Superman Returns
November 28, 2005 | 26 Shawwal 1426
While seeing the latest offering in the Harry Potter enterprise I saw the new trailer for Superman Returns. I am very excited - Superman is one of my favorite super heroes. While surfing around on the net I came across a forum where people were discussing how much could Superman lift and if he could break adamantium. Could Superman kick Wolverine’s butt? God!, that’s about as entertaining as Alien vs. Predator. Such are the questions of geeks who’ve read too many comics and played to many role-playing games and have missed the whole point of the character. Superman is not about stats - how much he can lift, how fast he can fly, how much adamantium he can bend or break. Superman’s about ethics, morals and principles. He’s about purpose. Superman is akin to an angle, or if I could extend myself here, a Prophet. He can perform super-human actions with ease. He has a moral compass that’s set to a higher standard than ours. Never does Superman have to weight the scales for what is right or wrong - angst is for Bruce Wayne and Batman, not for the son of Jor-El. That is why we are always seeing these great vistas of Superman in space, above the earth, looking down at us humans. And while he has a great love for Lois Lane he knows that his duty, the reason why he was sent here, outweigh that. No mortal could possibly possess his powers and not succum to them at some point. But he’s not mortal. He’s more than a man. He’s almost like an angel with free will or something close to that. So it doesn’t matter if Superman can break adamantium. The question is why would you need him to do so? And if there was a need, then yes, he could do it. All of Superman’s powers are based on the fact that he needs to be able to do what he needs to do. That’s why for those who’ve read the comics over the years, Kal-El’s powers seem to go up and down. Well, what does he need to do at the time? I always get a little emotional around Superman. Christopher Reeves will always be the Superman of my heart. He really embodied so much of what the character was. And of course, he was remarkable towards the end of his life. So I hope and pray they do it justice. But above all, Superman was sent here for us, to help us and show us the way. And as his father, Jor-El, put it:
“They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son.”
Now if that wasn’t geeky, I don’t know what is!
July 9th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Well i think that its really difficult to nail down exactly what superman is these days, mainly because nearly everyone has a different interpetation of him, luckily the ones that seems furthest from us all is the ‘american way’ which has very negative connatations these days. I think that superman is best viewed as a superbeing with almost almighty powers, and depending on what the situation, the power that he needs for that occasion will be unlimited to him..