@Weird Tales I never got behind Shazam as a character. all I know is he was a kid in injustice 1 sueprman murdered in cold blood and hes a discount superman from what I can tell with that lightning bolt power.
oh my what is this madness you speak of
Afro Samurai
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Don't leave me, baby! Middle of winter, I'm freezin' baby! - It's cold, and Gucci Mane lyrics work for most any context when slightly edited.
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oh my what is this madness you speak of
<Snipped quote by Archmage MC>
I completely disagree with this entire sentiment. Superman is one of the most compelling heroes out there and the fact that he isn't challenged often is the fault of lazy and uninspired writers. For years Superman has faced off against Lex in a battle of wits and people loved it. The thing people always forget is that they look at Superman and see his impressive array of powers and assume that nothing can challenge him.
But Superman beneath the suit is one of us, he's human. And the best Superman stories are written when the writer remembers that.
Everybody hurts sometimes. And pain doesn't have to be physical. The best stories for Superman are the ones that push his mind and heart to the limit, the ones that make you feel for him. Likewise, Superman has to show amazing restraint in his life, he could easily reach out and snap most of his foes' neck but he doesn't. He doesn't because he's better than that, because he stands for something. Even in a world made of cardboard, Superman takes care not to cause unnecessary harm. He's spent an entire life managing strength that's strong than a locomotive, blending into a world that moves at a snail's pace next to him and all because why? Because he knows the responsible that comes with such power, he cares for the world and truly wants to do better for it. He knows he can't just muscle his way through saving the world because guess what? Humanity is screwed up, you solve world hunger, we'll cause a world drought, you cure cancer, I'm sure we'll create a new super disease. But you can protect humanity and that's what Superman is, he's a protector, a watchful guardian. But he is not a despot, he's not a dictator and he's not an enforcer. A well written Superman shares no traits with that of a villain.
Injustice Superman is well written, though. Superman, even beneath his suit, is human-like but he is not human. The fact of the matter is Superman is an alien, and while his world is like ours, Krypton is not Earth and the manners and customs his people have are not our own. He is different, regardless of how similar he is to humankind. Injustice flips the entire trope, but it is not an anomaly of character; since Superman is human-like, he experiences grief just as we do. As such, it examines what would happen when Superman is pushed. But the push is--contrary to what some believe--not an extreme, as the death of Lois Lane is symbolic of the loss all humans must go through at some point in life. Superman's reaction to such death is also not one we have never seen (revenge killings are well-documented parts of human existence) in that he kills the perpetrator. It is something any parent of a child who has been murdered or any spouse whose partner has been murdered feels but typically does not act on: here, Superman does.
It is not out of Superman's character to kill, it is not out of any superhero's character to kill. Superheros are, after all, representative of humankind--they are not paragons of hope or mongers of villainy. As you said, they are human; as such, they are flawed. They are not ideals, they are attempts to reflect what humans might be if we had these kinds of abilities--but they retain one crucial aspect of our character, they are imperfect. While Superman stands for justice, peace, liberty, equality--he exists in a world which spits in the face of these ideals, and he is not immune to the consequences of the sinister and broken world in which he resides. A well-written Superman does share traits with the villain, because both Superman and the villain are but two people who are subject to all of man's crucial character flaws. Both hero and villain are, and have always been, people who cannot escape the imperfection of Man--regardless of how many kittens they can save from trees.
@Lord Wraith To be fair, unless a hero comes around that can basically cream Superman with him having almost no hope of winning WITHOUT using kryptonite, AND said hero becomes as mainstream as Batman/Superman/WW/Cyborg/ext while also being countered by one or two of those heroes as hard as they counter Superman, Superman is just a better villain than a hero. Hes just too strong otherwise.
Marvel is way better at hero balance than DC. You could lose Superman from DC and not lose much, and infact everything would be better as heroes would counter heroes and such and no hero would feel so super domineering in-universe as it does now. Sure Batman would still be top billing, but people are ok with him since lots of heroes can beat him 1v1.
It isn't that Superman cannot be beaten. There are several superheroes who can beat Superman one-on-one: Black Adam, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Dr. Manhattan, Flash, (though he's not a hero) Doomsday, etc. Superman's perceived invincibility has more to do with him being the golden boy of DC and comics in general than his actual power. Spectre, Etrigon, Constaintine, Orion, Darksied, Firestorm--there are a litany of heroes who are more than capable of defeating Superman.
Even in the comics, there is little that can make one sympathetic to Superman's position. He becomes a totalitarian and a dictator. If creators were to invert Superman's character to the Injustice incarnation in the comics (where he uses heat vision to murder two hundred people, blows up Darkseid's son, kills Green Arrow, has Szaz carry out a hit on Alfred (yes, the Alfred Pennyworth) among other things), few would find sympathy or empathy for the golden child.
