Truth, Justice, and Why Superman Will Always Matter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ย. 2024
- A review and analysis of "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" from Action Comics #775.
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A reminder that Zack Snyder basically quoted Manchester Black when he was asked a question about Batman killing his oppenents in Batman V Superman.
Color his hair purple, give him a black trenchcoat and a union jack t shirt and he'd be a spitting image of him.
@@battlion507 Huh your not wrong.
Man imagine a Superman movie where they literally cast Zack Snyder as Manchester Black and have Superman shut him down with the Dreams speech.
It terrifies me how accurate this is.
@@battlion507This
I think the animated adaptation does an even better job at getting these points across. Superman is truly terrifying in the final act.
The fact his voice actor, George Newbern, also voiced Final Fantasy's SEPHIROTH really helps to sell the bit.
Orbit
He went into orbit at mach 7.
The fact that everyone watching him - especially the Elite - is utterly terrified by him shows how much they've taken the boy scout for granted. Take away his good nature, and you've got someone scarier than most of his villains.
@@TofuBug24 If you had super-hearing, any second you will hear the... *pop.*
Well, it was written by Joe Kelly, who was rather familiar with the source material, and not afraid to improve on it.
So in "Avengers: Endgame", you know how the crowd goes absolutely NUTS when Cap lifts Mjolnir? (There are videos of this and they are a delight.) People aren't responding to "oh boy, now Cap is going to be able to hit Thanos really really hard". No, what they're picking up on is, Cap is The Real Deal. He is really such a good man that even ancient Nordic magic sees how special he is. We want to believe in Cap.
And we want to believe in Superman too. Not the super-feats, but that a person could simply opt to be the best version of themselves, and help people simply because it's within their abilities to do so.
We all would do well to think about whether we could step up just a bit, and be more like the Superman we want to believe in. Maybe we'll even have the opportunity to BE that Superman for someone else.
Being good is easy when you basically a god... Please remind me what happened when his town was nuked.
@@ЮрийЗагуменнов-ш7ц that is not Superman, they did his character dirty
@@ЮрийЗагуменнов-ш7ц That isn't superman they did him as a character dirty.
That's not superman, that's Ultraman wearing Superman's stripes. Like having evil people in a fantasy setting just being Nazis with funny hats. The writer can make Obama a universal world destroying threat, it doesn't mean it suits his "character arc" as a US president.
@@Xoriyadbuuxda Assuming this is about injustice, isn't that kind of the point? He failed to live up to the ideals of superman when the chips were down, and now it's up to an actual superman to stop him? Injustice is an elseworld story, and its superman is more Ultraman than trying to say that superman needs to be edgy to be cool. IIRC, the showdown between Superman and Injustice Superman at the end of the comic heavily features Superman explaining just why going evil has only made Injustice supes weaker and hasn't actually solved any problems
"Superman is too pure, too good, too much of a boy scout." Good thing he is, we have been shown what happens when he's not. 😱💀
Oh boy. Another story where Superman is extremist, or kills, or gets mind-controlled, or is cynical, or is an emotional dumpster fire. How original.
At this point, the boy scout has become the subversion.
@@BjornTheDim@BjornTheDim I can't express how tired I am of evil Superman. I want my superman to smile.
@@ATADSP did you already watched 'my adventures with superman'? it is finally a superman who smile and light hearted.
@@jonathanscherer7482 Good point about Spider-Man, this was also demonstrated in the Superior Spider-Man story arc when Otto Octavius took over Peter Parker's body and later decided to take up the mantle of Spider-Man and carry on his work; he practically punches Scorpion's jaw clean off in one fight, which made Otto realize how much power Peter had and how much he was pulling his punches.
@@jonathanscherer7482💗❤💗👏👏👏
I love Superman for the same reason I love Star Trek. No, it's not realistic. That's the point. Its aspirational. We may never achieve those ideals, but just trying makes us a little better every day. Imagine what mankind could accomplish if we just got our shit together.
And this is why we need Superman (and Star Trek) now more than ever. Everything is so shallow and cynical; we need characters that say "no, truth, justice, and the American way really are worth the fighting for."
Well said.
I find liking Superman and Star Trek is inseparable. Hopeful stories of good people doing good for its own sake and hoping the rest of us can join them in making a better world. Any claim Superman is boring (and strangely from sci fi nerds that love ST) because he's too powerful or perfect haven't actually read comics, cause his adventures are almost exactly like our intrepid space explorers. He either is much more powerful than the dilemma, but his morals and ethics prevent him from the easy solution, or some macguffin has taken his powers (like various energy fields in Star Trek) and he has to find a way without easy solutions. Or its a peer threat or a space imp testing him. Like EXACTLY the same.
