The criticism that bugs me the most towards Zack Snyder’s Superman is that he doesn’t smile or that he spends too much time being sad. Recently in another post I talked a bit about how I interpreted this version of Superman to be a metaphor for depression so I’ll expand a bit of my thoughts on it here – but not by focusing solely on depression but rather on what it means to be human.
To get to the point, I think it’s disgusting when people make the complaint that Superman shouldn’t be sad and that he spends too much time doubting himself since he’s capable of so much more, because in a way the reactions by these critics mirror the way humanity shuns Superman in the DCEU for not being able to do everything expected of him, the way humanity in the real world disapproves of and/or alienates those struggling with depression or any mental illness in general, and the way the media attacks Zack Snyder as a person for simply making films that are different from their own tastes. It’s natural and justified for Superman to be in emotional distress, and in my opinion it would be insultingly unrealistic for him not to be.
It’s like telling someone struggling with trauma and depression “why can’t you just be happy?” or “just get over it! smile!” despite them going through or having gone through hell, despite them living in a world that prefers ignorance towards issues that need to be addressed, and despite them constantly being attacked by those who make them feel as if they’re a failure or a burden to the people around them.
Humanity in the DCEU views Superman as a devil and a god, as an enemy and a savior, and he knows that every decision he makes, even merely existing, will anger a lot of people. Humanity in real life idealizes Superman as a perfect hero who always finds the optimal solution to every problem, who smiles all the time, who isn’t allowed to show vulnerability or weakness. Zack Snyder utilizes these expectations to reveal that not even Superman is perfect, and in doing so he sheds light on the beauty of vulnerability and why it’s okay to surrender yourself to your emotions when it all becomes too overwhelming. That’s how you humanize a character like Superman.
“You look at Superman, and you wonder, what can he possibly
have to worry about? What could possibly ever hurt him? But just because
his skin is invulnerable, that doesn’t mean his heart is. And that’s
how you hurt Superman. You break his heart.”
DC stories are mainly about finding the humanity within god-like beings. Wonder Woman, for example, beautifully portrays optimism and joy in a superhero film that explores the character’s humanity in its own grounded and special way, and many people are calling the film a breath of fresh air yet many are unable to do so without attacking the “dark and brooding” character of Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice’s Superman, because that character reminds them too much of the issues they’d prefer to stay silent on.
I’m fairly certain that the people who make the “batman could make himself obsolete by using his money to solve the economic strain that drives many people to crime” posts are only familiar with Batman through Will Arnett’s spoof performance in the Lego movie, since that’s the only version of Batman I know where he isn’t hiring so many ex-convicts at his company so they have a legitimate source of income and using so much money to fund social programs that all the other bigwigs at Wayne Enterprises hate him and want him gone
Literally every version of his origin story I can remember involves him realizing that he can’t just treat the symptoms as Batman, he has to treat the root cause as Bruce Wayne. A huge part of the plot of “The Dark Knight Rises” is that his company is on the verge of bankruptcy because Bruce keeps spending all their profits on things like “clean energy” and “food and shelter for orphans.”
The opening of “Arkham City” shows him campaigning against mass incarceration because the majority of the inmates in Arkham City are not public menaces like the Joker, they’re desperate people with no other options, and Gotham should be providing them with legitimate means of stability rather than punishing them for having none.
Especially since the majority of his villains are independently wealthy people (doctors, lawyers, business executives) who are exploiting people’s desperation in order to get themselves henchmen, and the henchmen almost always have jobs with a living wage waiting for them on the other side of their sentence, and Bruce has a standing offer to pay out-of-pocket for the therapy of any of his villains whose crimes are the result of a mental illness (which Bruce is sympathetic to since he is mentally ill himself)
But what’s really damning about these posts is that a lot of them suggest Bruce should use his money to give the police the resources they need to deal with crime on their own, which makes it clear they’ve never actually consumed a piece of Batman media, since the issue with the Gotham Police is not that they’re underfunded. They have a bloated budget, they’re almost militant, and they’re so corrupt that they actually encourage crime, both violent and economic, because they’re on the payroll of the richest criminals.
Also, some of them refer to Batman as a “old rich white man’s wet dream” and I really disagree here. A story that says the only rich dude in the world who’s not a criminal drain on society is the one who spends the majority of his hefty inheritance and all his corporate profits trying to correct the imbalance that allowed him his wealth in the first place, whose staunch belief is that the best crime control policy is building a world where no one feels crime is necessary, as well as refusing to support mass incarceration or police corruption, systems which stand to benefit him financially? Batman is an old rich white man’s worst nightmare.
batman fans who only saw the movies: the joker is the best villain ever, he is such an intricate and profound character and he challenges batman in a way no one else could ever by exposing the unpopular yet harsh reality of life
batman fans who read the comics: the joker is a piece of shit i hope he dies choking on five of jason todd’s guns and stays dead and forgotten
comics are the worst because it’s just like people writing a bunch of fanfics over the span of decades, some good but mostly bad, except it all gets entered into canon until you have an amalgam of different stories and characters that don’t really make sense that you gotta salvage some meaning from
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