Interesting. Y'all got room?
@Nariata Is there any room left? If so, I will work on a CS. He will probably be more of a diplomat than a warrior.
Episode 2: A Mad World
Featuring
Toon Girl
and
Also tagging: @FiroIV & @Experiment 249
Not much time had passed since Green Lantern went off to contain the civillians, the team in Robotman's HQ trying to gather and prepare to head out having to wait for a few members to make their way on the teleporter. But that short time where the heroes walked out trying to locate Brainwave was enough for the villain to get the best of their mentor, Green Lantern. Having fallen to the villain's sort of mind control, GL started to attack the group of heroes with fire dragons made out of his own ring energy, obviously not himself.
"Welp, this is what happens when you go off alone instead of waiting for the team vs someone who can do this kinda stuff..." Toon Girl said with a sigh, having seen this exact thing in many different movies. At least looking up at GL also revealed Brainwave nearby, floating above him and probably giving him orders.
Shazam floated slightly behind Toon Girl, and observed the situation at hand. At Toon Girl's remark, he smirked. For this, he didn't need the Wisdom of Solomon to know what needed to happen next: they had to take Alan down, and they had to do it quick. There was also the problem of those massive emerald dragon constructs. . . and their fire. It seemed like even with the Wisdom of Solomon, he'd be put in an odd predicament .
"It is clear we have to fight him." Perhaps Marvel's name should actually be Captain Obvious. He paused for a moment, and continued.
Then it struck him. The dragons were just constructs; constructs can be beaten until they no longer existed. Genius. Marvel figured he would handle the dragons, and Toon Girl. . .
"You--you do not seem to be much of a fighter. What is it you are good at?"
Looking at the big cloaked Shazam guy with a slight 'really?' look on her face, Toon Girl said. "Oh, I'm really good at distraction, taking hits, giving super hugs, stuff like that." Though she wasn't sure what to take of being called not much of a fighter. It was kind of true, she didn't care much for it, but she wasn't bad at it. Shazam seemed to take the situation at hand more seriously than her though. Pulling out her portable hole from her dress, she said. "So, you wanna do some punchies and stuff? I'll go and 'distract' Greenie til ya get there."
Throwing her portable hole on the ground in front of her, Toon Girl jumped into it, a second hole appearing behind Alan. Since Green Lantern wasn't much himself at the moment, it was pretty safe to teleport behind him. And once behind him, Toon Girl gave him a huge hug, pinning his arms to his sides and holding on tightly since she herself couldn't fly. "Aww, Greenie! Why are you so angry? You should be happy! You found Mr. Crazy bringer and just have to hit him with a hammer to win!" She said playfully, her tone contrast from the strength she was using to keep GL in place with her nearly constricting hug.
Meanwhile, Shazam took the tops of the buildings; he hovered in the faces of both dragons, arms folded. In his eyes sparked the mystical lightning of Zeus; his arms soon followed. He bellowed out to the emerald entities,
"Cease, or you will be put down." The dragons were unamused. They turned their fire on the Captain, who made deft dodge out of imminent harm.
After managing a narrow escape, he bulleted forth, a streak of yellow lightning trailing his flight path. He reared a lightning-encoated fist back while in mid flight, and soon as he closed the distance between himself and the first of the green dragons did he thrust a devastating blow to the dragon's torso. If felled, he now had to deal with the second dragon, who had promptly sensed the peril of his kin and turned its focus on the Captain.
Marvel was too slow to react, and was met with a hail of emerald blaze which not only seered his clothing, but sent him careening into a steel barrier that broke beneath the velocity of his density and did nothing to stop his inevitable crash into a steel wall atop the roof of the next building over. His body pressed a dent in the wall, he pulled himself out.
This was going to be harder than he anticipated.
Being under the control of Brainwave, Green Lantern wasn't going to have any of Toon Girl's shenanigans. "Why you.. GET OFF...ME..." Alan said as he tried to wiggle free from her grasp to no avail, Toon Girl just hugging tighter when he tried. Green Lantern grew impatient with the mocking nature of the little Toon Girl and in an area blast big enough to level the nearest building to them his energy burned everything in its wake.The bit of Toon Girl that was facing GL was completely covered black from the ash of the emerald fire.
"'cough' Really?" She said, as the wind blew away the bits of her that were ash, her eyes falling down to earth from the sky. Popping back to normal a moment before she hit the ground, she left a deep imprint of herself on the pavement below, a loud 'THWAK' sound being heard as she bellyfopped when she hit the pavement.
@FiroIV Archmage and I are in the PP right now doing the collab. Hop in whenever (or if) you feel so inclined.
@Archmage MC Yeah.
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