I love Superman too. Unfortunately we live in a world where those in charge, right or left, only care about power. If only realistic, practical ideas ruled politics, but seems highly unlikely.
You had me at “aspirational”. That’s exactly correct. I don’t want to assume that people who don’t like aspirational characters just want fictional super-powered people to validate their choices instead of make them question them. But a lot of the arguments seem to boil down to “this is the choice I’d make” or “these are the priorities I would have” and therefore it would be better if this character made those choices instead of the ones they made in the story.
That said, people do that all the time with characters making decisions that aren’t inherently about morality or ethics. It happens a lot when characters in any story make a choice they wouldn’t have made and they call it a “plot hole”.
But it feels weirder when it’s about a moral or ethical choice.
I have found that the older I’ve gotten, the more aware I am of how ugly and unfair the world is, the more I’ve appreciated Superman and those like him, like Captain America, and the more I understand how important they are. And the more I appreciate them, the more I understand what their greatest power is. It’s not incalculable strength or impeccable combat skills or precise heat vision or impossible marksmanship with an impossible shield.
Heroes like Superman, like Captain America, their greatest power is to inspire their allies and their audiences to be better people.
It’s why I feel like, weirdly enough, one of the best Superman moments in cinema was actually a Captain America moment - in “Winter Soldier”, when he’s speaking to the better natures of the SHIELD operatives who found themselves infiltrated and overrun by Hydra. Lifting them up, inspiring them to stand up and do what’s right and not give in to the dark, easy justice Hydra claims to offer. It’s pure Captain America, but it’s also pure Superman and something we rarely see in Superman adaptation.
"I'm not gonna launch those ships. Captain's orders."
As we get older, the subversion that the world is a terrible place and filled with terrible people, and most people would be assholes with their powers, isn't all that subversive. It's just stating the obvious. And stating the obvious isn't as interesting as people like to pretend. Superman and Captain America and others are important because they're proof that folks can look past all the obvious horrible stuff and see the good things. Like how some people think that art being angsty makes it more meaningful. I don't care about art that reminds me how bad the world is; I want art that can see something nice and beautiful about the world.
Deku vs lady nagant “You’ve seen the darkness in this world, so u know what needs to be brought into the light, it’s not too late for you to fight on our side. I know the heart of a hero, still beats inside you. Nothing is truly black and white, our society exists in a gray area swirling with anxiety and anger. That's exactly why I have to keep reaching my hand out to help.”
@@cybertramon0012 this actually brings me back to a show that died too soon that I feel was exactly what we needed and kinda still need: “Earth to Ned” by the Henson Workshop. Yes, it was a silly, improvisation-heavy talk show about an alien who just loves earth’s pop culture, but it went way beyond that, and in exploring our pop culture really focused on what ties us all together in a time when we feel so irreparably divided.
I fully agree with you Superman's story and his ability to see a brighter tomorrow and to continually work for it even though today will not appreciate it tomorrow will not appreciate it 5 weeks from now when I appreciate it the fact that he still making the place better and will be better later on through his efforts that he will continue fighting even though his dream may not even be realized in his lifetime. And a lot of us as we grow up we realize that we as human beings are the exact same we ourselves are basically gods of our own fate and we are the creators of our own doing all we need is just a good push and enough people to continue fighting even though they know like for me I could grow up do what I need to do and be a better example to my environment but one example ain't enough but that doesn't mean that I can quit my example can inspire somebody else and someone else can inspire someone else and so on so forth so as long as one person is at least willing to make a difference the best way they know how someone will pick up on it someone will continue the fight as long as we are able to do so we can make our place better
Always up for a good "Superman good, actually."
I find this story highlights the black and white thinking of many of Superman's naysayers really well. Like, if you find Superman boring, go read Wonder Woman, who is a bit more flawed and less crazy powerful while still being an inspiring idealist or any number of characters that are still upright, good people who aren't perfect.
Instead, they jump to the extreme, wanting murderers with superpowers.
Side note: when are you doing a Best Wonder Woman Ever? She deserves more love
At the end of his novel The Hogfather, Terry Prachett gave us a great speech. He said that things like Justice and Mercy don’t exist but humans need to believe in them because how else can they become. That’s what Superman shows us: that there’s a better way and that we can be better.
The Elite were also a rejection of Garth Ennis' comic series The Boys, which was a fair sight darker and more nihilistic than the streaming TV series it spawned.
Here is the secret to appreciating Superman: it's not about what only he can do, it's about what we could do too.
It's also about what he can do, but doesn't.
There have been so many Evil Superman things in recent years that it's easy to forget that Superman's defining trait is that he isn't an Evil Superman.
@@michaelramon2411 You've definitely got a point. It is very much a good thing I don't have Superman's power set, because if I had them, first thing I'd try to do is fix things. A lot of things. Almost certainly, too many things. It would involve a body count, and also, it would probably cause a lot of inadvertent chaos.
