Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Superman

Before I get started, we just put out the 50th episode of our Field of Geeks podcast!  Check us out on Podbean, iTunes, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter!

In the last post, I droned on about Supergirl, now it is time to tackle her cousin.  You may have heard of him.  Spoiler alert: he is in the title of this blog!!

I KNOW, RIGHT?

As a soon-to-be octogenarian, I can't be on board with phrases like "I know, right" or "fleek" or "lit" or any other crazy nonsense.  Those words are cray.

So, back to Superman, then.  In Monday's season 2 premiere of Supergirl, her cousin Superman comes to town and they team up to take down baddies, help families, and create all sorts of hope in National City.  Tyler Hoechlin now gets to wear the red and blue tights famously donned by Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill, and a couple others really not worth mentioning.

Before I tell all of you what you should think about Mr. Hoechlin's performance (kidding, of course, but I AM always right), let's talk about Superman for a minute.   There is a lot of talk about how Superman is not relevant today.  He's too hard to write because he is so powerful.  Gobbledygook, I say!  Is gobbledygook still being used by the kids today?  I will have to hang around outside a school and ask. 

Superman is, in my opinion, needed now more than ever.  And not a dark, brooding, unstable Superman.  I'm talking your Reeve/Cain/Routh type that delivers hope, optimism, and the like.  (Approaching soapbox..)

What the El???
With everything that is going on in the world, we become almost desensitized to violence of all sorts, we allow our elected leaders to lie on a daily basis while we fall in line (and even defend the behavior) just because we choose one ideology over another.  As a comic fan with WAY too many comics, I love all sorts of comics and the heroes contained therein.  Superman, Batman, The Punisher, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Spawn, The Flash...the list goes on and on.

I like the escapism of a Punisher.  He takes zero crap and gives zero $#!+$ about criminals.  I like Batman's code, and how he tries to convert his pain into justice, I like Superman because he is the example.  He is supposed to be the best of the best, and in today's world, we don't have a lot of examples to look up to with the endless skepticism and distrust.

Hoechlin's Superman delivered on the hope and optimism.  Supergirl has already done it for a full season.  I like the dark heroes, but there is plenty of room, and a need, for the light ones, too.  Welcome back, Superman.

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