[Galactus]

I post on many boards that discuss comic books and comic book movies and converse with many big Superman fans and maybe I'm looking in the wrong places but I've never gotten the impression that Man of Steel is that popular. Maybe it's observational bias but frankly the idea that the movie is held up as the holy grail or even that good within the Superman fan community seems to be more than a little overstated.

I consider myself a fan of the character (although not a devoted one) and while I do like the '78 movie and it's sequel it's not really what I want to see from a modern Superman movie. I've yet to speak to anyone who wants that. Not liking Snyder's take on Superman doesn't mean you want cheesy, happy go lucky Donner movie anymore than not liking any of the newer Batman movies means you want the Adam West version back.

Since we agree on barely anything it wont surprise you when I say that I disagree that superheroes are inherently objectivist concepts. Conceptually you can argue that most comic book superheroes are way too selfless to be described as such, most work within the system of laws some even with governments and law enforcement and usually what makes them 'better' than regular folk is usually a complete accident. A radioactive spider bite, an alien crash lands on earth and gives you a magic ring, an infusion of mongoose blood. Even Superman who is naturally better than humans only gets to be so because his father was a pre-eminent scientist of dying world. You can re-imagine all these superheroes with an objectivist lens but I'm not sure Superman was quite the right choice to do it.

For my money Snyder handled Clark Kent/Superman well enough. It's the world and situations he put him in that were botched. That's why I put so much emphasis on that scene were he kills Zod. I have little issue with Superman using lethal force, Golden Age Supes did it all the time and even modern does it very grudgingly but from a creative stand point if you're going to contrive a situation were a lot of thematic weight rests on his decision whether to kill Zod or not...and other than that scream nothing about Superman's character really changes due to his decision.

The nice interpretation is that the character is too humble to act like a super powered Mr A but if you strip it down the point of Man of Steel is Superman should be that but wont unless pushed to his absolute limit and will never change. That just doesn't sound like a very satisfying message. Like I said I used to think that Snyder likes Superman but thinks he's misguided but all this stuff about Bruce and Lois and de-brainwashed Clark having to raise their child after Batman saves the world seriously has me questioning that. I don't know if I want a black Superman tackling racial injustice but it's certainly a more interesting and no more un-Superman than what Snyder had planned.