Jul 11 2006
Batman vs. Superman
If you pitched Superman as a brand new character to the studios today, they’d laugh you out of the room. He can fly, he’s bullet proof, has freeze breath, heat vision, x-ray vision, incredible super-strength, incredible super-hearing, can somehow breathe in space and under water, can’t be burnt or frozen, and can only be weakened or killed by a scarce radioactive rock from his annihilated home planet millions of light-years away. What’s dramatic about that? It’s like making a movie about God (or in the case of Superman Returns, Jesus), and with the notable exception of The Passion of the Christ, it’s hard for most of us to empathize with an omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful being. Beyond that, the whole kryptonite thing is ludicrous. You just know going into every movie that it will always come down to a stupid green stone.
Spiderman is a decent superhero, and I’ve always loved The X-Men, but Batman is by far the best. Why? Because he’s NOT a super hero. He’s mortal. He has no super powers. His crime-fighting ability is based on intense martial arts training and intelligent use of technology. He has a much cooler costume than The Man of Steel, plus he moonlights as a billionaire playboy as opposed to a love-struck junior reporter. But Batman’s true greatness is in his dark side. He’s complicated. He’s not twinkling blue eyes, super-nova smile, curly cowlick, and just-give-me-some-sunshine-and-a-phone-booth-so-I-can-save-the-world perky. Batman is the Dark Knight. A ninja. He’s angry. Vengeful. Human. I suppose there is a modicum of pathos in the idea that poor Kal-El is the last of his race, and that he bares the burden of being a lonely deity among we lost mortals. But really. Is that worse than seeing your parents shot and killed after suffering through opera? I think not.
After seeing Superman Returns in the theater, I watched Batman Begins again at home. These two “reboots” (phrase courtesy of Mark Dempsey) were attempts to revise classic heroes that had been driven to painful deaths. Superman IV and Batman and Robin were both atrocious culminations to franchises that had declined rapidly from their glorious inceptions. Superman Returns to enormous spectacle and little substance, while Batman Begins simply, with a real person; a mortal human being with whom we can identify. So, in my humble, non-heat-emitting eyes, the battle of the reboots goes to the Caped Crusader. Meanwhile, the hot $300 million Hollywood question that has now sent a select few screenwriters scrambling is: where will Lex Luther get his next chunk of killer kryptonite?
Great post! I think we’ve talked about it before, but Batman is also, by far, my favorite superhero as well.
I think the shift away from Superman, at least for me, has to do with the more cynical, less apple-pie times we live. Batman seems to be more a hero of the modern world.
I swear, you must have read my mind on this one. I think Superman has a place in our time, but it hasn’t been sorted out yet.
“Is that worse than seeing your parents shot and killed after suffering through opera” LMAO
Superman is great for the huge earth shattering stories, where Batman can have his best stories just fighting the “common” villian. Batman in space stories are always odd and forced, and Superman stoping a bank robbery is like bringing a nuclear missle to a watter balloon fight. Each has it’s place.
All that being said, I liked the Batman movie better – liked the pacing much better vs. Superman which seemed to not know what story it’s trying to tell. Superman and Lois – not very dramatic and engaging to me.
Good point about the scale of the stories — love the nuclear missile / water balloon anlogy. I agree that Superman Returns was aimless, and I also think the casting of Lois was aweful. Spidey’s next, let’s see if he can do better.