounced like sea or pea or tea?
Yay.
Like the Nazi rapper?
Nobody understands Superman, especially most of his writers.
Dude is alien Moses created by two Jews during the Holocaust. His arch nemesis is a billionaire/the president. C’mon.
Kryptonite is pork, basically?
has there even been a plot line where the system in so corrupt, superman has no choice but to become a villain to safe the world.
ie he didn’t have the “consent” of the us president.
probably happened when lex was president.
Maybe Emperor Joker?
This just makes me think of Captain Planet. He knew how to solve these sorts of issues. By beating up assholes and making them stop.
Nope. What you got for limp dick? Can I try chewing on a hair or toenail cutting?
Don’t forget about fighting people who actually have plans to make the world a better place
Related note, excellent video essay, “Defenders of the Status quo” https://youtu.be/LpitmEnaYeU
Only watched half of the video (because it’s something I’m well aware of), so it might have gone into it, but another angle is that there’s often villains that make good points and then suddenly take it in a batshit direction.
Like Thanos had a point but apparently never understood exponential growth and how reducing all life by any constant factor is just delaying the same result, even if his snap made 99% of people disappear (unless he snaps enough people that the population collapses entirely, which is what he wanted to avoid).
There’s many other examples where reasonable starting points end up in unquestionably evil conclusions. Pretty sure it’s just propaganda to make people who don’t think much about things link those reasonable beginnings with “evil” in their minds.
Also there’s characters like Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark who are billionaires but their stories always ignore the realities of what must be done in order to become a billionaire (ie underpay staff doing the actual work by billions). In Stark’s case, they sidestep that by giving him super advanced AIs and automation robots, though he’s still the owner of a large corporation, that he still benefits from despite offloading any of the responsibility of even running it to everyone else.
They even rewrote Thanos to have those Malthusian
undertones, originally he just had a bone for Marvel’s legally distinct from DC’d genki goth girl personification of death and wanted her to notice him.It’s addressed in the video, that these characters are always written to then go over the proverbial line.
This is what I like about Wonder Woman. She shows up and is like. “Oh shit! There’s a world war going on! Better go stop that.” Meanwhile in the present super man is stopping random petty theft.
Couldn’t he just take all the billionaires and fly them into the sun or smth? I don’t know if that alone would fix things, but it’s a start. Also literally no downsides.
His nemesis is literally a billionaire and he never managed to get rid of him.
That’s why he’s constantly fighting
Jeff bezosLex Luther l.Batman is a billionaire
Ah yes, In. Public he “Fights” the rich but in the Dark he is awfully chummy with a rich furry.
We got American Superman. We got Soviet Superman. We need Anarchist Superman.
Captain planet gets close to that
Don Cheadle’s Captain Planet, you mean.
If only Superman were a utilitarian. I’d like to read that ratfic.
I bet you if he just lightly beat up one billionaire a day that the problem would sort itself out pretty quickly.
Imagine being the last billionaire but no one wants to take your money rofffffllll
Lightly?
Like bully locker shoving type. It’s not like anyone could really stop superman. You could be in the middle of a board meeting, and he just comes in the window and starts pushing you to the ground until you stop trying to get up.
There are evil “robots” you can go beat up to solve those issues, yes
But you said they were robots Rick!!
They’re bureaucrats Morty! I don’t respect em.
Zuckerberg count?
First thing I thought of, so it must be right
Well, there’s this one:
It is interesting that Superman’s archenemy was an incredibly wealthy businessman. That seems to be the exact problem with our world today (there’s just many more of them).
The more you look at the villains in all the TV, movies, and books growing up, the more you realise they’re mostly evil capitalists.
It’s weird that Hollywood etc would green light so many movies about how rich people like themselves are evil, and teaching kids to fight against them.
The rich landlord is going to close the community club hall! The rich businessman is trying to have us killed to cover up his chemical spills! Etc etc.
If it’s not a literal alien from another planet, more often than not the bad guy is just a literal normal capitalist.
And yet try to use the lessons taught in every piece of media you ever watched as an impressionable child, and you’re told that your anticapitalist beliefs are “extremist” and you’re dangerous and must be stopped.
Weird eh?
deleted by creator
Environmentalists in comic books are nearly always deranged villains, and the ones that aren’t are still weak and naïve.
The only strong environmentalist hero in Western canon is Captain Planet, and he’s got sus narc vibes.
Poison Ivy is essentially an anti-hero at this point, and she is considered fairly powerful too.
Storm and aquaman are pretty pro environmentalist without making it their only identity.
Well, Green Arrow. But you have a point.
…because he wears green?
Because of his views.
https://i0.wp.com/50yearoldcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/gl89-recruit.jpg?ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/50yearoldcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/gl89-vapor.jpg?ssl=1
From: https://50yearoldcomics.com/2022/02/19/green-lantern-89-april-1972/
He’s consistently an “old lefty” sometimes more “sustainable-first capitalist” sometimes more “anarchist”, but his views on things like pollution are well established.
Turns out he has a superpower, and it is the ability to be environmentalist, anarchist-leaning, and billionaire at the same time.
Fair. And I believe this absurd was addressed in universe multiple time. Often with him losing the money in a process. But yes, it’s one of the unfortunate consequence of our shift in how we see billionaires. Batman is the richest and smartest person in the world who care only about one city… with it’s underfunded mental asylum looking like a hose of horror.
The irony is clear. They have a better way of fixing the system than fists and arrow. They are the system.