Lobo might have been violent but was intended to be a parody/indictment of the idea.
That's been lost over time. Now, it seems, he's just another badass.
I wonder if even trying to do this was a lost cause from the beginning. The subtleties of the Punisher get lost too, when abusive cops use him as a mascot. There are fans of Judge Dredd who don't really recognize that he's a satire. And so on. It's like what François Truffaut said about war movies, that no matter how anti-war you try to make them, there's someone who's going to get off on the excitement of violence and decide war looks awesome.
Maybe that's why we need our Superman types, to set against them.
@@MattMcIrvin
Dredd was a satire?
( Also I agree with that comment. People find violence to be inherently fascinating. So any attempt at anti-violence media is inevitably going to bent to the favor of pro violence. )
@@thereseemstobeenanerror1219 There is a storyline in comics where he literally fights stand ins for popular brand mascots who are now messianic fascistic religious figures. What do you think?
Lobo was intended to be a cautionary tale for how absolutely horrible it would be if the most vile roadie for Metallica was half as powerful as Superman.
The problem is that guys like Lobo absolutely love him and see him as aspirational. Like how pigs aspire to be the Punisher, or how nazis aspire to be Joker or Thanos.
Two hours ago I was debating with my partner about whether or not Superman is cool and/or interesting and if he and his stories mean more than just being a cultural symbol of US Hegemony. In the end we agreed to disagree, but finding this video so soon after, really makes me smile. I had no idea you did videos on Superman and now I see there are several, thank you so much.
"cultural symbol of US hegemony" - every time I have heard someone say that, it's someone who is just trying to find fault, and doesn't have any actual legitimate complaints. The reality is, Superman is what each of us could be if we simply tried to do good rather than be selfish jerks. Granted, we couldn't all fly to the moon or whatever, but we could take care of one another and make this a vastly better world.
Some people curse the darkness, and some people light a candle. And still others curse those who light a candle. That last bunch is the "US hegemony" crowd.
He also has videos on Batman.
The symbol of America, a Jewish-coded illegal immigrant with faked papers.
I was just talking about Captain America--and he's an even better example. The guy is literally a patriotic hero done up in an American flag motif, a guy who'd code as reactionary at your first glance. The thing I love about him is that, starting with his reimagining for the 60s-70s Marvel Age, they decided not to use him lazily as a jingoistic hero but to make him a man who kept challenging America to be its best self. And that's become central to the character.
@@kingbeauregard I mean, I can definitely see the arguments. Especially for the older depictions of him where there's more focus on the whole "American Way" part of "Truth, Justice and the American Way".
"They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way." - Superman (1978)
"Take a war to make you spend. Take a jam to make you think. Take a challenge to make you great. Rest of the time you sit around lazy, you. Pigs, you! All right, God damn you! I challenge you, me. Die or live and be great. Blow yourselves to Christ gone or come and find me, Gully Foyle, and I make you men. I make you great. I give you the stars."
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
Pretty powerful considering that this movie came out during the cultural aftershock of Watergate and Vietnam, and during stagflation and the oil embargo.
I call that quote "Jor El 3:16"
Superman: I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.
Lois Lane: [laughs] You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country!
Superman: [completely serious] ...Lois, I never lie.
Joe Kelly wrote some of the best Superman stories and doesn't get enough acknowledgement for it, with this story being my favorite. His later JLA and JLE runs that spun from this were great as well.
Wish I could give this comment 1000 up votes. I wholeheartedly agree!
"Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."
🙂
Being the "good guy" requires living up to a higher standard. Supes showed that brilliantly.
I really liked the original run of "The Authority" but even then I thought that team's real superpower was insufferable super-smugness, no wonder I loved "What's so funny about truth justice and the Amercan way". Another great palate cleanser to the edgy grim darkness of the 90's I can reccomend is Grant Morrison's "All-Star Superman"
I've always wondered if Morrison intended the acronym to be A.S.S LOL
Same. As a slice of something different it was a fun read, but it's not a world I wanted to live in and inhabit for long periods of time.
The thing to remember about the Authority was what came before them. The previous Stormwatch series was about a world where cynicism was the core of the government-sponsored supers. Jenny Sparks set out to create the Authority to control the chaos that Stormwatch left behind, but also to find a better way. That's the magic of the Authority as originally envisioned: it was about superhumans trying to figure out how to be superheroes. Of course, then Mark Millar got his hands on the book and all of that was forgotten. But for the first year it was all about the team doing their best to save cities and the whole world, and marveling at the end of each story arc at the miraculous good they'd managed to do in spite of the odds. The Ellis-written Authority aspired to be their world's Superman-like ideal heroes.
