Imagination, anyone?

[scarfman]

Okay, I guess I need to say this, once, in my own journal, so that from now on instead of typing it over and over again I can just link back here.

Just because a character can do anything, just because he has no physical limits, doesn't mean he's an uninteresting character. It just means you have to do stories about what he won't let himself do ... or, about the circumstances when he will let himself do that.

You just have to be a good writer.

Comments

[drake57.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Metaquoted!

[aberrantangels]

Here via the metaquoting, and I think I'd already come to a conclusion like that. It's how I write md_donighal (the guy in my icon: Michael Daemon Donighal, better known to Trinity Universe fans as Divis Mal or maybe Dr. Primoris).

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes.

Even if some of the Superman movies have just been showcases for all the gosh-wow fantastic stuff he can do, and suspense relies on the artificial introduced concept of kryptonite, that doesn't mean that's the only way to tell a story about Superman.

I love what they've done with him in the Justice League cartoons (or what I've seen of them, anyways -- they seem to have disappeared from YTV). He's physically unstoppable, but that doesn't mean he's supremely confident or always makes the right decisions. His morals get in his way, and he's ultimately lonely and often wishes he could be living a different life.

I suppose if someone thinks emotional turmoil and inner conflict are pointless things to write about, and physical strength is all that matters in the world, then yeah, Superman is boring. You're definitely being told this by someone who has no imagination and probably can't write worth peanuts.

From Metaquotes

[iczer6.livejournal.com]

I love what they've done with him in the Justice League cartoons (or what I've seen of them, anyways -- they seem to have disappeared from YTV). He's physically unstoppable, but that doesn't mean he's supremely confident or always makes the right decisions. His morals get in his way, and he's ultimately lonely and often wishes he could be living a different life.

Sadly JLU ended this year.

I'll add that Toonverse Superman is aware of how strong and powerful he is so he has to hold back a lot, he can't let him loose except on rare occasions.

I think the line about 'living in a world of cardboard' is very true for him.

But I don't think he wants to live a different life, I think he may long for a normal life at times, but I don't think he would be Superman if it wasn't something he truly wanted to do.

Re: From Metaquotes

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Eh, I figured it was cancelled. Shame. I'll look for DVDs. How many seasons were there? :)

...I don't think he would be Superman if it wasn't something he truly wanted to do.

Actually, you've just put your finger on something I couldn't put into words.

I think he feels it's his duty to be Superman, and if he stopped, he'd feel a lot of guilt about not using his powers to help people. He does it because he can't not. But in that episode where the brain-sucking plant thing makes him dream about a world that he would never want to leave, he dreams up a farmhouse and a family on a Krypton that was never destroyed. Some part of him just wants to be an average Joe.

I have no idea if any Superman other than the toonverse one has ever been explored this deeply. I suspect not, because that would explain why so many people think it's boring to tell a story about an invincible and undefeatable hero.

Re: From Metaquotes

[scarfman]

I haven't seen the tv episode about the mindsucking plant but I read the story it was based on. Elsewhere in this journal I repeated the observation a friend made at the time that Superman is the only person to fall under the plant's power whose vision goes bad. I don't know whether that happens in the tv version, but the impetus for that journal entry was that I added the observation that he's also the only one to realize it's an illusion while he's still under. Through superior physiology, or superior something, he's incapable of living a pretty lie. I can see how this would translate in some writers' minds as a burden of obligation or duty. But that's not how I see him. In the new movie while Lois's still mad at him for leaving, she says Earth doesn't need a savior. I think she's misreading the relationship. I think Superman does what he does freely because Earth was his savior. He's paying forward what the Kents did for him.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Applause!

(which prompted an lj entry in its own right -- and a plug for some web comic or something.)

[scarfman]

Yes, I saw that before I saw this. Thanks for reading.

[larksilver.livejournal.com]

Superman has ever struck me as the ultimate Paladin, one who does Good because it's the only thing they can do. Of course that seems boring to those who don't grok that, and it is boring, when it's played badly.

However.. if Spiderman's great power comes with great responsibility, then what of Superman's? It's Responsibility, times 10. You could mine many stories simply from his attempts to live a "normal life" while not shirking his responsibility.. oh, wait, that's how it works. Right?

As for the films.. of course they focus on the gosh-wow-look what he can do factor. He's awesome, and all that gosh-wow stuff looks great on film.