My Writings. My Thoughts.
Superman Is No Hero
April 5th, 2009
Ever been in one of those discussions about who’s the greatest superhero? No? Well… me neither. But if you ever get in one of those discussions, let me tell you the one hero who is the wrong answer–Superman.
A hero is one admired for their courage and bravery. When you’re an invincible man with no weakness, are you ever brave? Can you really have courage? Courage means facing a terrible danger at massive risk in doing something, but trying to do it anyway.
It is not courageous of me to go for a walk on a sunny day. Though there is a chance that I’ll be struck by sudden, freakish lightning out of the clear blue sky (leaving me a blob of melted goo on the sidewalk), I don’t have much fear to conquer on my way out the door. The odds of that ever happening are far too slim.
The odds of Superman ever being in danger are slightly less than that. Many of you are saying right now, “you’re wrong. Superman has a weakness! It’s kryptonite.” I refer you to Superman’s recent appearance on the big screen, Superman Returns. The bad guy (I don’t know his name) grows a giant kryptonite… thing. You know, like the size of twenty high schools. You’d think that would be enough to weaken him, right?
Here’s a clip (at 6:30 in the video below) of Superman putting that asteroid on his back and flying out of the atmosphere (mind you, he had a kryptonite spear through his heart ten minutes before this). How is that a weakness? Can he only move small asteroids when he’s around kryptonite? Sure, it makes him stop flying for a bit. So he falls 50 miles to the ground below, then wakes up a day later ready for another kryptonite-spear-in-heart-carry-an-asteroid-made-out-of-the-stuff-man-my-suit-looks-funny day.
If you think Superman is a hero, I would invite you to reconsider. If he were a superhero, they would have called him Superhero instead of Superman. Instead, go watch the Dark Knight. Now that’s a sweet movie about a guy that could actually die if he weren’t so awesome. That’s a hero. BAM!
I agree! What a great post. Spider-man has the inner conflicts of that fact that if he were a little more selfish and stop superheroing he could keep the rest of his life in check.
Batman is always a little depressed and tortured with the memories of his past such as witnessing the brutal death of his parents.
Superman super sucks.
Yes, they ARE real.
I couldn’t agree more. And another fabulous blog, Mr. Kowalk. I think you’re the true superhero… right after Batman.
I’ll admit that Batman is my favorite super hero. But another weakness that Superman has is girls!! He’s always shy and passive when it comes to girls.
I would go so far as to say that Superman is NOT legit.
correct use of the term?
Magic, and extreme amounts of force/impact (like from Darkseid) are also weaknesses of his. Also mind manipulation also works sometimes on him. He was much cooler in the 1930s when his powers were more limited. He was cooler i think. But yes, current superman in ridiculous. Even though i thought the movie was awesome because KEVIN SPACEY is an awesome villain. anyways, yeah.
I believe I am the only one one here who has a personal relationship with the hero in question. Along with the having the powers we all know him for, Superman is also a great role model and humanitarian. If his work with orphans in Africa doesn’t make him a hero, then I don’t know what does. Thanks again Super for all you do…
I agree with the Demon.
Michelle has a point…He seems to possess all the powers in the universe but has some serious issues getting the girl he wants. If I do recall correctly, he almost causes an affair in the most recent superman. If you can read minds and you are still going for married women, you know somethings wrong….