@@SingularityOrbit Correct, and Steve's review of "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" also covers why it's an abject failure of a story--because, like "Kingdom Come" (another reeking pile that was insanely overpraised), it's unwilling to intelligently address the issues raised by something like the Authority and falls back, instead, on merely caricaturing the whole thing. Steve's description of the Elite is accurate but no one who has actually read Ellis' Stormwatch and the Authority will recognize those characters or their activities in it. It's just a superficial caricature, like the version of progressives one gets from Fox News.
Put THIS in a Superman movie. You still get your big ol' CGI superhero fights and Superman gets to display his values in a meaningful way.
Go watch Superman vs. The Elite. It's basically this story with a few bits added. Like it delves into Manchester Black's backstory ad stuff. Also, the ending is a bit different, but still really good.
The argument against Superman's style/values also was relevant to killing him off. The Reign of the Supermen books in between his death and resurrection presented possible replacements, though the story was not as good as "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?"
Yeah, this was the whole point behind the Eradicator and, to a lesser extent, Cyborg Superman. Eradicator's whole deal is "Superman stripped of morals and willing to kill bad guys." Just like it was with Azrael and Batman, for that matter.
@@pjlusk7774 It extends to Superboy and Steel too. Superboy's pretty much an embodiment of Superman's fame and marketability wrapped up in a "totally radical" 90's teenage reinvention who gets suckered into being essentially the mascot of a major cable network. There's even an in-universe "Death of Superman" video game that gets made, for crying out loud. But even with being a snarky kid who'll flirt with pretty much any female that moves, he still has an actual sense of heroism and wanting to help people mixed in with all that that becomes more prevalent as time goes on. Yes, the superhero genre is clearly lucrative and it's easy to write it off as a shallow enterprise meant to sell comics to fans and toys to children and line the pockets of businessmen...but there's clearly more to it even with all the corporatism surrounding the genre, something that people genuinely click with and are inspired by.
And then there's Steel. No superpowers, just an ordinary human inspired by Superman. Notably, he's the only one of the four who doesn't ever try to say he's Superman reborn, he's just a guy trying to do the right thing with what he has.
Cyborg Superman is his power. The Eradicator is his alien heritage. Superboy is his fame. Steel is his human heart and compassion and determination to fight for the right thing. It's pretty genius what the four replacement Supermen speak to as far as different aspects of the character, and frankly for me the whole Death and Return arc's more interesting bits are the stuff revolving around them in the wake of Superman's death.
The best part of My Adventures With Superman is that all the villains are all cyincal of his motivations, while he just wants to help
Agreed. All of them accuse Superman of wanting to conquer the world or think that he wants power... but naw, Supes really does just want to make the world a better place and these cynical idiots are just shooting themselves in the foot by underestimating his will to protect people. Even for the antagonists who are also trying to protect people, they also keep insisting that Superman is secretly an Injustice-type villain and that cynical insistence just hinders Superman and it allows the truly monstrous villains to remain as threats.
I like how Joe Kelly gave The Elite powers that every fan has raved over the years could kill Superman:
Manchester Black: Psychic Powers (he's basically a British Tetsuo)
Hat: Magic (like what Mister Mxyzptlk uses)
Menagerie: Stronger Alien Life (akin to Doomsday)
Coldcast: EMP's (I swear I've heard fans argue that one could kill Supes)
It's like he wanted to distill those tiresome fan arguments into four adversaries that would prove Superman is an unkillable ideal. I respect that.
In Superman vs Batman Superman says, "No one stays good in this world."
I was like *WHO WROTE THIS GARBAGE*
17:30 Umberto Eco's #3 on his list of the 14 Common features of fascism. "The cult of action for actions sake."
I'm going to use this as another opportunity to trash "Man of Steel".
Superman here: "Can we at least fight where noone will get hurt?"
Man of Steel: Large portions of Smallville and Metropolis are destroyed
No, I will NOT let that go!
I know that doesn't justify this. But ZOD is ZOD. Superman ll 1980
Yeah, that didn't make any sense at all to me.
I can excuse that by Clark in that movie being a newbie and an elseworld Superman. The movie thrusted him directly into an alien invasion. He is not an established hero. Over the movies I get the impression he is a reluctant hero, who is more interested in a relationship with Louis, which is why the plan was to turn him bad, by killing her (something often used in cheap imitations of Kingdom Come). Im so glad that didnt happen.
"But...but he's LEARNING. he has to learn that human life deserves to be protected and that murder is wrong. That makes him relatable right?" /s
That Zod guy seemed so reasonable. Can't believe Clark didn't make the request.
I used to be one of those edgy comic book fans who thought that Superman boring and irrelevant. This story was one of the things that changed my mind about Supes. I wish that Zack Snyder would have read this story before doing Man Of Steel.
