So I want to talk about Superman today. I don't like Superman. He is a Mary Sue, and because of that he is insanely boring. He doesn't need to fear losing because he is invincible. Sure you might say, "oh, but kryptonite makes him weaker!" and sure it does, but how often is it a lasting threat? If kryptonite was a meaningful weakness then superman should have died a long time ago. Fuck, on that note he is basically the reason comic book heroes don't need to fear death.
I will admit though that having a hero who is supposed to represent all the good in the world who is happy and a symbol of hope (Despite what Zach Snyder seems to think) is a net positive. What I want to talk about specifically today is that Superman and superheroes like him are bad for the world they inhabit. Stopping crime is a good act, I think we can all agree, but with the basic powers that superman has, he hurts the world.
Humans are an amazing species. We have adapted to the world in ways that other species can only dream about. Hunter/gathering doesn't provide a stable food source for us? Invent agriculture! Don't like walking long distances? Boom: horse and cart. Not fast enough? Car. Still not fast enough? Super sonic fucking planes. To hot? Lets create a device that can make it freezing in your house. Sure, some of these changes fuck with us in bad ways, but hey its only been 14,000ish years, we are still working out the kinks.
Why has this adaptation occurred? Need. I joked about not going fast enough up above, but faster forms of travel allowed us to transport goods to areas of the world where they are needed. Refrigeration and agriculture both allowed us to have far stabler forms of sustenance. What superman does is eliminate need. Social changes to eliminate crime will never need to take place because a superhero is taking care of it for us. We become reliant on a higher being for an entire form of ethics and it will never solve the core problem (stuff like treating drug addicts as people who suffer from a disease instead of criminals /programs to increase funding to inner city schools and improving the neighborhoods they are in).
You can see why this happens. We tend to default to the easiest solution to a problem that we can see. Superman is the perfect easy solution. This is why I dislike him. He puts himself in this position. Instead of only using his powers on enemies that we can't stop (i.e. other supers) Supes stops basic fucking robbers. This is like using a tactical nuke to take out a mouse you saw in your kitchen, way fucking overkill. I appreciate how easy it is, and that superman thinks its his responsibility because he has the power to do so, but it stunts personal/societal growth, and that's a problem.
D.C. brings up this problem in a different context with Sinestro, so its clear that they know it is a possibility. I know that this shit is just comics, but comics, movies, and television are our modern equivalent to mythology. Mythology is supposed to be a template for how people should act as we've discussed before. In the case of Superman, there is a major failing and I think its important to point it out. Easy solutions aren't always the best solutions.
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