For years Superman has stood for truth, justice and the American way. But that’s all changing in Grant Morrison’s take on the character in the DC reboot.
Morrison says that his take reflects the current attitude many have toward authority figures.
“The cops don’t know him. They can’t trust him,” Morrison told Newsarama. “He’s willing to break the law. So obviously, people are scared as well, because he’s using these incredible powers, and no-one quite knows what that means.”
“Nobody has much faith in their elected leaders in the same way that they did. We all have a lot more cynicism and a lot more doubt about the people who are running our lives than we did when Superman was a ‘boy scout’,” he adds.
Morrison explained how he has reimagined Superman’s home of Metropolis as a more “real” city.
“The idea was to take the DC Universe and treat it almost as a science fiction playground, and this was the first time this had happened.
“And to show how it works in Metropolis, a city that has always tried to be the City of Tomorrow, but now it’s 2011, or 2005 I guess, since these stories are taking place in the past. But it’s slightly run down, you know? The machines don’t work. The robot trains are kind of useless. There’s graffiti everywhere.
“And it’s kind of like the way New York was in the 1970s, before they cleaned up the place.”
Ok, my first reaction is “please, don’t break Superman”
My second is “this could work as long as Supes continues to try and be the boyscout, but nobody wants to buy his cookies.”
The vigilante angle is totally covered by Batman. Yes, Superman has always been a vigilante if you follow the definition, but people have always drunk his kool-aid. In our society these days, a person who shows up doing the right thing because he has the power to isn’t viewed as a King Arthur, but more like a Saddam Hussein. And it’s that sort of villainization that would make an interesting story, because Superman wants to do the right thing, and he knows he can, so he does, but your local police… they aren’t having any of it.
I’m all for cops not trusting him. But breaking the law? STUPID.
It depends on what laws he’s breaking. Technically flying over certain government facilities is breaking the law. Taking out the wall of a building is illegal as well, even if it’s to save someone. Hell, being an illegal on US soil without a visa is breaking the law. I doubt he’s going to break any laws that really matter. We have too many laws as it is.
Writing a good Superman story is hard, especially given the guy’s power levels. Like Lejon, I was about to cringe, when I sat and thought about it. I like the idea of him having to win over Metropolis, even though it reminds me too much of the “Blur” from Smallville, where he was trying to prove himself to the public. This has the potential of being a really great angle, especially if they cover the angle of a man who can do whatever he wants, but ‘chooses’ to do things the moral way, and lead by example.
Don’t get it…why not just write a new vigilante character rather than changing one whose background has already been established.
Because Superman is a boring character and they need to change it up. That’s why Smallville worked.
I read Astonishing #1 and it was okay. I think the Marvelization of DC is the wrong way to go. Mostly because Marvel has perfected the everyday-man aspect of superheroism and DC does it rather poorly. Either way, I’ll keep reading it to see if they are just so far off the mark that it makes this just an Elsewolds title gone mainstream, or just a poorly executed relaunch.