I'm pretty sure Zack Snyder has only read The dark Knight returns, Superman #75, A death in the family, watchmen, and 300.
@@DavidRYates-tk2tq Death of Superman
Dod you see the animated movie Superman vs The Elite?
Also have you seen My Adventures with Superman.
*Perfection*
As a fellow Superman fan, I always enjoy your videos; thanks, as always!
The whole debate reminds me of some history. When assembling the court for the Nuremberg trials, an assistant asked a prosecutor "They're Nazis, the worst of the worse Nazis. Why are we bothering with a trial?"
The Prosecutor responds with something to the affect of, "They abandoned law and justice. How are we different if we do the same?"
The power of story is the ability to offer real world lessons in a different contextual environment, and that story did a great job of that.
Something that always annoyed me was that people keep asking Superman or Super Heroes in general to kill. If the people want villains dead, why doesn't the state do it and leave the arrest to the Heroes?
Superman being “too pure” and a “boys scout” is my favorite thing about him. I’m kinda sick of seeing evil Superman. He’s a superhero and a fictional character, I love seeing Superman as a completely righteous character, there’s enough evil out there let Superman be a hero.
"superman isn't a god like the ones from the past...because he sets rules for himself." -Alan Moore. Superman forces us to think "Wait there is a another way to solve our problems than using brute force." There are many moments that showcase how strong superman is mentally and why his villains usually lose:
1. The conservations between him and hitman are endearing. Hitman is a murderous vigilante yet he idolizes Superman, and Superman appreciates his efforts to cheer him up.
2. Superman visits a child with cancer at her ward and calls her his hero. She breaks down in happy tears.
3. The Death of Superman. In the aftermath of his "death," we see how much he meant to the city, the individuals. We see Maggie sayer and the police sad, we see how Steel (before he became Steel) tried to help superman and blames himself for not being there for the man who saved him-leading to his decision to become a superhero, the mutants living under the sewages recalling how superman was a friend to them when no one else would, and a young boy who is crying over superman's death but sees a young girl sad too. He then goes over to interduces himself, thinking "this is what superman would do."
4. Lois Lane recalling how she was angry with Clark for lying to her for years about his true identity. But then she sees what matters- Clark was lonely, but he always helped people in and out of the costume, he was genuine, he NEVER tried to change her-in fact Lois Lane finally found someone who could keep up with her, how he cooks her dinner, and how he is always worried about her health.
I have loved this story, both in comic and in animation. Really nails Superman.
I'm grateful that modern writers have leaned away from the "the American way" part of that old slogan. As a Canadian kid, it kind of made me feel like Superman wasn't meant for me. Now as an adult, seeing the trajectory of American culture, governance, and foreign policy, I have grave reservations about what the "American way" means anymore. But truth and justice? That's something _everyone_ can get behind.
They should rebrand it, another way
I'm sure they always meant "The North American Way". 🙂
But yeah, "The American Way" was added for TV and radio I think, in an era where America was patriotic in all the wrong ways. These days, it's much better understood that Superman lives in America but he will help anyone anywhere, no questions asked.
There's a scene in "Superman and Lois" where she's interviewing him on TV, and she tries to push him into saying he stands for "the American way", and he politely deflects it. It's a good scene.
One last thing, I think the Justice Society of America should be Canadian, if for no other reason than Jay Garrick looks like he's wearing a modified RCMP uniform. Keystone City and Central City should be Windsor and Detroit respectively. This is why DC Comics needs to put me in charge.
The original slogan was actually just "Truth and Justice"; they added "The American Way" in the '50s.
They've actually changed it in recent years to "Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow", which I think is a good call for that reason
Back in 1978 in Superman the Movie, Lois & Lex both reacted with disbelief at the idea of someone sincerely good with power. Later Lois and Miss Tessmarker were inspired by that same sincerity.
Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, written in 1924, arguably the most direct ancestor of Superman, was a satirical deconstruction of the heroic ideal. Hugo Danner, protagonist of Gladiator and very similar to Clark beat for beat, found that his perfectly ethical behavior was endlessly punished by a corrupt world, and that super strength and invulnerability were very little help.
This is a really old conflict.
Personally, I want to believe in the fantasy of having the power to help those in need, without being destroyed by the world. It’s a good fantasy. We need it.
"What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?" is my favorite Superman story. It perfectly encapsulates the core of Superman's character. And it's something I come back to when I feel down about the world. Don't stop fighting for a better world. It's worth it.
3:20 At least Lex Luthor is actually INTELLIGENT. Honestly rather have him than the orange dollop of Oompa Loompah turds piled six feet high.
I believe that any story where super"heroes" are divorced from the concept of altruism is a bad story written by someone who doesn't understand superheroes or heroism.
