Thursday, April 14, 2011
Weak
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As a kid, I loved Superman. But now he's so boring to me. Maybe it's that he can do everything. Maybe it's that he acts like "the ring is so heavy" Elijah Wood whenever fake green rocks show up. Or it might just be that in order to balance out all his power, writers seem to love making him unsure of himself. Uncertainty doesn't necessarily make a character appealing. It just makes you frustrated with him, like you always are with Hamlet. And let's face it, Hamlet would have been way less interesting if they made him sword-proof.
Needs salt, though.
Awesome Sam. Did you happen to catch Superman: Earth One? Kind of more of the same, but everybody quotes famous dead people too. Anyway, love the painting.
ReplyDeleteGreat work Sam! He's so cute and chubby.
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He does look unsure of himself. I think Peter Spidermen is the best!
ReplyDeleteBeauty-ful painting. If you put glasses on him, nobody would recognize him.
ReplyDeleteHehe funny))
ReplyDeleteI like how he's kneading his own fingers.
ReplyDeleteNice image Sam. I also thought the same thing about Superman until I read "All-Star Superman" by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly. All of a sudden it crystallized, and I realized most people, including most of the writers of Superman don't "get" him. His weakness isn't kryptonite, it makes him weak, but it isn't his weakness. His true weakness is the fact that he can't be everywhere at the same time. He can't save everybody. A frustrating thing for someone who is a Christ figure, a savior of the world. He's come from another realm not to rule the world, which he could so easily do, but to be one of us and to save us from ourselves. The Superman story isn't about super powers, or secret identities or being the sole survivor of the planet krypton, it's about him having more faith in us than we have in ourselves. And that's what All Star explores so beautifully. Every person he encounters in the story inherits his values of truth, liberty justice, and life, just by being in contact with him. That's where he gets his power, not as most traditional gods do by encouraging us to believe in them, no, Superman achieves his power by believing in us.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why I love this character so much. Seriously, go read All Star Superman, it's really good.
Amen. The first superman - when I was a kid, on TV - he was never self-questioning. Just kind and noble. And then - that STUPID song, who did that song? It was so repulsive. yeah, it's rough to be ANYBODY. But your illustration fit your text perfectly. The hands - hilarious. I knew there was a reason I liked you. Jake does make an interesting point. If you want to save the world, you're bound to end up frustrated and self-doubting - because nobody can. (Well - leaving out doctrinal points and the effects of the atonement - though even that cannot make us into what we should be). The world has to save itself if it wants to end up being itself truly. A thing neither Washington nor the middle east seems to quite fathom. Ha. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteFantástico, parabéns!
ReplyDeleteI love superman! spectacular drawing, art you admire
ReplyDeleteFantástico!!! Enhorabuena por tu obra y por tu blog
ReplyDeleteAbrazo
Carlos Pérez
Great painting! As a huge Superman fan myself i unfortunately agree with you. It seems as though the comics only manage to do the character justice, ie. Birthright, All Star Superman. Shows like Smallville have infamously defined that uncertainty in Superman, something that at first i didn't really mind and accepted as original formative storytelling but after 10 years it seems to wear down the character in a negative way. Hope Zack Snyder manages to breath some new life into the Man of Steel. Again dope colours and emotion in the painting. Can really feel that uncertainty, :P
ReplyDeleteOh, I love it, it looks better than what I usually see in comics. The story isn't going in the right direction. They need to bring all the old writers back
ReplyDeleteHorror Art
In addition to All-Star Superman, I'd like to suggest It's A Bird by Steven Seagle and Teddy H. Kristiansen. It's about a writer struggling to write Superman and finding what's good about the character, while worrying about an hereditary disease. A great dissection into the good old Man Of Steel.
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