Superman, one of the most recognizable heroes, if not the most recognizable hero of all time, is known by almost all who have in some way involved themselves in movie or comic knowledge. Since his creation he has been featured in multiple movies and comics that involve him in the "Universes" that were created by DC, putting him side by side with other popular superheroes in situations that typically involve fighting evil. These movies that revolve around the DC universe Superman and other heroes take place in are some of the most popular movies recently, such as "Justice League", or "Batman vs. Superman". These movies have seen less fan approval than usual though, both getting scores of under 50% on movie websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. So does Superman deserve the popularity and position he is in? Superman's character has too much power and too little flaws ruining the purpose of any superhero or villain he stars with in a movie, making him incompatible with any other characters in the DC universe.
Superman's character is much too powerful. According to IPFS.io, he has powers from "Superhuman strength", to "Flight" to even, "Invulnerability". Now does that sound like a character we'd be on the edge of our seat, wondering, "Will this be Superman's end?". Of course not. Take sports for example. One of the best parts about them is you never know who's going to win. If you were to watch every boxing fight knowing who's going to win, what would be the point of watching it? It ruins the fun. Now understandably, some people like watching powers like Superman battle it out because they find it entertaining. Now this would be fine, if it he had a great villain or weakness to even things out and make the battles more entertaining. But with all of this power, the rare times when he loses a battle is because of one, dull weakness. Every superhero needs a good weakness. When you look at Batman, his weakness is The Joker, a villain who's character finds enjoyment in making Batman's life difficult, and shows the worst in Batman. These characters relations make for the perfect Hero vs. Villain situation, and both characters in a way feed off each other. Joker's decisions will change the way Batman is as a person and change the way he looks at himself. You need that conflict in a Superhero movie. But Superman's greatest weakness? Kryptonite. Yes, a crystal. That is Superman's greatest enemy. He is a near invincible character, but if he makes contact with that crystal, he's basically dead. This makes for absolute minimal conflict. Whereas a character like Batman that has a weakness like The Joker has to make big decisions that reflect on their personality, and who they stand for, Superman just has to stay away from a crystal. And you might be thinking, what about the conflict he has that aren't related to kryptonite in the movies? Even in conflict as that of him and Batman in Batman V Superman, the conflict is dealt with because their mothers both had the same name. There isn't anything interesting about that, and the entire movie is supposed to be about that conflict. Even after that conflict is resolved, their new conflict is a giant creature that wants to kill them. Why? Because he just does, without having any motivation. Characters like Batman, Spiderman, and Iron Man all earned their spots as heroes through their conflicts growing up. Superman was just born with these powers, making him unrelatable to those who watch media involving him. Especially those he stands besides in the movies, which he creates a whole other issue for. Superman makes other heroes pointless. The point of a big superhero movie such as "The Avengers" or "Justice League" is to show different heroes put together in the same environment in which they need to combine their powers to defeat one big evil. Movies like "The Avengers" execute this well, and make sure to involve the different heroes in their films and bring purpose to each character so all are seen as important. Without this, the use of other heroes is useless. In the movie, "Justice League", the heroes revive Superman after an evil force tries to end them. Then, Superman does the rest of the work in the movie to save the day. The thing is, really any character could've revived Superman in that situation. If they wanted to, they could've made that film a standalone Superman movie, and just had some random civilian come across Superman and revive him. The point of DC bringing all of these characters together in this movie is just to plaster them on their poster so they can make more money. The poster itself says "You can't save the world alone," which I find ironic. Although Superman reigns as one of the biggest characters in superhero history, with the decline of quality in movies, his popularity might begin to die as we see a decrease in consumer interest to watch the movies with him. His standalone movies aren't the issue here, but to compete with big Marvel films like The Avengers, DC will need to make the right decisions to change this character for the better. Because of these character decisions they've made for superman, he is made a character unpairable with other heroes.
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October 2018
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