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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I once read that Superman was a humble man who faces big exploitative businessmen, while Batman is a big exploitative businessman who stands up to homeless people. The implications of Batman being more popular than Superman today and what this says about our society is enough for a complete essay.
Or Batman's more popular because he's a more interesting character. Superman can only experience kryptonite so many times before you start to suspect he never actually left the planet Krypton.
Maybe, or maybe they have bad writers because they are not able to imagine credible stories in which Superman's strength is useless in the face of the corruption of the system and the businessmen who abuse their power, no one would believe stories like that, you need to add kryptonite to make it realistic
You could put any superhero in that situation and have a story. But if it's just a white-collar crime setting, would Supe then be any different from any other Tom Dick or Harry? Is it even a superhero comic at that point? It would be interesting to some, but I can see why the writers wouldn't want to take that risk.
Well, I'm not a big comic reader but that's what the story with Lex Luthor is about, right? how all of Superman's immense power is useless against the intelligence of a rich and evil man. I think that is the most famous antagonist and that has transcended the comics the most for a reason. Maybe for fans it's doomsday or zod, but for casual readers and the general public it is lex and it is for good reason.
I dunno, seems to end with a big fight and / or kryptonite almost as often anyway. Then again, doesn't that kinda undermine your original point?
I don't understand why that should be done, the character stops being popular, so good writers stop having interest in working on it, they try to revitalize it with different stories, etc. whether the loss of popularity precedes the bad stories or not is not something that I am in a position to determine. In any case it wasn't my point, I'm not a big fan of comics, I read it there and in movies/television, which if I continue a little more, it makes some sense