New Superman for the "Twilight Age"
By
Agonus,
Posted on: 2010-10-25 10:31 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
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This.|
Originally Posted by Cowman
Eh, that's not so easy to buy since he spent no time there. All his childhood memories are from Kansas; he didn't really have any direct link to Krypton.
Sure, it might knock ya for a loop when you find out you're the last of your kind, but considering he looks and functions pretty much like a human, I don't think it's that big a thing. Does he have reason to be a little whistful or melancholy now and then? Definitely. But "brooding"? Naw, I still don't think so. |
I'm not saying he didn't have moments to be broody during his childhood with the Kents.
But to be all angsty over a planet he never knew, or parents he never knew?
Moments of wishful thinking, moments of brooding, moments of wonder for what it would of been like, sounds right. But brooding over it, especially since he's know he was special for quite a while before hand.
Naaa.
Personally I don't see a problem with the picture though.
And is it an Elseworlds comic? If that's the case, maybe there's a reason to be broody?
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
Folks are overreacting just a tad.
Once again, it's the author making all the comparisons to Twilight; no one from DC has suggested this is an attempt to cash in on that.
Also, pretty much all Elseworlds stories tend to have a brooding Superman, because things aren't so cut and dry as they are in the mainstream universe. Hell, Superman in Kingdom Come is brooding. Superman in Secret Identity is brooding. Smallville may have left a bad taste in peoples' mouths because it was in the network's best interest to keep him in brooding mode to extend the series as long as possible. However, that alone doesn't reduce the likelihood of it being a good story or one that is true to Superman's nature, particularly since the best ones have him overcome whatever's keeping him down and stepping up to do the right thing.
- CaptainFoamerang
Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405
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Fun? Sure do.|
Originally Posted by Cowman
...
You have no concept of "fun", do you?  |
Nerdrage for the sake of it?
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Originally Posted by Durakken
It's pretty hard to be brooding when you wear the literal symbol of hope in your origin's planet's language.
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Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.
good luck D.B.B.
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I wanted to Quote this for several reasons.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
welcome to Failville, population YOU.
Superman is inherently un-hip, inherently un-sexy and as for moody, that's what the Fortress of Solitude is for. If you want to tell a 'hip, sexy, moody' story find an appropriate character, or create one. Don't shoehorn in the least appropriate guy in your entire catalog. |
1. I agree
2. I love that opening line
and 3. I agree
The thing I love the most about Superman is the thing I hate the most about Superman and that is his 100% no compromising upholding of the maximum ideal.
Batman is the Dark Knight and Superman is the Big Blue Boyscout.
What's next? Batman joins a boy band singing pop songs?
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
Although this is a total failure of an idea, it doesn't actually matter that much in the bigger picture - Superman has grown way beyond comics and become a genuine icon all around the world.
He's been around for several generations now, and his story and its mythology is already set in stone - at this point, it really doesn't matter what DC does to him, or even if they totally stopped making Superman comics or killed him off - the last son of Krypton doesn't actually belong to them anymore.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Sweet Jesus, will it never end?
Well, at least it's only a one-shot hardcover. That'll hopefully kill the concept before it spreads...
It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets
... Hit it ...
... Hit it ...
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I look on it more as:|
Originally Posted by Agonus
Fun? Sure do.
Nerdrage for the sake of it? |
"Hey everyone, Twilight was really bad."
*Crowd*: "HOW BAD WAS IT?"
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It's my shame closet. There is enough room for both of them.
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Originally Posted by Ironik
Sorry, Joephisto is already there and he's ordered in Thai.
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Shadowy Presence - Absolutely, positively worse than playing a Kheldian... --Myrmydon
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SHUT-UP!!! You will give them ideas.
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Originally Posted by SwellGuy
What's next? Batman joins a boy band singing pop songs?
