Matt's post on Perry White gave me some long-term thinking to do. Superman has to be one of the most problematic characters to write. There are so many conditional limitations, both in terms of licensing and basic common culture in general, that must be in place when you consider the writing of a Superman story. Superman must not kill (although he has). Superman must not be oversexualized (although he's married, not a virgin, and has been subjected to at least one pornography-based attack in the '80s in the story featuring the villain Sleez). Superman must not contravene the ideals of America (although he's certainly more progressive). And those are just the big ones.
Now consider the wealth of Superman stories that have been written since 1938. Stories for page, animation, television, films, novels, and more. The prospective writer would face an amazingly daunting task. On top of THAT, it seems that every Superman story that reaches for something different gets hammered by the fans these days. The JMS walkabout story (which I did not like) took a drubbing. The New Krypton story (which was better) also took a drubbing, partially because the action was spun into a separate series while Superman was replaced by other characters in his two core titles.
If you had the opportunity to write Superman, he has to be the most interesting nut to crack. It's got to be nearly impossible in some ways. But that doesn't mean we don't think about, does it?
No comments:
Post a Comment