To the show’s Elon Musk–esque tech bro, Superman is a threat because he helps people without asking to be paid for it anyone claiming to do anything for purely altruistic reasons is going to screw you later. Nobody knows what to make of this silly-ass Superman. His empathy is his motivation for doing good and the leash that keeps him from doing evil. For that to work, Superman has to care about people. He was the power fantasy of two Jewish men who wanted a big guy to stick up for the little guy. The first Action Comics stories had him taking on union-busting factory owners, abusers, and shady landlords. This is Superman going back to his roots. This is a complete 180 from the MCU-Snyderverse “cinema = carnage” style. He breaks his alarm clock every day! In short, he’s silly.īut he can be serious too! In episode four, Superman gets into a fight with the shadowy government organization hell-bent on his destruction and stops fighting because civilians are in danger. My Adventures With Superman gives us the most corn-faced Clark Kent to ever fly out of Kansas. Sweet as Karo syrup and about as slow, corn-faced heroes include The O.C.’s Ryan Atwood, A New Hope Luke Skywalker, and The Walking Dead’s Glenn. It’s like being corn-fed but to the degree that it’s written all over their face. Like Clark, I’m from the Midwest, and my friend came up with a term for the type of earnest, virtuous-almost-to-the-point-of-stupidity dude you get round those parts: corn-faced. He’s constantly saving cats in trees - like, all the time - and it’s infinitely more compelling than the sad-sack supers we’ve had for the past half-century. This is a Clark that sees the ugliness in the world and chooses to be a good guy. “the Superman anime.” Starring Jack Quaid, the show writes Clark Kent as perhaps the most earnest, sweetie pie-coded herb he’s ever been. That’s why it’s so refreshing to watch My Adventures With Superman, a.k.a. Superman was made sad, dark, and brooding because that’s what everyone decided was “interesting” back at the start of the modern age of comic books. The Snyderverse did perhaps the most character damage, making Clark a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, who killed as many humans as he saved in all his city-destroying battles. Or the overpowered cis straight white man. Throughout the gritty ’80s and grittier ’90s (and grittiest War on Terror–inflected aughts, the military-funded grittiest-est 2010s, forever and ever, amen), Supes has gone from being the No. But the guy who’s fallen farthest is Superman. He went from fighting guys like Kite-Man to constantly mourning the death of his parents and doing surveillance war crimes. The most obvious victim of this grittification is Batman. We’ve endured decades - decades! - of desaturated, dour takes on what it would really be like if a superhero showed up on planet Earth. A plea for more (many, many more) seasons of My Adventures with Superman.
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