Monday 30 December 2013

Questionning the Superheroes.

I  was big into the DC superheroes when I was a kid, but my critical faculties were constantly troubled. There were three things about them I couldn’t understand:

1. Why was Batman deemed a superhero when he didn’t have any super powers? He was just a very good trapeze artist.

2. If Superman had all the powers contained in one person, why did people bother summoning the likes of Spiderman, The Flash and Green Lantern? Why not just call Superman for everything?

3. How could Superman fly? That was the big one. I could rationalise his excessive strength and invulnerability in terms of molecular density or something, but why did the fact that he came from another planet enable him to defy gravity? And what did he use for propulsion?

And there was something else that bothered me.  With all those superpowers – including invulnerability, no less – it seemed to me that Superman was no hero at all, since fighting earthly bad guys must have been a piece of cake to him. Oh yes, I know there was kryptonite, but how many villains had a piece of that lying around in a drawer?

3 comments:

Shayna said...

SO many fascinating (and super) ponderables for the New Year ... HAPPY NEW YEAR, Dear Jeff ...

JJ said...

And the same to you, Shay. My 2014 calendar has a series of Japanese woodcuts, each accompanied by a classic haiku. I though of you when I chose it, and I discovered today that it's published in California.

Shayna said...

That is an honor, thank you, Jeff ... lovely serendipity that it's published in California!