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Shadowy Presence - Absolutely, positively worse than playing a Kheldian... --Myrmydon
LOL, gotta love the Epic Over-React 
Funny how no-one batted an eyelid at Superman landing in Communist Russia or Batman fight Jack The Ripper in Victorian England, though
I can't say I like the concept much, but I'll at least read it before I deride it 
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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LOL, with the Justice League as the rest of the Boy Band, singing classics such as covers of....|
Originally Posted by SwellGuy
What's next? Batman joins a boy band singing pop songs? |
Take That - How Deep Is Your (Bat) Cave?
New Kids On The Block - You Got It (The Right Power Ring)
Backstreet Boys - Every (Dead)Body (Doomsday's Back)
Nsync - (The Spectre Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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pfft|
Originally Posted by Warp_Factor
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anyhow, this last page with his facial expression and his stance looks so awkward o.O
Admittedly I'm not crazy about the body language there. The facial expression makes total sense for Clark at that age, though. This is a story about a young Clark figuring out what he's doing with his life, not the iconic older Clark that's gotten comfortable with who he is and what he's doing.
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actually this is the first of a series of such planned stories. there's also supposed to be an Earth One Batman coming out next year. i dont remember or know if anyone's been assigned to work on it yet, but as long as it isn't Frank Miller or Grant Morrison, i think it'll be worth it. The idea is that one such GN will come out every six months or so. So that they can tell a single story without having it be broken up into arcs, i actually dig the concept. also 20$ for 136 pages (no ads, IIRC) isn't too bad a price.
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Originally Posted by Jet_Boy
Sweet Jesus, will it never end?
Well, at least it's only a one-shot hardcover. That'll hopefully kill the concept before it spreads... |
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depending on how the court rules in the next couple of years, it wont belong to them, it'll belong to the siegel & shuster estates. also, this isn't the first time they've gone back to the roots and retold his origin story. but you're right (for once. |
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Although this is a total failure of an idea, it doesn't actually matter that much in the bigger picture - Superman has grown way beyond comics and become a genuine icon all around the world.
He's been around for several generations now, and his story and its mythology is already set in stone - at this point, it really doesn't matter what DC does to him, or even if they totally stopped making Superman comics or killed him off - the last son of Krypton doesn't actually belong to them anymore. |
) in that there are certain immutable facts that make Superman/Clark Kent who he is and that no matter how much someone might try, those will never change. of course, that has absolutely nothing to do with the article that idiot wrote. ive seen that same article referenced a couple other times since i first read it, im looking forward to getting my hands on the GN on Thursday and seeing how wrong that frakhat really is.
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Eh, I had a fun little rage-fest while it lasted. I got my thread's worth.|
Originally Posted by Warp_Factor
This article was bullcrap, guys, and you went for it.
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Disclaimer: I hate the idea on it's face, I'm just playing devil's advocate.|
Originally Posted by KingSnake
You see, here's the thing, IMO of course. He does have "brood fodder". Destruction of his planet, being an orphen, and the only one of your kind left, thus the whole not fitting in angle, a constent struggle to keep a secret idenity from close friends, and of course the constent threat of supervillians and such. Even the golden age Superman lost his father at a reletively eairly age.
He's got baggage sure, but "brood fodder" doesn't automaticly = emo punk. People can deal with there baggage and stay optimistic, idealistic, and no become dissilliusoned brooding people. Seems to me that mordern story tellers have forgotten this. Personal tradigity and hardship doesn't automaticaly = brooding emo. And Superman, has NEVER been like that. And he's dealth with alot of tragity on and off in the 70 or 80 plus years he's been around, and it hasn't broken or changed him. It's a sign of the times. Look at ventiage heros. The eairly heros, with almost the solo exception being Batman, where basically normal, decent people who got superpowers and started being do gooders as a result. This whole, tradigity must spur on heroics is a more morden thing in comics as far as i can tell. (well, it's been becoming more and more prevelent in the last 20 years anyways.) |
In my mind, they would have had a more genuine path to a disaffected Superman if they had looked at him from square one and applied his story rules logically. Superman is the ultimate alienation story, and there's nothing wrong with saying that in the 50's he'd come out one way, but if it happened 60 years later there'd be markedly different results.
