Remember the scene in Kill Bill Part 2 where Bill explains Superman? It’s a pretty good monologue… here it is, if you haven’t seen it (with Spanish subtitles!):
Now, I am no one to begrudge a man a decent monologue but I can’t help but notice that he’s completely and totally wrong about Superman. Why? Because of Jonathan and Martha Kent. I don’t think that Superman sees Clark Kent as his alter-ego… Clark Kent sees Superman as a costume he puts on and off (sure, he can’t *STOP* being Superman… but the Flash can’t stop being the Flash, Martian Manhunter can’t stop being Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman can’t stop being Wonder Woman). At his very core (according to current continuity, anyway), Superman thinks of himself as Clark Kent. A decent Methodist from Kansas.
I think that this is a fairly accurate summation of Bruce Wayne/Batman, however. The Batman isn’t Bruce Wayne in a costume.
Bruce Wayne is The Batman in a costume.
You know, I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I would argue that this monologue is actually a good summary of SILVER AGE Superman. But post-Crisis, you’re definitely right.
Bill is probably a pre-crisis kinda guy.
Not much into comics these days, but I know enough to be dangerous. I feel like the clutz Clark is a suit that Superman wears because he do the clutz part on purpose with forthought. No idea if this is in the pre/post crisis or if it is only from the cartoons and movies that I see this and not the comics.
Well, the 1950’s and 1960’s and, for the most part, the 1970’s Superman was kind of a jerky guy (regular exposure to Red Kryptonite will do that to you).
It was when DC realized that they needed more than boring babyfaces with superpowers (Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, FREAKING EVERYBODY) but actual, realized, characters that Superman (and Batman, and the Flash, and Guy Gardner’s GL, and so on and so forth) became really, really interesting mythological characters in their own right (rather than just archetypes who were able to cash in their plot vouchers at the right time).
I think it would be different if Superman had arrived as an adult to a foreign culture and was trying to assimilate- but, yes, I agree that it’s hard to see him raised in the culture and not being in some sense imprinted by it.
This is why I think the Captain Marvel (Shazam!) and Superman contrast is interesting. (And why Black Adam is one of the most interesting bad guys in the DC universe… you know, I really ought to review that movie for y’all…)
Hrm, if you feel Black Adam is a very interesting bad guy, htne you will not be happy with him in the cartoon.