BATMAN! I've loved comics and cartoons since I was a kid. At night, I used to dress up in different costumes and stalk the night in my house when everyone was asleep. I always felt like a shadow or a ninja. Actually I am a ninja...
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BATMAN! I've loved comics and cartoons since I was a kid. At night, I used to dress up in different costumes and stalk the night in my house when everyone was asleep. I always felt like a shadow or a ninja. Actually I am a ninja...
I can't claim to hold much interest in comic book heroes. I haven't even seen any of the Batman OR Superman movies. But pressed to choose, I vote Batman over Superman anyday, because, as RH aptly oberves, he's not a boyscout. And the no superpowers thing. He's just a creepy guy who runs around in his underwear and mask. I'll bet he takes his cat to the grocery store, too. ;)
Super Man takes the floor for me. He can fly withOUT a grappling hook, he doesn't use any sissy toys (like the batter-ang), and, logistically speaking, Super Man can break Bat Man in half like a twig. And to top it all off, Super Man can melt things with his eyes! HIS EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banana:
Like the poet Walt Whitman, I am a multitude in one man.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
superman is better
Batman for sure!!! He actually had to work for his powers, unlike that bum superman. When it comes to true, inner strength, batman takes the cake!
Easily, I would say Superman. Can't believe it's even up for discussion... Superman dude. I am WonderWoman, so we're partners. We go together like banana and peanut butter.
Thanks,
Wonder Woman
I have to say that Batman is a very smart person who put superman's intelligence to shame. Superman is like a jock who is to cocky because only kryptonite can hurt him. I have to go with Batman because he is smart and not cocky about his :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :goof: :rage: :rage: :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5095436.stmQuote:
The first reviews for Superman Returns have given the new movie, which stars newcomer Brandon Routh as the legendary superhero, a resounding thumbs up. Variety magazine's critic said it was "grandly conceived, sensitively drawn [and] never self-consciously hip".
"It is sincere, with an artistic elegance and a genuine emotional investment in the material," he wrote.
The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, saluted "a heartfelt Superman movie that plays to a broad audience".
Routh, it continued, plays the comic book character "with honesty [and] winning fortitude".
And Newsweek's David Ansen wrote: "From the start of this gorgeously crafted epic, you can feel that Singer has real love and respect for the most foursquare comics superhero of them all.
"Newcomer Routh may or may not be a real actor, but he effortlessly lays claim to the iconic role."
His comments were echoed by Harry Knowles on the Ain't It Cool News website, who described Superman Returns as "the film I was hoping and dreaming for".
"Just as Batman Begins relaunched an ailing Batman, it sends Superman into the stratosphere," he wrote.
The film - which stars Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane - is released in the US on 28 June and in the UK on 14 July.
It is the Man of Steel's first big-screen appearance since 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace starring the late Christopher Reeve.
Singer's previous films have included The Usual Suspects and the first two instalments in the X-Men franchise.
You can also watch the trailer at the above link.
Hmm...in the search for the perfect guy, I could totally turn this choice into a philosophical battle. Superman or Batman? Superman is always a round about awesome good guy. But I think I have to go with Batman. While both obviously fight for good...I like Batman's way of fighting for good more.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5061032.stmQuote:
The release of Superman Returns marks a new chapter in the legendary superhero's remarkable career. But what is the secret behind his lasting popularity?
Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Oh, and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superman, the world's most durable superhero.
After almost 70 years of fighting for truth, justice and the American way, the Man of Steel makes his big screen comeback this summer.
In a way, of course, he has never been away, his enduring appeal evident in the wealth of comic books, TV series, films and cartoons in which he has appeared.
You would have to live in a Fortress of Solitude not to know of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's creation, who made his debut in the first edition of Action Comics in 1938.
And though one would need Lex Luthor's brain to keep track of his history, that iconic letter S remains as instantly identifiable as ever.
'Appealing fantasy'
Anita O'Brien, curator of the Cartoon Museum in London, attributes Superman's success in the US to his status as an outsider.
"The fact he comes from another planet chimes very well with the American way and its experience of being a country of immigrants," she told the BBC News website.
But US comics critic Danny Fingeroth sees a resonance that reaches beyond America.
"The thing that's most appealing about superheroes is the idea of someone who has great power and knows how to use it wisely.
"If you think of the time Superman emerged from, with the rise of Fascism in Europe and a world still in the throes of the Great Depression, you can see it would be an appealing fantasy."
While other staples like Batman and the X-Men are often presented as flawed or damaged, Superman offers a more idealised vision of the superhero model.
