I am terribly vexed.
I’m really disappointed in everyone who is complaining about the Superman story in Wednesday Comics.
Let me rephrase that.
I am disappointed in everyone who is complaining that Superman is not punching anyone in this Superman story in Wednesday Comics.
If you just want mindless fighting I’ve got numerous longboxes FULL of lousy old Image comics and 90s dreck you can have for free.
I’m not saying it is thrilling to watch Superman eat a corndog, but Superman didn’t punch anyone in “Superman : The Movie”.
Did it hurt that movie at all? I would say that it did not.
He didn’t even put the suit on until like 45 minutes into that movie, and even then it was just for a second, and then it was another 20 minutes or so before he actually did anything as Superman.
More importantly, I feel like complaining that Superman isn’t fighting or punching enough in a story really does a disservice to the character, because it’s pretty much saying Superman (as a character) is only good for punching things.
Superman is not Mike Tyson.
For my money, the most powerful and memorable moments in All Star Superman didn’t have anything to do with how hard he could punch someone, but with how what really makes him “super” is the content and quality of his character.
What I’m saying is Superman’s heart is way more super than his fists are, and as cool as it was to see him punch out a tyrant sun, the scenes with him visiting the sick children, convincing the teenage girl not to commit suicide, and delivering the eulogy at his father’s funeral are the scenes that will stay with me forever.
Wednesday Comics is a really interesting experiment with some amazingly talented people, and I think that if it was all just “Biff! Bang! Pow!” Guy-In-Tights #1 punches Guy-In-Tights #2 comics, that would really be selling the creators, the characters, and comics as a whole short.
Having said all of that, I do still hope that he gets to do a little more superhero-y things soon, but even if he doesn’t, as long as the art stays beautiful and the story is well written, I am fine with that, because Superman means more than flying and punching to me.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:33 am
You make some fair points. I agree that the complaints about the lack of action seem…sort of juvenile, I guess. I think the more relevant complaints are the ones about how Superman is characterized — as kind of whiny.
I’m still holding out hope for the remaining strips, but so far, that issue has kind of bugged me, too, as well as the really, really bad Batman dialogue.
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July 31st, 2009 at 10:39 am
We’ve already talked about this in private (over snifters of brandy while wearing smoking jackets, because that’s how Internet Pals roll), but my problem with it isn’t just that Superman’s not doing any flying or punching (although either would be preferably to getting SUPERMAN TAKES A TRIP TO THE COUNTY FAIR #4), but that he’s not doing ANYTHING other than talking about how he feels bad.
At the core of his character, Superman should be inspirational. The most important part of his character isn’t that he can fly or punch out robots, but that he flies and punches out robots to help others, both saving us and setting an example that we can all follow to save ourselves. But the Superman of Wednesday Comics isn’t doing that; in the first issue he yells at some kids while fighting a robot, and while it’s certainly him warning them away from danger, it’s written in a way that comes off as petulant and angry rather than concerned for their safety. It could’ve been done better.
And that’s the last time we’ve seen him do anything remotely super. The rest of the story thus far has just been wallowing in self-pity, to the point where he storms off in a huff when Batman reminds him that he’s phenomenally powerful with family and friends that love him. And for the supporting cast to be so intrinsic to Superman’s story–the family that raises him so well that he’s a guy with X-Ray Vision who doesn’t use it to look at girls and the friends like Lois and Jimmy about which nothing more need be said–neither he nor the reader should need to be reminded of how important they are.
Superman talking the girl out of committing suicide is one of the best moments of All-Star, as is Superman telling Lois how much he loves her, but those both involve him doing things beyond thinking about himself, and that’s not what we’re seeing. What we’re seeing is something that we’ve gotten before, and if it’s a choice between flying, punching and heat vision or Superman struggling yet again to find his place in this crazy world (as he did in Man of Steel, and Superman For All Seasons, and Birthright, and the wretched Superman Returns, and…) then I’ll pick action every time.
Superman is not Mike Tyson.
But he did box Muhammad Ali.
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July 31st, 2009 at 10:51 am
I think it’s true that Superman’s best moments have nothing to do with fighting – Sims cites some damn good ones. And I don’t think that the Wednesday Comics strip needs to be wall to wall action, either. I just wish it were better. I don’t like Arcudi’s petulant, dithering characterization of Superman.
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July 31st, 2009 at 10:55 am
Forgive me that this isn’t a fully formed idea, I just started thinking about it reading both Chris’s sides: I think comics are in a weird place right now. Comics (like Superman) used to be for kids, filled with action and adventure with a tidy lesson at the end. I think the general demographic for comics has gotten older and now you have character comics like Superman who ARE struggling to find where their place is. Do you go action/ adventure or do with character stories that an older demographic can relate to? And riding that line can be tricky…
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July 31st, 2009 at 11:03 am
I’m staying out of this one.