The animated adaptation, "Superman vs. The Elite" is also worth a watch.
Finally someone on TH-cam who gets the point of Superman. Thanks for the great video.
How crazy that this came out around 6 months before 9/11 which would make all of its themes even more relevant.
I came to say something similar, but sort of snarky. It's sort of unwittingly prophetic, which reminds me of DS9 when watching it through in the 2010s.
"That sounds cynical and conspiratorial, but the more you know about the fictional world of DC comics, the less like that it sounds"
Yes, "the fictional world of DC comics", or, y'know, the real world too, Operation Paperclip? The US coverup of Unit 731?
These fictional stories of villains being incorporated into power structures where they thrive unfortunately have all too abundant real life inspirations.
Yup. Not to mention all the ways in which "justice" in our system means very different things across racial and class lines in particular. We do not expect powerful people to be held accountable because they almost never are. How commonly we say "two-tiered system" when talking about the justice system says enough.
I actually liked the animated film adaptation better than the comic. I think it fleshed out the story nicely and really brought the whole experience to life. Great story either way, and one that so many need to hear.
Superman vs The Elite was worked on by the guy who made the comic. So that'll be a big part on why it's more fleshed out; he's using the medium to expand.
It helped that Joe Kelly wrote the screenplay for that adaptation. Not my favorite style of animation, but, yes, brilliant!
Like all mythological figures, Superman is a personification of an idea: he is the living embodiment of the American ideal of smalltown, rural democracy. As many people seem to have stopped believing in this ideal, a story like "What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" is more important than ever.
I think the reason why the DCEU Superman failed is they did not understand this sentiment. Superman is supposed to be pure and good. He is supposed to show us what good is and let’s face it being good is difficult and hard and dangerous
Both you and Overly Sarcastic Productions have single-handedly changed my mind about Superman, Batman, and superheroes in general. Thank you for that! 😁
So, in fairness? I haven't been a Superman fan for years. It is, as one might say, not my thing. However, 775 was a GREAT Superman comic because it does in fact reflect the 'place' of a character like Superman in the broader franchise and that there is always a place for them there. It's a phenomenal issue and its remake on TV was excellent as well.
In general? I like that Superman (particularly when done well) exists as a comic, for many of the same reasons that I like Captain America. They are, at many times, intrinsically hopeful characters in worlds where it is easy for hope to die, especially when that is a prevailing trope in the overall era. The persistence of hope as an icon is important. Someone has to retain the moral high ground, because without that character you can't properly juxtapose characters like the elite. They become gratuitous, unnecessarily violent and gory and you lose some of the 'why' people like them might exist.
Sups will never be my favorite. I like my heroes dark and twisted, gritty and visceral. But I want there to be a Sups around, to make sure that the shadows are long enough for my favorites to lurk in. And for those who love the light? Enjoy your "boy scout." He definitely has his moments in the sun for a reason.
...also, my Superman will always be Reeves. He just will. I grew up with those films, and that one piece of nostalgia never quite dies in me.
It tears superman haters up inside that people just like superman
The animated movie adaptation also slaps
Remember reading this in HS and truly made me fall in love with Superman on an adult level. Manchester literally did what he said he hated Superman till his dying day even when fighting alongside him in Warworld.
Superman is not only misunderstood or discarded prematurely on a character study realm - he's often discarded for "being too powerful" when he's really far from invincible. I've read a lot of Superman comics where he's more resourceful than the average pop culture fan thinks.
Superman is someone you should live up to. And we will always need him, no matter the time. Do better. Be better.
This to me is one of the best Superman comics out there. It helps make Superman stand out to defend his very ideals and point that people criticize him over, showing what happens if he leaves his morality and how dangerous things can really get if he chooses to simply not hold back.
I love Supeman. I love his endless optimism and faith in even the worst of us. I also, however, love Injustice where we saw an alternate Superman driven to extremism by his determination to "Never again" have to suffer that loss. I enjoyed watching Brightburn, where we might a young Superman without the moral guidance of the Kents. Irredeemable is one the greatest horror comics in history, imo. I enjoy quite a few of the subversions (notably not Homelander (come at me if you want, he's horrible)). But what people forget while they obsess over all those subervisions and casts against the Boy Scout is that they do not work without him. Without his incorruptible standard, without his simple trust in us, all of them lose their punch. There are others that hold to a code, that set standards. But Superman is THE standard. He is what we'd all want an actual meta human to be. He is the ruler by which we measure all the others. So, sure, say you don't like him. But you'll still reach for him and still use him as that standard, even if unwittingly.
Sorry for the rant. Great video on a wonderful comic.
This is why i think Manchester Black works so well as an opponent to Supes
Inspire them, lead by example, and above all: Give them hope. THAT'S a job for Superman.
