Introspective contemplations, discussion, and social, personal commentary on Man of Steel (2013) (By: Winston Chan)
The producer and director of The Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan, stated that in his adaptation of the Superman original story, Man of Steel, Superman’s weakness wouldn’t be the traditional green rock. Instead, Superman would have to struggle against something that defeats him from the inside. His new weakness is something much more personal: social alienation. In other words, Superman would feel estranged and lonely, which is Nolan’s intention. This led me to realize how terrible it would be to be Superman, and how this might all be a part of Nolan’s idea on Superman’s origin story.
A lot of people wish they could be Superman, powers and all. Most people just think that if they were Superman, a lot of problems would go away – transportation, emergencies, safety, health insurance; the benefits practically seem to be the only side of the story. What most people don’t realize, however, is how mentally and emotionally crippling it would actually be to be the Man of Steel.
Let’s start with Nolan’s idea of Superman suffering from social alienation. First off, Superman has superpowers. The thing is, though, pretty much no one else does. Everyone sees Superman as an archetypal hero. To the people around him, Superman is a distant, unrelatable figure that can’t be known on a personal level, just like a celebrity. Superman is something to look up to – or something to fear – and that’s what seems to be one of the major conflicts in Nolan’s film, where Superman’s father hoped he would be a leader for the people of Earth, while governments of our planet seem to be deathly afraid of the extraterrestrial. With this social alienation brought by his very power, people throughout Superman’s life would almost always expect him to be some kind of epic hero or, if they fear him, an unstoppable monster. Practically no one, maybe besides those close to Superman, would actually accept him as another person with feelings. The only ones who might do that would have been his family, and his original one is dead, which brings me to another point.
You thought Batman had it rough without any remaining family members? Superman’s entire race - along with its culture and history - is dead. Furthermore, no one seems to care about Superman’s Kryptonian culture and background, not even those close to him. In Nolan’s adaptation, Superman explains the meaning of the symbol on his chest to Lois Lane, saying that it’s a symbol for hope. Lois callously replied with, “Yeah, well here it’s an ‘S’”.
Besides being a social outcast (for better or for worse), Superman’s powers are also the source of extreme despair for the guy. Like I said before, you may have thought having superpowers would make things easier, right? Well, maybe for certain practical issues, but not the fact that you are responsible for letting innumerable deaths slip past you. If you’ve seen Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, you might remember how the Joker sets up timed bombs that only allow Batman to save either his lawyer friend or his love interest. Batman inadvertently saves his lawyer buddy, albeit at the cost of half his face looking like over-cooked barbeque. Bruce ends up in an emotional shell-shock for some time, which played a part in him temporarily retiring the Batman identity for about eight years in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.
Superman, however, can hear every crime that goes on. Batman made a real tough decision that night, but Superman has to face that kind of dilemma every single waking moment of his life. Superman, if he’s aware at all, realizes that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people who are under serious emergencies – car accidents, murders, rape cases – and Superman can only save people one situation at a time, even if he is faster than a speeding bullet. He could save an old couple from a burning building or an infant from falling, yet he has to make that split decision on who to save. Superman would have to sacrifice significant amounts of his secret-identity’s life to allocate time to save others, knowing how tragic it would be for someone to be dying a death he could have prevented because he was working at The Daily Planet. Even if Superman completely left behind his second life, he’d still be letting down the world. What adds to the tragedy is that Superman can’t save people from major social issues, like mental illnesses, drug addiction, teen suicide, and domestic violence. Finally, Superman has instilled a false sense of hope in the world he lives in – one where many believe he will save them from whatever danger they encounter, when he simply cannot. Even in Nolan’s film, one of Superman’s enemies tells him that for every one person he saves, a million more die.
However, even with all these hopeless aspects of Superman’s existence factored in, the guy still chooses to fight for and protect a foreign, distant population he knows he can’t save the entirety of. Superman is driven to the farthest of human limits, yet he makes the choice to continue saving lives, no matter how futile his work may be. That extremely difficult decision seems to be what really makes Superman a hero – the hero we need, but not the hero we deserve. That just may be what would make Man of Steel an excellent movie to watch and to think about.