Superman "fit in" by choosing to create not one but two fake personae (Clark Kent wasn't any more the real person than the guy in tights) and then wholeheartedly defend the best ideals of his adopted nation. They never dwelled on it, but for a long time he was very much a misanthrope, it was just dealt with in a lighthearted fashion.
Flash forward to a modern era Superman, and apply the same premises. Life as an American teen is a lot more complicated than the simple moral existence he got growing up on the Kent farm in the 50s. I could easily see him developing a lot of emotional issues growing up, before being contacted by Jor-El and having his origins explained to him. Further that with adoptive parents not of the greatest generation, but the viet nam era, and an America that doesn't have as solid a moral compass as it did in the 50s, and its far less likely he'd have a solid set of goals to latch onto.
I'm not saying it was a great idea, especially if their focus was on sexy, dark and/or brooding more than it was on staying true to who Superman is, but he doesn't need to be angsty over his lost homeworld to still have issues with essentially living a lie.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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the facial expression can make sense, but just not with that pose, it comes off looking very awkward imo
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Originally Posted by Warp_Factor
Admittedly I'm not crazy about the body language there. The facial expression makes total sense for Clark at that age, though. This is a story about a young Clark figuring out what he's doing with his life, not the iconic older Clark that's gotten comfortable with who he is and what he's doing.
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Hmmm...I don't know if I agree with this theory per se.|
Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Disclaimer: I hate the idea on it's face, I'm just playing devil's advocate.
In my mind, they would have had a more genuine path to a disaffected Superman if they had looked at him from square one and applied his story rules logically. Superman is the ultimate alienation story, and there's nothing wrong with saying that in the 50's he'd come out one way, but if it happened 60 years later there'd be markedly different results. Superman "fit in" by choosing to create not one but two fake personae (Clark Kent wasn't any more the real person than the guy in tights) and then wholeheartedly defend the best ideals of his adopted nation. They never dwelled on it, but for a long time he was very much a misanthrope, it was just dealt with in a lighthearted fashion. Flash forward to a modern era Superman, and apply the same premises. Life as an American teen is a lot more complicated than the simple moral existence he got growing up on the Kent farm in the 50s. I could easily see him developing a lot of emotional issues growing up, before being contacted by Jor-El and having his origins explained to him. Further that with adoptive parents not of the greatest generation, but the viet nam era, and an America that doesn't have as solid a moral compass as it did in the 50s, and its far less likely he'd have a solid set of goals to latch onto. I'm not saying it was a great idea, especially if their focus was on sexy, dark and/or brooding more than it was on staying true to who Superman is, but he doesn't need to be angsty over his lost homeworld to still have issues with essentially living a lie. |
A small town couple, in Kansas, even if born in that era, could just as easily be close to an upbringing that has a pretty solid moral compass.
This isn't to say there wouldn't be changes to his personality, or that it wouldn't be possible for him to remain the Clark Kent we've come to know.
Though, is this suppossed to be DC's version of Marvel's Ultimate line?
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
*cough* when I read this I had no idea about what was going on...
Let's just say... You people are stupid for going on for 4 pages about a character that is different in a different universe in a multiverse where that same character is a Nazi and a criminal that has taken over the world >.> Just saying...
If they want to do a "modern" one-shot story, that's fine.
But, if he's a modern take on the idea, any chance they could... you know... pretend he's smart enough to know that he's supposed to wear his underwear on the INSIDE of his outfit?
"I do so love taking a nice, well thought out character and putting them through hell. It's like tossing a Faberge Egg onto the stage during a Gallagher concert." - me
@Palador / @Rabid Unicorn
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Looks pretty good. Am I the only one who's distracted by Superman's resemblance to Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker here, though?
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Originally Posted by Warp_Factor
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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