This is why Superman is my favorite superhero. He represents what we can be at our best.
Beautifully done. Always enjoy your takes on Superman.
This is one of my favorite stories. If we can't hold on to our ethics _and_ compassion and do the right thing, in the worst possible situation when people are at their worst, what's the point?
Great video, Steve. You know I'm on the same page as you because I've asked you about this kind of attitude before on your Q&A streams. This is also why "No One Likes Superman Anymore" by I Fight Dragons is one of my favorite songs.
Seeing manchester black crying at the supposed manglement of his team wasn't cathartic or enioyable it made me sad, and i think that was the point
actually there are people who don't like this story because they like manchester black and his gang and they want them to win
Steve, I cannot thank you enough for posting this. I am currently in a very deep state of depression caused in no small part by events playing out in America right now. I have sometimes felt like that child on the ledge of a skyscraper in All-Star Superman, about to let go of all hope and surrender to death because no ideal could break through that darkness. But, there is always Superman, isn't there? And there are still people holding on with what strength they have left to the ideals he has always championed. People like Steve Shives. I'm going to step away from the ledge now and try again. Thank you.
A check in the column for comics that should be required reading. This issue was prescient and continues to be relevant to today's world. It's crazy that just six months later after this was published most of the dialogue in this by Manchester Black and the Elite would be used quite extensively by the administration and the "War on Terror" and as you stated continues to percolate through political dialogue to this very day. Aren't comics neat indeed.
I have *adored* "My Adventures With Superman." Some reasons are personal, but I also think the writers and VAs brought Kal-El into a "relatable" era.
I think it helps that we see Superman keep the good fight while fighting opponents who are actually strong enough to take him out at this point.
The animated adaptation, Superman vs. the Elite, is my favorite Superman movie.
"...all authoritarians... can never be anything other than what they are. In their arrogance, they don't believe they'll ever _need_ to be anything else. In their ignorance, they don't know _how_ to be anything else."
I wish there was a way to take that line and throw it straight into everyone's mind at once. Saying it needs to 'go viral' just doesn't cut it.
People will complain that Superman's motivations are too one-dimensional and bland because he's just good for the sake of it, and then foam in the mouth for villains like Darth Sidious. (And this is coming from someone who LOVES Darth Sidious.)
Jesse Owens inspired SUPERMAN the Man of Steel Blessings and HUGS 👑💜
I didn't like superman, I really didn't see the appeal. My only exposure to superman was the justice league show, and modern movies, which imo didn't quite do enough to show what makes that character work. In those shows/ movies, we never saw superman or clark really struggle, and I think that more than his paragon personality made him difficult to like. Someone for whom everything comes easy, that no matter what he always seems to have his life together. But when I saw my adventures with superman, I feel like I finally get it. Superman is the ideal identity that Clark portrays. Just about everything superman does (when written well) is in the service of others. Clark gets to be a human and still have those human problems. And it's refreshing to see characters care and try to solve problems just to help people.
A quote from the animated movie:
"Heat vision, focused through your pupil like a scalpel. INSTANT lobotomy"
I didnt even know Superman could freaking do that shit with his powers. Not only does it show jow intelligence, creativity and CONTROL of his powers, it shows how much he holds back for the sake of keeping as many people safe. He could easily break the world. No no, he wants to fix it. How easy would it be, no....he chooses the harder route cause he believes in hope.
Gotta say, this series as a whole and your work in general is really well done. Well thought out, well scripted, entertainingly expressed. Good stuff.
Superman and this story is more relevant now than ever. Both in the realm of comic book superheroes and in real life in general. Superman vs the Elite was an excellent adaptation. I hope James Gunn's Superman film in 2025 really does take inspiration form it. Imagine the "Dreams Save Us" speech on the big screen for the whole world to see. The world needs to see a man who stands up for truth and justice against people who see them as old-fashioned, to actually show the future he hopes and fights for.
Only just read this issue the other day, and now one of the best comictubers has put out a video on it? Hell yeah!!
Thank you for this 😂😂😂🔥💯
A classic, iconic story, and one I won't be surprised to see adapted in the upcoming James Gunn Superman film (in fact, I might be a bit disappointed if that's not the basis for the story, if it features the Authority). I used to be one of those "Superman is too boring" people, but I've grown up since then, and really come to appreciate "the Big Blue Boy Scout", especially when he's contrasted with these more "dark and edgy" characters, or even if he's tempted or tested. Superman & Lois really hits about the right spot for me on that idea, but this story is an excellent showing of why Superman as a beacon of hope really works (and why I disliked the Snyder Supes, I suppose).
Thanks for making these essays. Over the past few years, Ive grown to be a huge fan of the big guy. Your clips were also instrumental in that. There was a time when I considered Man of Steel the best Superman. That was before I learned more about the character and what made him really great (his character, not powers).
