Frank Miller hit on exactly what you are talking about in the graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns, in 1986. I think the other thing you have to consider is that we are just coming out of a deeply cynical and hopeless cycle in US history. Cynicism laughs at hope, but it's a brittle dismissal. Hope requires sacrifice for the greater good and cynics don't get that aspect either. In addition to all of that, writers in Hollywood tend to write for the lowest common denominator audience in this era, which is usually audiences composed of people from approved groups clapping cynically on Twitter and/or Bluesky.
Lately my diagnosis has been that writers are primarily tackling plot rather than character or theme. We’ll see if this new Superman suffers from the same deficiency
I'm old. My first Superman was the George Reeves TV series. I was six or eight years old and I hated it. And, hated even more that I was expected to like it. There was no drama to it. Every episode ended with bad guys throwing their empty guns at him before being caught.
"Superman never lies" I was told. "Why would he?" I wondered. He could suffer no meaningful consequence whether he told the truth or not.
Our modern, media savvy world would call him "over-powered." I just called it boring and pointless.
This is a good analysis of the differences between the various heroes, and why Hollywood has trouble with Superman. I, however, am not as hopeful as you apparently are. If a good Superman film shows up, I'll go see it, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
The key problem with the Christ analogy is that Christ died because he was born of man, not immortal. Like a bouquet of flowers, Christ’s ephemerality and dying is part of the point. Per a short essay, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” even Superman’s sperm would be immortal - poor Lois.
He’s also utterly lacking in humor. He’s more like Hercules, given endless tasks but never an original idea himself.
In virtually all stories about heroes they have a few key characteristics - an orphan (Batman, Harry Potter e.g.), they don’t really have a choice choice in the heroism (Ender Wiggin, Frodo) and they have a series of tasks (Hercules, Percy Jackson).
He’s also like ChatGPt - no agency just does tasks after prompting (poor orphan GPT, no choice to render all the tasks)
That’s a reason why Deadpool hit a nerve. Anti-Superman.
An interesting reboot would be to have him create an AI super thing which does all his deeds, while he becomes a visual artist with a gimmick (he’s sees colors humans can’t but it ruins his art), eternally misunderstood (he’s not human), and then gets caught up fighting himself when the AI goes off kilter (they must always do, like Pinocchio wanting to be real) Creates and solves his own problem, lots of resonance to current AI fears.
And make him non-Nordic - perhaps a tall angular Korean man.
Sure-fire hit if you can pop him briefly in a dress.
At least People leaving the movie will say “Christ, what was that!”
Yeah it’s allegory, not a one-for-one comparison. In a lot of ways, Jesus’ story is the classic Joseph Campbell “hero’s journey.” There’s a reason why this structure resonates with audiences so well… we’ve been using it for thousands of years.
Frank Miller hit on exactly what you are talking about in the graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns, in 1986. I think the other thing you have to consider is that we are just coming out of a deeply cynical and hopeless cycle in US history. Cynicism laughs at hope, but it's a brittle dismissal. Hope requires sacrifice for the greater good and cynics don't get that aspect either. In addition to all of that, writers in Hollywood tend to write for the lowest common denominator audience in this era, which is usually audiences composed of people from approved groups clapping cynically on Twitter and/or Bluesky.
Lately my diagnosis has been that writers are primarily tackling plot rather than character or theme. We’ll see if this new Superman suffers from the same deficiency
I'm old. My first Superman was the George Reeves TV series. I was six or eight years old and I hated it. And, hated even more that I was expected to like it. There was no drama to it. Every episode ended with bad guys throwing their empty guns at him before being caught.
"Superman never lies" I was told. "Why would he?" I wondered. He could suffer no meaningful consequence whether he told the truth or not.
Our modern, media savvy world would call him "over-powered." I just called it boring and pointless.
This is a good analysis of the differences between the various heroes, and why Hollywood has trouble with Superman. I, however, am not as hopeful as you apparently are. If a good Superman film shows up, I'll go see it, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
Merry Christmas anyway!
Thank you, sir... and to you
Well-written.
The key problem with the Christ analogy is that Christ died because he was born of man, not immortal. Like a bouquet of flowers, Christ’s ephemerality and dying is part of the point. Per a short essay, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” even Superman’s sperm would be immortal - poor Lois.
He’s also utterly lacking in humor. He’s more like Hercules, given endless tasks but never an original idea himself.
In virtually all stories about heroes they have a few key characteristics - an orphan (Batman, Harry Potter e.g.), they don’t really have a choice choice in the heroism (Ender Wiggin, Frodo) and they have a series of tasks (Hercules, Percy Jackson).
He’s also like ChatGPt - no agency just does tasks after prompting (poor orphan GPT, no choice to render all the tasks)
That’s a reason why Deadpool hit a nerve. Anti-Superman.
An interesting reboot would be to have him create an AI super thing which does all his deeds, while he becomes a visual artist with a gimmick (he’s sees colors humans can’t but it ruins his art), eternally misunderstood (he’s not human), and then gets caught up fighting himself when the AI goes off kilter (they must always do, like Pinocchio wanting to be real) Creates and solves his own problem, lots of resonance to current AI fears.
And make him non-Nordic - perhaps a tall angular Korean man.
Sure-fire hit if you can pop him briefly in a dress.
At least People leaving the movie will say “Christ, what was that!”
Yeah it’s allegory, not a one-for-one comparison. In a lot of ways, Jesus’ story is the classic Joseph Campbell “hero’s journey.” There’s a reason why this structure resonates with audiences so well… we’ve been using it for thousands of years.