The lean batman and lean GA are the only one that make sense. But they need to be part of the Justice League with immortal gods. So they need the 9th metal mech and killer ray space stations… which cost money.
But saying GL is not an environmentalist is like saying that Batman don’t care about Gotham. (Even if they have a stupid way of organizing their priorities.)
You’re absolutely right on all counts, but I absolutely adore this typo/autoerect error:
looking like a hose of horror
So I’ll leave it unedited out of respect for your adoration :)
I think so and agree with you.
I’ll add that I think Ollie gets a better treatment with it than Bruce, and Marvel’s Tony who is a bit of a dick, do. (Pym and Incredible both manage to keep inventing game-changing things that never change the order or structure of society or economics, which is relayed to where I’m gonna go but also different in some ways).
I haven’t read a lot of Green Arrow, but have enjoyed what I have.
I do remember reading one story that began with Ollie volunteering in Africa working on water infrastructure (not sure if he was also funding things). He takes actions allowed within the confines of the editorial line to fit the views his character espouses.
But to keep relatablity any never ending story, i.e. the soap opera for boys of serialised comics, will tend towards the status quo of our real world. They can’t show us a better way to live, as how we live needs to be the normal and mostly ideal. So Genosha must fall, Metropolis must be a normalish city, and Gotham remains close to a platonic ideal of the upper-middle class’s view of crime infested 80s New York. (Not the original, but seems to have shifted to it from the gangstery 1950s it once was in pre-modern Batman).
Edit: I think this is also actually in part what has led me to become more a fan of Superman as I get older.
I couldn’t agree more. But I could live with the status quo of the environment, I think it could be done well… IF you are willing to let your characters change. But they insist on Batman that needs to stay broken even when he overcomes all his obstacles. He’s a fantasy of a perfect man, right? He should be self-aware and smart enough to start therapy by now. He already raised a family of heros, and which one of them surpass him in some way… the only reasonable place for him to be is retirement. But as long as batman toys and movies are selling better than Nigtwing’s no one will pull the trigger. At least not permanently.
I also moved to Superman - unfortunately I’m taking a brake on US culture until the president is in the office. But I can’t wait to pick up where I left. Superman resonates so much more with me now.
I’m in a small minority that loved Superman revealing that he’s Clark Kent to the word. It’s consistent with his “truth” value, it opens to discussions ethics of having “all hearing” reporter who reports on things he’s part of… it created fresh type of conflicts. And I loved his son, as a Superman who ask himself “should I be doing more and what more even mean”… I loved the House of El and the Superman’s legacy…
You can disagree and it’s fine. The point is, we deserve stories that are more than retelling the same one over and over again.
We could have the metropolis that is normalized with heros who address modern problems that became “norm” to readers. I want to know
But they will not play the long game, when the short term profits are on the line. Status Quo strikes again.
Sure, but we’re really in “exception proving the rule” territory where you have to reach back to 1972 for an environmental plotline.
Come on, man. You are portraying a scenario when I opened all comics starting now and stopped when I reached a first one with environmental theme? Is this arguing in good faith? The image is old because it’s an important part of his worldview for a long time. One of his enemy from this year is named “Fresh Water Killer”.
I’m not doubting he’s pro-environment, but my original comment referred to characters defined by their environmentalism, and the fact that you’re pushing him so hard as a candidate off something that’s very much a secondary characteristic proves how thin the field is overall.
What his primary characteristic in your mind?
I agree how the filed is overall. He’s a very small represnetiarion. But I stand by that he’s a valid one.
Green arrow has a decent and relatively new series.
I’ll turn you into a fucking tree!
1930s Superman would’ve agreed with the crowd.
Anyone who makes more than 10x the medium income in their country gets their brain lasered. Solved
We can solve those problems directly or indirectly by tying superman to a dynamo. With free energy even the issues with materials can be solved over time.
Just have superman round up every billionaire and political leader and drop them off on an deserted island, and the rest of us can start fixing our problems like adults.
Why not drop them into a volcano
You want billionaire thetans, cuz that’s how you get billionaire thetans.
Then the myth that they are special might live on. Broadcast their island ineptitude as they all die and we might wake from that dream.
Better that they be forgotten entirely
Isn’t that just a solar panel with extra steps?
Superman probably doesn’t need as much raw materials as a planet-wide supply of solar panels. It seems like copper is currently the biggest issue, and one that isn’t easily solved by switching to other renewable energy sources.
I would say the energy output Superman is capable of implies he’s actually a step-up transformer as well as a solar panel. He’d be much more efficient, but of course you only have one Superman.
Now im curious. I’m just an electrician, not an engineer. How much of the grid could Superman power? Someone figure out his kilowatt-hour figures please 😅
The problem would be transmission, kinda like with huge powerplants that exist today.
The most efficient solution? Probably Superman bullying world leaders and billionaires into funding room temperature superconductivity research, heh.
Don’t know about Superman, but we have those figures, and it’s a bit disappointing.
Yoda could barely lift that X-Wing, Superman can outrun bullets. The sheer kinetic force he’s capable of producing would be orders of magnitude higher than Yoda, and more consistent too
Depends on the writer I guess.
Morrison? He just does a one energy cumblast while macrodosing some shrooms and Earth goes into overdrive. Humanity needs a new Si prefix for Wh.
Just about every iteration could easily power thousands of mountain sized gravity batteries.
Wasn’t there a small parody comic about this?
One of my favorite ever smbc, and that’s SAYING something! ❤️
Well, he could beat up all the CEOs and politicians…