2014-01-26: Inaction Hero

[Nosy Neighbordroid]

Discussion thread for Inaction Hero

[Disciple of Sakura]

Heh. I actually liked the Man of Steel movie. It was probably the only Superman movie I've actually looked forward to, and it handled itself pretty well. That didn't exactly stop me from joking about the following exchange in the movie, though:
"Save us, Superman!"
<Superman starts fighting Zod.>
"Stop saving us, Superman!"

Yes, the property damage was immense. Having recently rewatched the Justice League cartoon series, I'd say that Metropolis got off lucky in Man of Steel.

As for snapping Zod's neck... I was surprised to see it happen, but, seriously, what else could he have done? The phantom drives were gone, there wasn't any kryptonite, and there's no prison on earth that'd hold Zod. Snapping his neck was really the only option left at that point. Or living the rest of his life with his hands over Zod's eyes...

Anyway. Good comic.

[Michael Poe]

I suppose he could have gored Zod's eyes out... but that seems a little worse than breaking his neck from a visual stand point. But seriously, as long as the next movie has Superman actually regretful about the decision, it seemed fine to me. Hell, the late 80's comics not only had Superman kill Zod and two others in a far more horrific manner, but then did an entire story arc about the nervous breakdown Supes had afterwards as a result of doing it.

[BloodHenge]

My only complaint about "Man of Steel" was the tornado scene.

The oil rig scene may have made up for it, though.

[lyze]

This seriously should come up in the actual comics this is drawn from. It's exactly how the media would react. Any super hero would just be constantly america's most wanted for saving everyone's ass. Plus they'd probably have a million paternity suits, civil suits. I mean people that weren't even in the country where the alien invasion happened would be sueing because the sight of the hero punching the alien boss in what may or may not be his nether regions 'triggered' them.

[dark_lord_zagato]

Any super hero would just be constantly america's most wanted for saving everyone's ass.

Very true. I think about this too sometimes. We couldn't have a real life superhero because people would lash out at him/her with their petty jealousy, penis envy, mistrust, or just wanting to steal some of his fire for themselves. The police would hate this superhero and the government would brand him/her a terrorist as soon as he catches them in the middle of some atrocity. Paradoxically, the bad guys would be the least of the hero's problems.

It's for the same reason that an actual god (and i hesitate to even bring this up...) would never be able to show himself on Earth or talk directly to the living. People couldn't handle it, it would be utter chaos. This doesn't even apply to any specific religion, it's just the human condition. Imagine what would happen when this god doesn't live up to people's expectations, or if he informs them their faith is incorrect. There's no way people would accept that. They would just deny he's the real god and maybe go as far as to call him the devil instead. He could perform all the miracles he wants but nobody would accept him unless he agrees with THEIR dogma and beliefs. This is why we can't have nice things.

[Immanio]

I've never really gotten into superhero comics (or movies, for that matter), but the first thing this discussion brings to mind is Watchmen. Admittedly the only one in that with actual superhuman powers is Dr. Manhattan (and I guess Ozymandias' Charles Atlas superpower), so it's low on bona fide superhuman threats as well. In general, though, it's a series that raises questions about how society would cope with a) people dressing up, hiding their identities and fighting crime, and b) someone with actual superpowers. Also, what makes people become costumed vigilantes, and what does superpowers do with the way a person interacts with and sees other people.

Oh, and: Yay, Jordan!

[taltamir]

"Save us captain murder man!"

[Forrest]

I would love to see a story where some kind of unbeatable Superman-like superhero shows up on Earth and starts protecting the innocent from aggressors and generally doing unquestionably good stuff... and not making any arbitrary distinction between agents of some organization which claims authority over a territory and anybody else, i.e. holding government actors to exactly the same standards as any other actor, completely blind to the "they're government and therefore we have to do what they say and let them get away with anything they do because they're the government" facade that most of humanity puts on. Then explore the ethical and social implications of that. The conflict is not whether or not this superbeing will win in a fight, it's a foregone conclusion that he will -- the conflict is about who are the good guys and bad guys and whether this superbeing winning any particular fight is a happy ending or a tragedy.

Maybe he's a stranded alien from a planet of people who are not only super-strong like him but also naturally extremely virtuous, and so stable peaceful anarchy just comes naturally to them, the idea of government never occurred to anybody on his planet, and so the concept of it so common on Earth is literally alien to him. He just treats everybody exactly the same, and doesn't understand why anyone thinks that might be inappropriate -- quite the contrary, holding different people to different standards seems inappropriate to him, and the human tendency not only to do so, but to hold that up as a shining standard of justice, and to view people who would do otherwise as dangerous or bad, is just mind-boggling to him.

[BloodHenge]

That's an interesting idea, Forrest, but it would be difficult to frame as anything other than an alien conquest. If he doesn't really understand government, I can't see him only enforcing local laws (since social injustice is actually legally mandated in some places). Since he's imposing his own morality on some nations, I don't see any good in-universe reason for his moral code to match up exactly with the laws of any specific country, so that basically leaves him enforcing his own legal code globally at the metaphorical point of a sword. Any form of government other than an absolute dictatorship with him at the head would become functionally impossible, because nobody could enforce any laws he didn't endorse.

Which (SPOILER WARNING!) is essentially what happens in "Olympus", Alan Moore's last issue of Miracleman. True, he's technically from Earth, but he's a posthuman uplifted by alien technology, so I'd say it pretty much counts.