Suffocating Kryptonian Order
A comment was left on my comment on Stephen’s comment on the State Socialist Utopia entry of this blog that deserves a response. (Bloody hell, the previous sentence sounds as incestuous as most European royal lineages). ‘Agent Drake’ (it is nice to have readers who know the classics) asked why I ‘hate Superman?’
The Phantom Zone is part of it. Superman is the son of a man who condemns his political opponents to an endlessly cruel punishment. Like Stephen, that prospect scared the crap out of me as child. I realised what it meant – an eternity as a shadow in a dimension of ghosts.
It was not just the black ensemble and the fact Terrence Stamp was playing him that made me have a limited degree of empathy for General Zod. Jor-El and his ilk have always struck me as fascists with an advanced code of ethics and the sort of tosspots I would want to rebel against. I also might feel like beating the crap out of the son of the man who had condemned me to the Phantom Zone and wore the ‘S’ symbol of suffocating Kryptonian order on his chest.
My views on Big Blue Cheese are also down to the fact that the extent of his powers and moral certainty makes Superman more than a little boring in most comic book versions of the character. Whether Bryan Singer has done anything to make him interesting and likeable is something I will reserve judgement on till I have seen his latest opus.
Now that question is out of the way, look out for an entry trying to tackle the cut the crap question from ‘C…e’ about the direction I am now ‘travelling in’ made all the way back on the Cult Author Piñata.
The Phantom Zone is part of it. Superman is the son of a man who condemns his political opponents to an endlessly cruel punishment. Like Stephen, that prospect scared the crap out of me as child. I realised what it meant – an eternity as a shadow in a dimension of ghosts.
It was not just the black ensemble and the fact Terrence Stamp was playing him that made me have a limited degree of empathy for General Zod. Jor-El and his ilk have always struck me as fascists with an advanced code of ethics and the sort of tosspots I would want to rebel against. I also might feel like beating the crap out of the son of the man who had condemned me to the Phantom Zone and wore the ‘S’ symbol of suffocating Kryptonian order on his chest.
My views on Big Blue Cheese are also down to the fact that the extent of his powers and moral certainty makes Superman more than a little boring in most comic book versions of the character. Whether Bryan Singer has done anything to make him interesting and likeable is something I will reserve judgement on till I have seen his latest opus.
Now that question is out of the way, look out for an entry trying to tackle the cut the crap question from ‘C…e’ about the direction I am now ‘travelling in’ made all the way back on the Cult Author Piñata.
7 Comments:
Zod was a bully full stop (a dictator in the making just look at the space age jodhpurs they gave him for chrisssake) and Jor-El was swimming against his 'ilk' as you so call them and I may also add that when consulting about the fate of Krypton the narrative with the council was always one of tension and if memory serves me right Jor-El was more or less the black sheep of the council.
I do not blame Zod wanting to wipe out the caped Kal-El after all if you had that sentence wrongfully or rightfully imposed on you, you would want to fill them or their next of kin in but I don’t think its reason to totally dislike superman – he is the hero for the corn-fed apple pie eating, shiny happy people – everyone’s got to have a hero, and you have a right to dislike him that’s your prerogative but don’t base it on the principle of Zod got a hard sentence in the Phantom Zone - do the crime do the time. Jor-El did him a favour really he knew krypton was going belly up anyway so he spared him death since the phantom zone was specially constructed for Zod and his ilk.
I think you have slightly missed my points. One, I dislike Superman largely because I find him quite tedious as a character in most of the material featuring him (there are exceptions of course including some of Moore’s stories). Two, the essential nature of the Phantom Zone as a punishment is so cruel and unusual, its use condemns the whole nature of Kryptonian society.
To suggest that somehow Zod was being done a ‘favour’ is hogwash. Whatever Jor-El’s position with the Council, he created a method of eternal torture he allowed to be used on political criminals. The fact the Big Blue Cheese learns lessons in Kryptonian culture, history and ethics from such a man is a bit like having a hero whose father was Josef Mengele.
It was established in the story For The Man Who Has Everything that Jor-El was a fascist who supported the Swords of Rad.
This exchange of views now qualifies as the most geekish thing on this blog to date.
Personally, I never really got the 'superhero' thing.
I've loved plenty of comics -- even been strongly influenced by them -- but the entire genre of implausibly-endowed, emotionally crippled UberJocks in silly spandex beating crap out of each other... well... it's all a bit Wrestlemania, dontcha think?
I know a lot of Supers writers do their best to bring some intelligence to the whole thing, and I'm certainly not denying it can all be fun -- sometimes even great fiction, like Arkham or Dark Knight -- but somehow, detailed arguments about the relative morality of Superman's father seem a bit... futile.
It's like a discussion of Paul Bearer's hold over the Undertaker, or a history of how Giant Haystacks came to hate Big Daddy.
I'll take Transmet or Hellblazer, thanks.
If Im right thats from the justice league comics and its the swords of rao and it was a dream that he was a leader in the of the right wing movement but essentially Jor el was a scientist nothing more. For the record though you cant beat the watchmen!
Ooo... I sound like a snarky, superior asshole in that last comment.
*sigh*. My bad.
I was aiming for something closer to good-natured teasing, with maybe just a touch of "hey, perhaps it _is_ a bit like wrestling" here and there.
Having gotten into discussions about the relative philosophical purity of the various Nietzschean Prides featured in "Gene Roddenberry's (sic) Andromeda", I'm in absolutely no position to cast any stones.
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