WELL SUPERMAN IS DEF MY THING
Honestly, this is what I expect to see in the new superman movie and why I think gunn is the perfect guy to do it.
Gunn's favorite thing is to make us care about the losers, the underdogs, the misfits who feel they don't belong, and while it's hard to think of superman as a loser or an underdog, it's easy to see him as a man whose values seem outdated and that don't belong in today's world. Snyder tried to make superman more like us. I hope Gunn will try to make US more like superman.
And he's even using the originals (The Authority), and while the Superman movie would feature some of the members, rumors has it that way later after The Authority movie, there may be a Superman vs The Authority project in the same vein as this.
I think if superman's basic values and what he stands for do not appeal to the reader, it also speaks volumes about the readers themselves.
Loved this the moment it came out - a great companion piece to Kingdom Come - where Clark's good upbringing is put to the test!
I feel so called out by the intro
This video was truly incredible
I will always defend the death and return of superman story was not a gimmick or a stunt. It was and idea the creative team had and they ran with it. It incorporated all of the lore and primary, secondary and tertiary characters that the previous years had set up and they gave us a comic book three part epic and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Its only downside was the clones and stunts from other DC titles and other companies that this story initiated. But hey what do I know? I was only there at the scene.
awesome. this is my favorite superman story. unfortunately ive not read it in its entirety, having only watched the DC animated movie adaptation , "superman vs the Elite" but if you ve seen that version, you know it is a faithful adaptation. and i watch every year or so and it brings me to tears every time .
This is my all-time favorite single issue superman comic and The adaptation of this Superman vs the elite is my favorite superman flim!
I used to be in the Superman hater crowd.
But this series of yours did some pretty good work in getting me out of that headspace and getting me to understand what big blue's really all about.
I might even be so bold as to call it... the best Superman analysis ever.
Those complaining about Superman's very high morale standards are begging for the Injustice universe to happen.
My favorite observation about superman is the assertion that he is the high water mark. Similar to (at least the better versions of) Captain America, he is the Paragon by which the universe is judged. If there is an argument between super heroes, and super man is on the other side, either something way deeper is going on that's got even him fooled, or you might just be the bad guy. If super man is pushed to do something close to that line of what is acceptable, things have gone wrong. He is the hero that other heroes look up to.
This Superman story "What's so funny about truth, justice, and the American way" is a great representation of who Superman is, what the ideals he stands for are, why it would be bad if Superman compromises on his ideals, why Superman chooses NOT to kill, and why Superman will remain relevant in spite of a world that sometimes doesn't respect his morals and ideals. I especially enjoyed the animated film version of this story, Superman vs. The Elite, and thought that it was better than the comic version. This also shows how Zack Snyder doesn't understand Superman to the point that he even quoted Manchester Black's line about "living in a dream world" when someone argues on how Zack's approach to superheroes isn't true to who they are. Zack simply doesn't Superman, but this story does.
Wow! This was so good I felt the need to comment, just to try to please the algorithm. Thanks Steve!
My favorite part of this story is when Pa Kent, who's probably like 80, slapped a guy for talking shit about Superman. I found that hilarious. The super-strong alien avoids violence, but his human dad will not hesitate to smack a bitch.
The fantasy of Superman is not a mere power fantasy, but the fantasy of someone having tremendous power and genuinely being a good person.
If I remember correctly Black ended up working with Superman for a bit of redemption in the last Warwold story.
It amazes me that Superman is a world wide phenomenon, i always thought he was just a american thing but Hes enjoyed all.over the world.
Superman has the same special quality that the original Optimus Prime has. He's strong enough to be gentle.
5:40 honestly i like the used car lot almost as a rebuttal to Superman in that moment, like, how symbolically, this is what his legacy is: a commodity, something that no one respects, unable to protect even his own image.
I admit I'm not a huge fan of Supe but he does protagonizes two of my favorite comics. The one mentioned in the video, Red Son.
I absolutely loved this run and it's also one of my favorite DCAU movies.
Nice to see someone defending Supes! I think people are coming around on him due to the glut of evil Superman (I include Snyder’s “official cinematic” failed edge lord version) and I hope people are finally ready for a hopeful Superman that inspires. But I honestly think depending on how this year goes the result will determine whether people are ready for hope, and looking towards a brighter future that superman represents. If things go another way I think people will curl back up and be uninterested in a character telling us humanity can be better in the current world we find ourselves in.
FINALLY..... people are actually defending superman these days... i remember a time not too long ago where all people did was bash him 😑
Nicely done dig with President Lex as a proxy.
I had a discussion years ago with a friend, drunkenly in a bar, about who's better Superman or Batman.
I argued that Superman is what we aspire to, but that Batman is (arguably) the best we can achieve.