Here is a little book report that I wrote back in the fall for my comic book class. I Hope you enjoy.
Christian Pippin
2 October 2016
Superman’s Death in the Real World: Heroes in a world without Heroes
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, is a comic about “The Man of Steel” that uses his abundance of power to show the vulnerability in all of humanity. When Superman flies to rescue the failing sun exploration mission, it triggers a series of events that ultimately causes the readers to have to come to grips with their own mortality.
As adolescents, humans think they are invulnerable to death and that they can ultimately get away with anything. One of the biggest icons in pop culture in the 21st century is Superman, and today’s youth take their sense of invincibility from him. The moment Superman loses even a tiny bit of his immortality, out goes the idea of it in the mind of the comic’s reader. We see this in the live action film, Batman vs Superman when Superman supposedly dies in the end.(Batman v Superman)
Not only do we see a change of attitude from fans of these stories, but in the characters and other people in the worlds surrounding the hero. In the movie when Superman dies, the entire fantasy world is hurled into chaos, fear and a state of depression at the loss of such an invincible protector. In Superman comics, Superman is seen as a god by his universe, the perfect protector that is relatable and human, and in some cases is portrayed as a better version of God. In the world, one of the largest religions is Christianity. If the God of Christianity were to “die”, the world would turn upside down, considering that could be proven. God is too powerful to die in most people’s minds; provable news like this would cause wars, outbreaks, mutiny and any number of global disasters.
When a global superpower falls, it affects the economies of the world. When superman dies, when God dies, no one is safe, no one is saved and no one is afraid to commit wrong. This latter fact is the one that strikes most fear into the hearts of the respective universes. In the late seventeen hundreds, early eighteen hundreds when Britain was overcome by the colonies, the entire world decided to rebel all at once. This turned the tides of power; it was the perfect setting for the newly formed U.S. to grab the glory.
A lot of times the viewers and fans of a television show, movie, book series, comic series, will get very involved, lose, for a short time, the reality of life, lost in the delusion that when something bad happens, a hero will be there to save them. Something changes when our hero is killed though; the viewer is snapped back into reality and now the fantasy world doesn’t even have a physical, seeable savior. In Quitely’s artwork, the reader is aware of a complexity that highlights the simplicity, hinting back to Morrison’s thematic echo of more is less. These contrasts make you see that the more complex the Superman character is, the simpler the idea of an invulnerable being having a huge vulnerability becomes.
Through the complexity of character structure and artwork, because of the world’s sense of invulnerability and despite the widely accepted image of Superman, the death of “The Man of Steel” is a constant reminder that no one is immortal.
Works Cited
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Dir. Zack Snyder. Perf. Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill.
Warner Bros., 2016. Film.
Morrison, Grant. All-star Superman. New York, NY: DC Comics, 2011. Print.