"It's different with Superman," says Ms O'Brien. "He has that possibility of being an Everyman, raised to a higher level."
'Everyone's property'
Some have made connections with the notion of the 'Ubermensch' or 'Overman', explored by German writer Friedrich Nietzsche in his philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
But the fact his creators were Jewish and that his birth name, Kal-El, resembles the Hebrew words for "voice of God", has led others to see a religious dimension.
The infant Superman's expulsion from Krypton moments before its destruction is often compared to the Moses story.
The 1977 film has clear parallels to Christian beliefs, with Jor-El (played by Marlon Brando) sending "his only son... to show the way" to mankind.
Mr Fingeroth, author of the upcoming Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero, admits the Superman myth has "echoes of religious lore".
"Yet it's the fact it is not directly associated with any one religion or belief system that makes it so universal," he says.
"Once something is sent into the world, it then becomes everyone's property.
"That's the beauty of Superman: everyone can take solace and inspiration from the character."
Both Mr Fingeroth and Ms O'Brien highlight the duality between Superman and his "mild-mannered" alter-ego Clark Kent.
"People like the idea of someone who seems ordinary and is ignored, being able to transform themselves," says Ms O'Brien.
"It's the idea of 'If they only knew the real me'," adds Mr Fingeroth.
"If only we were not hampered by the part of us who has to be Clark Kent, people would know and respect and admire us."
The Man of Steel, but one has to feel sorry for Jimmy Olsen...
Well, I dont think I can handle this
A cloudy day in metropolis
I think I'll talk to my analyst
I got it so bad for this little journalist
It drives me up the wall and through the roof
Lois and Clark in a telephone booth
I think Im going out of my brain
I got it so bad for little miss Lois Lane
Lois Lane please put me in your plan
Yeah, Lois Lane you dont need no super man
Come on downtown and stay with me tonight
I got a pocket full of kryptonite
Hes leaping buildings in a single bound
Im reading Shakespeare at my place downtown
Come on downtown and make love to me
Im Jimmy Olsen not a titan, you see
Hes faster than a bullet, stronger than a train
Hes the one who got lucky got his cape around miss Lois Lane
I cant believe my dilemma is real
Im competing with the Man of Steel
_ Spin Doctors
Superman is the Michael Jordan of superheros batman is charles barkley.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5223302.stmQuote:
Warning: This story contains plot spoilers
Is the Superman Returns movie meant to remind us of the Bible? And if so, is it blasphemy?
Well here's the story.
An all-powerful father sends his son to Earth to save mankind by showing them the "light". The son is able to perform miracles. He "dies" and is born again.
Sound familiar? It might do, it's the plot of the new movie Superman Returns. And in the blogs and internet forums there has been a maelstrom of debate on the parallels between Superman and Jesus Christ.
Superman has a long history of Judaeo-Christian symbols, but this time the film's makers have taken it to a new level.
CHRISTIAN ECHOES?
Stabbed in side with Kryptonite - like Jesus stabbed with spear
Empty hospital room - empty tomb of Jesus
Falls to Earth, arms outstretched - Crucifixion-like
Cradled in mother's arms - like Michelangelo's Pieta
Superman says world needs saviour
Superman's five years in space echoes the Ascension
Shown with weight of world/sin on shoulders
• At one point Superman falls towards the Earth in a pose that vaguely echoes the Crucifixion.
• He is stabbed in his side with Kryptonite in an echo of the stabbing of Jesus by a Roman soldier.
• A female nurse rushes into the hospital room to find it empty just as Jesus tomb was found to be empty by female followers.
And there are Christians in the US who believe that the symbolism is now sufficiently obvious that the film can be incorporated into religious teaching.
Stephen Skelton is the author of the Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero and has prepared guidance for pastors wanting to use Superman Returns in their sermons.
Sex and violence
"You would have to be blind to miss what they are doing in terms of the Christ imagery," says Mr Skelton, a Christian with a background in showbusiness, "there is a big foot in the door."
American churches have not generally been well-disposed towards Hollywood, with its laissez-faire attitude towards sex and violence. But the West Coast Babylon has recently offered two films which have been manna to churches, The Passion of the Christ, and the Chronicles of Narnia.
Some more traditional churchgoers may be under-whelmed by the use of movies to sell the Gospels, but Mr Skelton is unrepentant.
"That is a modern idea that we are somehow dumbing down the Gospels. This has a huge biblical precedent. In Acts 17:28 Paul quotes from a hymn to Zeus. He is using a pagan deity... the least we can do is take a second glance at Superman.