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July 31st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Does he have a mullet in this one? Because I only read Superman comics where he has a mullet.
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July 31st, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I haven’t read Wednesday comics past the first one, so I can’t really comment.
Sadly though, no mullet. But he does put Truck Nutz on his cape.
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July 31st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
They’re called CapeSacks, Curt.
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July 31st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
i think you’re just mad because they’re not exploring superman yaoi.
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July 31st, 2009 at 6:57 pm
“Superman Yaoi,” sounds like something you’d yell if Superman slammed your fingers in the car door: “Superman! Yowee! That totally hurt!”
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August 1st, 2009 at 12:50 pm
My chief complaint isn’t with the fact that Superman’s not punching things in WC. It’s that’s he’s not doing anything but whining. Literally 3/4 of the strip so far has been him whining. My favorite parts of All Star and Birthright were about him, not the punches, same with the movie.
But my thing is this, those things were never about despair. They were about superman finding hope in dark times. This isn’t. This is about him feeling sorry for himself, and Superman doesn’t do that.
A lot of people hate Returns because its climax involved no punching, but this is one bit in the film I truly love. It’s the most Superman thing about the movie. He overcomes his greatest weakness and finds in himself the ability to save us all, because there’s always a way.
I kinda hope you see now people aren’t picking on it because it’s an emotional story and not a punching one, but because we feel it’s the wrong way to tell that kind emotional story with Supes, even if you don’t read it the same way we do.
He can feel like an outsider, but he deals with by trying to connect to us in a meaningful way, not ignoring his wife and acting like a spoiled child to Batman.
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August 2nd, 2009 at 1:39 am
What Thomas said. When I say Superman doesn’t punch anything, it’s usually shorthand for Superman doesn’t do ANYTHING especially interesting.
Chris, you mention All-Star Superman (which is, in my opinion, the best Superman comic ever published). And, yes, it is about what makes Superman “super” (often having little or nothing to do with his punching anything). The problem with Wednesday Comics is that we have a 12 page Superman story that doesn’t seem to be about how super he is, but instead is about how he doesn’t fit in. Now, there are plenty of characters for whom that would be the excellent basis for a story (Spider-Man, for example, though he’s not DC). That’s a character whose strengths are geared toward angsty self-reflection. This is much less “Superman: The Movie” and much more “Superman Returns”, minus the stuff that I actually liked about that movie.
If the story were about Superman inspiring people, saving people, or, yes, punching people, I think it would be far more interesting, and far better-suited for the character than a story about Superman not fitting in.
None of which is a reflection on Wednesday Comics as a whole, which I think is one of the best comics out there at the moment.
Plus, I like EVERYTHING (which Thomas can confirm), so if I’m not liking it, it HAS to be bad.
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August 3rd, 2009 at 7:58 am
I have to say, the story is boring, so far. Supes is whining and I WOULD like to see him punch some things or do something, you know, SUPER!! I was hoping for a lot more action.
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August 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
George Reeves as Superman would have never been so mopey, bitches! He would have found some gunsels to beat up, stood with hands on hips laughing while bullets bounced off his beer gut, bent the guns in half and then leaped out the window to go show Perry White what’s up. F*ck yeah!
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August 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Look at it this way – this would be a fine and reasonable Superman story if we were getting all these pages together as a twelve-page story. But we’re not. We’re getting one-page episodes which are paid for, and enjoyed, on their own. And as episodes, these don’t all cut the mustard, not because Superman’s whiny or there’s not enough punching, but because one-page comics are very, very tough to do and US comics haven’t been about the kind of raw, dense, value-for-money comic style you need to do a one-pager in some years. People who are trained up as marathon runners are now being asked to sprint.
Still, the art’s nice and I’m expecting great things from Wednesday Comics II – that’s where all this experimentation is going to pay off.
Anyway, put me down in the ‘more punching’, or at least ‘more density’ camp.
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August 6th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I’m in the UK, so I wrote all of that before seeing issue 5 – vast improvements on all fronts in terms of getting the plot moving, and the art’s worth it on its own. It’s a lush object.
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August 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Simply knowing what the plot is, beyond “Superman is sad” would be a huge improvement. The art has been amazing from the start, no question.
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August 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Just saw tomorrow’s issue.
Let the punching begin!
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August 11th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE?!?! YOUR JOY MUST BE WITHOUT LIMITS!
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August 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Yeah, but at this rate it’ll be half a punch per episode. “Next week: THE PUNCH — CONNECTS!! OR DOES IT??”
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August 14th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I still haven’t even seen it, so I am not really qualified to say.
If I can, I’d like to take this time to clarify that I was not saying that this comic is great so far or that people who are complaining about it are wrong to complain about it, what I said was I was disappointed in people who were saying that the comic wasn’t good BECAUSE Superman wasn’t punching anyone/thing. I’m not sure if that being my point got lost in the shuffle.
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