Why Superman is Hated so much ?
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Before starting the Article I want to make it clear that I am a very big fan of Superman myself and this post is not meant to spread any sort of Negativity. This Post only talks about the Facts that Why Superman is Not Liked by the Modern Generation. So I hope that you take it with a light Heart and Mature Mindset.
I don’t think I need to explain who Superman is. I mean, it’s very rare that there is a person who claims to be a superhero fan but have never heard of superman. From the Superman movie and Superman games we all know the comic book origin of Superman, that is how his real parents sacrificed their life on the planet Krypton to save their child and sent him in a spaceship to planet Earth and this kid grew up to become Superman an so on his story continues. But now let me give you a brief summary of Superman comics’ origin. In the DC comics (earlier known as Action Comics) Superman was introduced during the period of World War. Superman was not the first superhero introduced to us, but you can say that Superman was the first Most Popular superhero ever introduced in the entire world. The reason why Superman became so much popular after his introduction is because of its timing of launch. Superman comic issue no.1 was launched at the time when the War was at boom, and America was not doing well in the war. So, after the launch of Superman people began to see him as a motivation as a role model, and when the American government saw this they decided to export a lot of Superman comics to the war field. The government’s plan worked successfully. After reading the story of a man who can lift rocks with one hand, punishes criminals and saves the lives of others, the soldiers of war got inspired so much that their performance started to improve on the battlefield. This is when the symbol of Superman, the ‘S’ on his chest was named as “Symbol of Hope” and even after a century, it is still referred as the same. So this was the real world origin of Superman comics.
Now let’s move on to our main topic, that is ‘Why Superman is hated so much?’. After the release of the Justice League movie in 2017 the internet was flooded with the hate for the movie. There were several polls organised by different sites to check who was the most loved superhero in the Justice League? But I found out that in most of the polls, Superman got the least votes competing among Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, Wonder woman and Flash. This gave birth to the question inside my head that why everybody hates Superman in the 21st century when it was the most loved superhero 80 years ago. You’ll also agree with me that less than 10% people of the world will admit that Superman is their favourite superhero today. But why is it so? Why is the Symbol of Hope becoming a flop? Let’s find out the reasons below.
• Superman is overpowered
Most of the people whom I asked this question replied me that Superman is so much overpowered as compared to his team mates of Justice League. If I ask you, then you may answer the same. Isn’t it? And you are definitely right my friend. Superman is one of the most if not the most powerful superhero in the DC comics. It is very rare to see Superman lose a battle, and we have seen it in many places like Superman cartoon series, Superman movie as well as in the 2016 movie ‘Batman vs Superman’. The overpowered character of Superman was loved 80 years ago but today the taste of people has changed from generation to generation, and so has the love for Superman.
• The Hero-Villain Chemistry
If you observe the superhero movies closely, then you will find a pattern common to all of them. Let me make it clear to you. In the beginning of any superhero movie, we see a powerful super villain who does something bad with the comparatively weaker super hero, and throughout the entire movie the hero struggles very hard, upgrades his skills, and trains very hard in order to defeat the villain. And at the end of the movie the superhero manages to defeat the villain and the movie ends. This type of superhero movie plots are loved by every superhero fan. But in case of Superman, the story is different. If you observe any superman storyline then you will find that throughout the movie, the super villain struggles hard and upgrades his skills to fight the super powerful Superman. But still by the end of the movie, Superman always stands victorious. This plot is weaker and also it doesn’t develop the bond between the superhero and the audience. Hence, this is also a reason why Superman is hated so much.
• The Expansion of Choices
If we go back to the 1930s, then we will see there are not much options available in the superhero franchise, which clears the path of Superman for being the most fan favourite superhero. But if we come to the present, we will find ourselves surrounded with a lots of superheroes and that too with a large spectrum of super powers. This gives us many options to choose from and hence due to the innovative powers and better hero-audience bonding capability of the new generation superheroes, Superman loses his charisma and gets lost in the shadows.
• Lack of Innovation with Time
If we talk about some of the oldest superheroes apart form Superman, then the names will be like Batman, Wonder woman, Captain America, Wolverine, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron man, etc. Now, among all these names there is something common and that is their improvement with time and situation. Every superhero I mentioned above has got some upgrades with time. It may a skill upgrade, weapon upgrade or look upgrade it doesn’t matter. The point is that every superhero is changing themselves to survive in the changing time. On the other hand we have Superman. Since its arrival in the comic’s world before 80 years, Superman has not changed much, neither by the skills nor by the weapons. Even his outfit is almost same to what it was back during the World War. Yes there were some minor changes made to Superman with time, but those changes were so small that they are almost negligible when compared to other superheroes. So this is also a factor why Superman is hated so much.
Message to the Youngsters
Guys, please don’t Hate Superman just because he is a bit unscientific or over powered. Take some interest in him and you will find that he’s the guy we want to see in ourselves, the thing we secretly hope we are, even when we know we’re nowhere near that because no human can be such pure or even capable of coming close to it in this era. Superman explains us why we’re not better people, why we don’t bother trying to make the world a better place with every waking breath. Superman is someone we’re meant to emulate, but also a rather cruel mirror of our inability to do so. Now superman must be an alien, an outsider because the thought that an actual human being could be this pure and good is unthinkable to us on some level. We want everybody else to be Superman, yet we know deep down that we can never be. We’re ruled by selfishness, greed and when it comes right down to it, we’re as likely to be foiled by him as we are to be helped by him. He might be the champion of the oppressed, but as surely as we all feel oppressed all too often, we also all do our fair share of oppressing….There’s a reason we call him a God even though he is not….The day when you realise that….is the day you become what humanity ought to become….and what we all must stand for- Truth, Justice and Hope
Finally, for the Conclusion we can say that Superman is a Good Superhero, but with a Bad representation in the modern cinemas. Hence we shouldn’t Hate Superman and Hope it rises back again, because he is still the God Father of all the Superheroes.
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