As well as the imagery, there is plenty in the dialogue. Superman refers to himself as a saviour, while baddie Lex Luthor talks about the man with his pants on the outside as a God.
Average cinemagoer
The film borrows Superman's father's speech from the first movie and gives it a prominent place, with Marlon Brando intoning: "They [mankind] only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son."
But as far as the imagery goes, what is "blatant" for those with a background in Christianity, comics, art or criticism, may be a little more opaque for the average cinemagoer.
Mr Skelton says director Bryan Singer told him the scene where Superman's adoptive mother cradles him in her arms at the start of the film is a deliberate echo of images from the Renaissance of the Virgin Mary and the dying Christ such as Michelangelo's Pieta.
But it is easy to find oneself wondering whether there isn't a note of blasphemy in the film. If Superman is so clearly meant to be Jesus, why is he making goo-goo eyes at Lois Lane, who has found a long-term partner in the hero's five-year absence from the planet.
"One or two voices have said something - how can we see Superman as a Christ figure when he is fooling around with Lois Lane when she is committed to another person. That simply comes from pushing the parallel too far," Mr Skelton explains.
And Mervyn Roberts, a broadcaster and Anglican vicar, says although he has not seen the movie it is unlikely to be blasphemous or be difficult for a Church that has largely shrugged off the Da Vinci Code.
"The truth of the Gospel will come through. Superman is very much a kind of iconic image of the saviour figure that is seen throughout history.
"So the Superman movie, unless it specifically makes references to Jesus Christ in a negative sense, a direct insult to the person of Christ, identified an insult against God, it is just putting through that image."
'Gritty' gospels
But there are going to be plenty of Christians who do not find their hearts warmed by the use of religious imagery in a blockbuster. Superman hardly comes to Earth with an amazing message, and Jesus's purpose was not preventing man-made earthquakes.
Giles Fraser, parish vicar at Putney in London, says it was one thing to use the film to draw children into the Church by glossing over the "incredibly gritty" nature of the Gospels, but quite another to do it with adults.
"Using it as evangelism for adults is completely ridiculous. It is making Christianity into this rather wholesome nicely, nicely affirmation of American values, the morphing of Jesus into the American hero."
JEWISH LINKS
Both creators were Jewish
Superman and father's name sound Hebrew
Parable of Moses evoked
Condemned by Nazis
Story of immigration/assimilation
The black and white image of good and evil was not compatible with orthodox Christianity, Mr Fraser says.
And for all the Christian symbolism, it might be the case that there is no one religion that lay claim to the Man of Steel. Rabbi Simcha Weinstein has written a work, Up, Up and Oy Vey about the massive Jewish influence on the comic book industry particularly in its early years.
Many have noted that as well as being created by two Jewish authors, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman and his father's Kryptonian names both end in the Hebrew name for God, Kal-El and Jor-El, and that Superman's departure from Krypton can be taken as an echo of the story of Moses' childhood.
The Nazis went out of their way to condemn Superman, with Goebbels writing a polemic in April 1940 in Das Schwarze Korps, an SS newspaper.
Viewer's discretion
And even the Buddhists are getting in on the act. An article on the Buddhist Channel compares Superman to a Bodhisattva, "a great being who aspires to unconditionally help all beings be free from any suffering".
Danny Fingeroth, author of Clark Kent in Disguise: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero, says there is a certain inevitability to the reading of religious references into superheroes.
BUDDHIST PARALLELS
Meditates above Earth
Draws on Guanyin Bodhisattva
Has gone on soul-search
Distracted by worldly love
"While they have loaded the Superman movie with Christian imagery and dialogue it is still at the discretion of the viewer to see it that way.
"There is religious imagery because of the very nature of the superhero mythology - somebody with great powers who uses them to do the right thing.
"One of the appealing things is that while they may remind us of certain religious figures or ideas the fact that they are not of any one religion is what has allowed them to be embraced around the world.
"And if you like Superman rather than Batman it is unlikely you will get into an argument with someone and end up dead."
I hate stuff like that, why do we feel the need to read religion in absolutely everything? He's just a superhero, created from someone's imagination. Not everything needs to have religious significance, sometimes it's just for fun and entertainment. And as far as the comment Singer made about re-creating Michelangelo's Pieta, I think of that as just an artistic choice, that picture resonates with a lot of people, it's a famous piece of art and it will make people take notice but I don't think he's actually trying to make Superman into Christ.