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Originally Posted by Nowhere Man
Thought I'd go through the rest of this, since I'm a big S-fan and have had this sort of argument a million times before.
That's kind of the whole point of Superman. It's not like Marvel comics, where it's just one continuous "vs." scenario. Superman's one of the few heroes in all of comics who focuses on saving people before he worries about beating up villains. Batman doesn't do that. Spider-Man doesn't do that. Guys like Punisher and Hulk sure as shit don't do that. The whole point of the character is the 'secular Messiah,' a man who comes down from On High and lives among the human race, using miraculous powers to do acts of mercy that no one else can. Call it corny if you like, but that's one of the biggest things that makes Superman unique among all the other cape-and-tights folk.
He probably could do that if he really wanted to. He's got enough power that he could remove all of the terrorists, criminals, corrupt politicians, drug lords, and all of society's other undesirables. He could make the world a utopia with no war, no crime, no corruption.....and no freedom.
One of the biggest conflicts Superman has is how far he can go to help people without crossing the line and taking away their free will. On the one hand, he can't turn a blind eye to suffering when he has the power to stop it. On the other hand, in order to truly make the world better, humanity has to want it, and simply solving all of mankind's problems for them robs them of their ability to make their own decisions.
For an idea of how Superman would be if he didn't understand the need for individual freedoms, read Red Son. It's quite good.
1) Superman was created in 1932, nearly a full decade before the US entered WWII, and wasn't published until 1938, still a year before the war began. For "WWII-era propaganda," look no further than Captain America or the Star-Spangled Kid. Yes, he was turned into a propaganda figure during the War itself, but so were Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and virtually every other pop culture figure of the day.
2) The whole argument over "Truth, Justice, And the American Way" has been going on for a while now. On the one hand, his coming to America as an foreigner (in the ultimate sense, since he's not even from this planet) and making his way to the very top is the very essence of the American dream. Not to mention his being raised by the Kents has steeped him in what would be considered traditional American values. However, he's acted out against the US government and military on several occasions, going so far as to lead a raid on the White House itself when Lex Luthor was elected President (which in and of itself was just a thinly-veiled swipe at the Bush administration) So while he's not the flag-waving unquestioning uber-Patriot that he was during the war-time Golden Age, Superman instead stands for the way America should be, not necessarily the way it is.
3) His whole "overly simplistic" view of the world is exactly one of those glaring human flaws that you say he doesn't have. Countless people have taken advantage of this over the years, stepping behind moral boundaries that Superman won't cross or putting him in situations where he can't take action without violating his own principles. That's how Lex Luthor manages to walk away scott-free from most of his plans, how Batman is able to manipulate him so easily, etc. There are ways to defeat Superman without ever bothering with Kryptonite. For someone who has "no human flaws," that's a pretty big one.
Because we all know how popular Iron Man is, now that he's a raving drunk. Besides, they've already tried making Superman fit in with all the other grim-and-gritty antiheroes during the late 80s and 90s. They watered down all of his powers, made him constantly whine and mope about what to do, and then gave him a stupid-looking mullet. The comics themselves were virtually unreadable and very nearly caused the series to go under. Ironically though, the resulting backlash ended up with stories like Kingdom Come and Alan Moore's run on the indie-comic Supreme, which made the old "Boy Scout" persona more popular than ever.
Not every hero needs to be about angst and gloom and how terrible their life is; save that shit for Batman.
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