Satirizing Superman - Detail Diatribe

Published 2022-07-08
What's the deal with The Man Of Tomorrow, and why do some people insist on treating him like yesterday's news? Blue and Red discuss!

This video contains footage from Invincible, carefully edited to minimize the potentially upsetting content. Despite the lack of onscreen grievous injury and body horror, that part still has a fair amount of blood, so watch out between 1:01:37 and 1:04:49, and a brief bit between 1:06:34 and 1:06:49.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
2:15 - Who Is Superman?
11:48 - The Max Fleischer Cartoon
14:14 - Three Really Good Stories
15:06 - For The Man Who Has Everything
17:20 - Alan Moore "Gets" Superman, Unlike Some Of His Fans
20:50 - Highlight Moment: "I promise - I'll never forget."
22:28 - Superman Vs. The Elite
33:11 - Superman Set The Superhero Standard
34:27 - Highlight Moment: "…To a place where I can't follow?"
35:38 - Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
39:16 - Highlight Moment: "He thought the world couldn't get along without him."
40:35 - Superman Is Clark Kent's Customer Service Voice
42:18 - What This Tells Us About Superman
47:03 - Superman Is Already A Subversion
48:14 - Beware the Übermensch?
49:00 - Superman Is The Antithesis Of "Power Corrupts"
50:49 - Superman Is Deceptively Simple
52:52 - If You Don't Get Superman, Don't Write Superman
53:56 - Two Kinds Of Satire
54:55 - Mark Waid's "Irredeemable"
56:27 - Two Kinds Of Satire
59:39 - Two Superman Deconstructions
1:01:05 - Invincible
1:06:49 - Neither Of Us Have Watched "The Boys" And Here's Why
1:10:30 - Superman Is Not For Everyone, But His Story Still Matters
1:19:02 - The Tangent Zone
1:28:11 - Deconstructions Are Better If You Get The Original
1:29:48 - The "Caring Is Good Actually" Soapbox
1:35:50 - Conclusion

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All Comments (21)
  • @laurel9629
    As a Tumblr post once said:

    “In a world with no consequences, why would you choose to follow the rules?”

    “Because my no-consequences power fantasy is being able to help people”
  • My favorite Superman satire is Metro Man from Megamind. He's another Superman who got overwhelmed by the constant pressure of heroism and he... retired. He didn't kill anyone. He didn't hurt anyone. He just faked his death because he was burnt out and knew that his arch enemy, who was good at heart, would eventually do the right thing.

    We need more parodies like that.
  • @KekeliKeli
    I saw a great comment on a similar video about Superman that said "The reason why in modern times its so common to satirize Superman and make him evil is because they think it's "more realistic". Because more so than eye lazers and super strength and flying, the thing we find most unbelievable is that someone with power could be a good and honest person, down to his core"
  • @_maple_gaming
    I think that what Invincible does really well is that it splits Superman in two: Omni-Man is Kal-El, all-powerful alien vigilante, and Mark is Clark Kent, with his humble upbringing around other normal humans. And it asks the question - which part makes Superman super? And it delivers its answer: Clark Kent. Without question.
  • @schleb5541
    The sentence "Superman is Clark Kent's 'Customer Service' voice." Has me, a customer service person, suddenly feeling a little better about my job 😌
  • @Leuk117
    There's a quote from Batman I really like. "It's a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the sky and it is difficult to not think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that the thought never occurs to him."
  • Rewatching this and I remembered one of the most wholesome panels ever where Batman visits the Kent farm as Bruce and the parents immediately know he's Batman. And Papa Kent tells him on the porch together and says that the reason they knew so easily is because Clark talks about him a lot. Batman is his best friend, of course this random rich guy from Jersey he's never talked about knowing is Batman. And the one line I remember was "Clark may be Superman, but he talks like he believes you can walk on water". I don't know if it's the exact quote but I think it's sweet how much Clark loves his buddy

