Sent to Earth as an infant from the dying planet Krypton, Kal-El was adopted by the loving Kent family and raised in America's heartland as Clark Kent. Using his immense solar-fueled powers, he became Superman to defend mankind against all manner of threats while championing truth, justice, and the American way!
People hate Superman because he's not cool. I admit to that even though I'm a Superman fanboy to the core. It's true, he's not cool. He's awesomeness is limited to comics (and even there he get's a significant amount of hate). Translating him to other media is not impossible but ultra hard. With the exception of DCAU (which is basically still closer to comics han real-life), I haven't seen a decent Superman film, series, or game in years. That's all because he's not cool.
As I said before, he's not cool, he's epic. He was cool but he's beyond that no. Epic is for all times and not constricted to the likes of a certain generation or a certain taste. Cool things loose their charm after some time. If they live out beyond their coolness then they become epic. Though some retain coolness due to constant updating of characters. Look at it this way. Lord of the Rings is epic, Twilight (iiiieeeeew!) is cool (for a certain group). Another example, Beethoven is epic, Justin Bieber (iiiiiieeeew again!) is cool (again for some groups, I'm a teengirl hater hehe).
Its funny that this thread came up because I was at work the other day and I was helping a lady find some jibbitz (decorative pegs that people put into Crocs shoes) for her young son. She asked me where the superheroes were and I pointed them out, and she picked up the "S" shield and said he doesn't know Superman. I found this to be a little shocking, but when I had time to think about it I realized how much Superman has faded out of the mainstream. I do like Superman, but like any superhero, he's only as relevant and how well he is presented. The biggest problem with Superman is that he came along during a simple time where characters did not the complexities that make them relateable and thus more appealing to the reader. He's an alien with virtually limitless power. Most people want to see another person, one with flaws and weaknesses, one who is not guaranteed victory, hence the appeal of Batman, Spiderman or more recently Iron Man. When the right writer and director can present him an a manner that is appealing to everyone, he will be relevant again.
This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment