Superman #705

[lordultimus]

Warning for abuse.

Comments

[neverwherehere]

Isn't this the same story line where that woman blamed Superman for her husband's cancer? I'm half-convinced that the entire point of this arc was to show just how many mental hoops some people jump through for the sake of their beliefs.

[locuatico]

Actually. given this scene at the end. I think a nore accurate reading is how people seem to just... expect Superman to solve every problem. either something impossible like Cancer or something (realitvely speaking) more manegeable like calling the police on an abusive household.

It's preachy and ham-fisted as all hell, but, in hindsight, I think it is a MUCH more interesting argument than the typical "but HOW much does Superman helping people REEEEAALLY helps people?". Because it is saying, Yes, Superman is willing to help people whatever way he can... but it is also kinda dickish to expect him to do everything 24/7.

[silverzeo]

Come to think of it, this oddly close to how most Ultra Conservatives thinks what's right or wrong for most things general...
* People complaining about how they're not getting medical care they want should be more thankful what they get anyway.
* That alot of major problems with crime ridden areas is that they will just go somewhere else... so don't try to fix or do anything about it at all.
*Illegal aliens should provide more the "real" citizens instead of leeching and hording themselves...
* It's okay for companies to do illegal actions as long as it doesn't really do any "harm" and gives people money.
*Reporters who expose corruption should consider the bigger picture in the long run.
* People shouldn't fear the "guns" that help save and protect them (hell, this post here seems to imply that domestic abuse is stopped by a gun)
* General awful things are general awful and need no more thought to them...

[silverzeo]

Huh.. that reminds of a better Superman comic arc involving Steel's niece, Traci13, and Clark's fake daughter Supergirl teaming up to save Superman from a super ninja that blames him for having her husband killed, and it is revealed that Superman not only collected fan mail from people he help, but also hate-mail to remind him how much more he can do...

[locuatico]

Okay. I will be fair. Given that this is after the whole "new Krypton" deal. I can buy not all people being entirely comfortable with Supes around... a lot more than the whole "I blame YOU specifically for not curing cancer".

[silverzeo]

Didn't Kara had a story arc on that and it was a rough and turbulent for her because she wasn't Superman?

[locuatico]

Can't say for sure. my knowledge of this era of Superman is basically "new Krypton happened" and "Clark had adopted General Zod's son". But it's more than likely.

[roxas832]

Man, that cover just screams "buy me" doesn't it.

[owlbrigade1]

In a sort of "buy this or we'll shoot this dog" kind of way.

[tcampbell1000]

There's an alternate universe somewhere where that black-eye cover is justly celebrated as one of the most powerful images associated with Superman. But that's because it had a story to back it up.

I understand completely how this set of stories got greenlit. JMS had a certain "can-do-no-wrong" cachet from Babylon 5 that hadn't been entirely spent despite his uneven Spider-Man work. The idea of "Superman vs. real-world problems, as told by the best-known writer now working in our field" (or maybe second best, after Whedon) would've seemed like the trifecta: awards bait, chum for a journalistic feeding frenzy, and a license to print money. It probably helped the pitch that Stracynski was as ambitious in his targets as Moore was with "American Gothic" and Chaykin was with American Flagg.

And it's worth noting that our overall standards for such pop lit have risen from the 1980s to the early 2010s.

"Grounded" takes Teddy Roosevelt's advice of "if to fail, at least to fail while daring greatly." It is playing on hard mode.

Not really scoring many points, though, and at some point you kind of wish it'd switch back to easy.

[bradygirl_12]

Man, I miss the days when DC's general population hadn't switched with Marvel's.

[donnblake]

Is Clark manifesting a psychosomatic black eye because he has empathic powers now and he was in the vicinity of an abused child?

[lordultimus]

He got wounded in a dream involving the science teacher from the last issue battling a giant monster that represented his fears of not being able to save everyone and the destruction of New Krypton recurring on Earth. Had to leave that out for the page count. Sorry for the confusion.

Hate to be that guy...

[silverzeo]

... Impulse did a MUCH better job with this kind of story...

I am sorry, comparing this story and that one is different as night and day. And I know this is a VERY real and VERY serious subject in the real world, and when it happens in the real world, it should be taken as serious as the situation itself can be...

But this story is SO cliche. A jerk husband/father with a jerk muscular build, while sporting a jerk mustache with a jerk shirt in jeans, going around being a total jerk to everyone he "loves" until the real hero steps in and stops him. He is just a stereotype. What's his story? Who is he? Where does he work? I mean... sure they don't show his face well.. but you can still make him out from long shots regardless, and again, with NOTHING to know about him... the entire ambiguous angle doesn't really work. We don't see how he interacts with his son and wife. This reminds me of a poster for "domestic abuse" on my college campus, which seem to depict more as something you see among white trash (like pig buckle-belts on blue jeans and stuff like that). I felt upset by this making it seem like you can easily identify this sort of thing by that stuff... thankfully, they had more subtle posters for it too.

That also reminds me, Jason "New Firestorm" Rusch's dad was abusive too, right? But they had a reason to why he was jerk. He also had an arc, but of course, that was for major character... but still, THIS guy is just a throwaway jerk. Hell, Alex Ross's Captain Marvel dealt with this subject too on a smaller and simpler scale... and it work. Cause the abusive Dad there was just a bully... and Billy just intimidated the guy, but since the guy bullied his son, this alone was to impose a sense of the feeling to him what is is like to be up against a person who you can't beat. That was at least SOMETHING.

It just that... this whole issue is basically saying "Abuse is bad, m'kay. When you are abused by a parent, they're bad, m'kay." it so blunt and simple, it is hard to understand or try identify with... and with a SERIOUS subject like this; as well as being as crazy and confusing it can be real life, this story is not only a bore, but an insult, almost as bad as Family Guy try to do an episode on the subject....

As oppose to that issue of Impulse, where we follow this situation from Bart's POV, making him witness who assumes as much as he knows... as well as layers among EVERYONE in the family, including the abusive parent. Overall, THAT issue made you think, feel, and understand the whole situation; something this issue failed horrible at...