    Edit: I dug it up. "Honestly, Clark may be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound but he believes you can walk on water, son. I shouldn't be telling you this, it's worse than showing you his baby photos. But I'm pretty sure you're his hero."
  • @vynniev9611
    When I was a kid, the hypothetical "what if you could do anything?" always confused me because the answer was *so obvious.* I never even considered people would actually use ultimate power to be cruel. That's what bad guys did. But no, apparently helping people isn't the majority vote in this instance. What a weird thought.
  • “I’ve always liked you, Kent. You’re a humble, modest, uncoordinated human. You’re everything he’s not.
    - Lex Luthor, “All-Star Superman”
  • @RealLotto
    "Alan Moore wrote Watchmen which js on record I have observed the favourite comic of everyone who makes a bad superman adaptation and think they're smart" that sentence is so true it's hillarious.
  • Superman I feel very much fits with the idea that “power does not corrupt, it reveals.” Power in and of itself is neutral; what the person does with it is either good or evil. Clark is inherently a good person; having all of this power simply reveals just how good a person he really is
  • @Double_D__
    I believe you mentioned in a Trope Talk or possibly another Detail Diatribe that if you cannot picture a version of Batman comforting a child moments from dying, you've just made Punisher in a stupid costume, I feel like Superman has a similar rule of thumb: if you cannot see this version of Superman or pastiche or parody of him talking down a suicidal person from jumping, the creator fundamentally does not understand Superman or how he works.
  • I cannot remember where I read it, but there was an interesting answer to "If Lex Luthor is so smart, why hasn't he figured out Superman's secret identity?". And in Lex's mind the reason was that "He doesn't have one"

    Lex could not conceive the possibility that this super-powered alien who lives in a crystal fortress at the north pole would ever stoop to pretending to be a mere human. Which is telling and a good bit of insight to both of their characters.
  • The subversion of Invincible is amazing because the twist is essentially "Omniman isn't the Superman archetype you thought he was. He's the Zod archetype."
  • @authority1565
    In defense of the boys, homelander really only works in the wider context of the show. In how he is mirrored by the character of Butcher, their relationship and how one is superpowered but powerless to improve his own situation and the other is just a guy but is almost completely free. And the deeper fact about homelander is that he doesn't want to be what he is. He wants people to like him, he wants to be the good guy. But he isn't. He's lazy, entitled, psychotic and hateful. And hes stuck cause he can neither improve himself nor have any other ambitions because of the position Vought puts him in. And SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3, that's why it's so scary that he's realized some people will still love him in spite of all those flaws. That some people will cheer as he murders. It's the final unchaining of the monster.
    This doesnt make him relatable or redeemable but it does make him interesting.
  • @seanwieland9763
    11:50 Supposedly Max Fleischer didn’t want to do the Superman animations, so instead of saying “no” he quoted what he thought was an absurdly high price — to which the buyer actually agreed, so then he had to do it. Which is why the Max Fleischer Superman episodes are so lush and detailed — no expense was spared!
  • @wafflemansfx
    Homelander isn't "what if Superman but bad", Homelander is "What if Superman was raised by a corporation to be a celebrity mascot?" The "but bad" is a consequence of the deviation from Superman, not the deviation itself. His primary underlying character arc is "How would a narcissist's need for validation brush up against their superiority complex if they had near-limitless power?"

    Also bafflingly, Homelander is apparently one of those characters we can now add to the list of "people unironically like them and don't realize they're supposed to be the bad guy", which is terrifying.
  • One Superman comic I love is in Superman: Man of Tomorrow, where Superman announces, in the newspaper, he's taking 24 hours off (because he's gotta hold the heavens so Atlas can attend his daughter's wedding). So obviously every villain crawls from under the rock they were living in to do their thing, and every single superhero under the sun runs to Metropolis to help, and even the civilians stand up against non-powered criminals, because Superman is always there for everybody else and so the least they could do is live up to his ideals
  • I love Injustice (and similar stories) for specifically and explicitly rejecting evil Superman. Evil Superman is an god-complex tyrant, but Supes comes in and goes "Yeah, deciding people's fate isn't our job" and dunks on him. It's glorious and cathartic
  • I feel like the boys comic is definitely not in the joke satire. It’s almost astounding how much the show improves over the shallow and cynical comic