Superman & Lois

[Stalker0]

I actually like Sam Lane, because while you may not agree with his view point its a very valid concern.

Superman is having to make the balance that all world leaders have to. There is ALWAYS something that Superman could be doing, so every moment spent with his family takes away from another act of heroism he could consider. The difference is that other humans can delegate, even world leaders have others to make decisions for them when they are not available. But the simple truth is....there is no replacement for Superman....there are things that simply put only he can do.

Now ultimately to live a healthy life, Superman has to balance things, not just for his families sake but for his own sanity. But I can respect that Superman withdrawing from his "day job" to focus on family would literally be a possible national security crisis, and that it would cause Sam Lane a huge amount of worry.

 

[Davies]

Or, as is vastly more likely, having always put his job ahead of any connection to his family, he resents the notion of anyone choosing otherwise, and is motivated entirely by petty jealousy.

 

[Morrus]

But the simple truth is....there is no replacement for Superman....there are things that simply put only he can do.

Well there's Supergirl and the Flash and whoever else is in the Arrowverse.

 

[Dire Bare]

I actually like Sam Lane, because while you may not agree with his view point its a very valid concern.

Superman is having to make the balance that all world leaders have to. There is ALWAYS something that Superman could be doing, so every moment spent with his family takes away from another act of heroism he could consider. The difference is that other humans can delegate, even world leaders have others to make decisions for them when they are not available. But the simple truth is....there is no replacement for Superman....there are things that simply put only he can do.

Now ultimately to live a healthy life, Superman has to balance things, not just for his families sake but for his own sanity. But I can respect that Superman withdrawing from his "day job" to focus on family would literally be a possible national security crisis, and that it would cause Sam Lane a huge amount of worry.

Only in a comic-book universe sense . . . in a more realistic world, even someone as powerful as Superman could take some downtime, as there wouldn't be supervillains and alien invasions several times per week.

And there is the unrealism of Superman himself, not just a super-powered being from another world, but one of godlike power. I've only been able to enjoy Superman stories that either tone his powers down a bit, or give him serious drawbacks to deal with. In the current show, besides Superman's struggle to find that work-life balance, he demonstrates to his son how overwhelming being able to hear just about everything going on across the planet all at once can be, and how he learned to deal with it. It was a pretty good explanation of how such a being can hear someone calling for help on the other side of the world, yet not be aware of every problem happening, not being overwhelmed, and needing those super-beepers he gives to family and friends.

 

[Stalker0]

Only in a comic-book universe sense . . . in a more realistic world, even someone as powerful as Superman could take some downtime, as there wouldn't be supervillains and alien invasions several times per week.

True, but the reality the show has presented us is that Superman is needed on an almost non-stop basis.

 

[fba827]

the stuff about Martha / memory of her tonight was sweet.

looks like the next new episode isn’t until mid May

 

[hopeless]

The impression I got is that he tends to react to situations by rushing to the scene, evaluating what's going on and helping out the best he can until he understands enough about the situation to do something about it.
Sort of a superpowered emergency response team except even the military calls him in!
I'm surprised that isn't more of a big deal since if we use Iron Man as an example there are efforts to find their own version so they aren't forced to call him in every time they get in a sticky situation!

 

[Dire Bare]

True, but the reality the show has presented us is that Superman is needed on an almost non-stop basis.

Well, yes. The entire enterprise is fictional . . .

But the idea presented in the show that Superman is failing the world when he takes a break to be with his family is a poorly constructed one, a false dilemma, IMO. Super hero stories work best when they mirror our world, but with the difference that this one guy has amazing powers . . . I find stories where the setting undergoes an escalation to quickly "jump the shark" so to speak . . .

Superman has amazing powers, that over the decades, become godlike (the writing, not in-universe) and every story arc needs a villain who can challenge Supes . . . and the cool villains never die (Zod, Metallo, etc) we just get more and more of them, and Superman also gets new super-friends . . . until the comic book world is seemingly populated with more costumed super-powered beings than regular people. These stories can be fun with comic-book tongue-in-cheek storytelling, or when exploring advanced humanity through a sci-fi lens . . . but it jars when juxtaposed with more realistic portrayals of the heroes like our man Clark struggling to be a good dad and husband without letting the latest ridiculous supervillain run around unchecked . . .

All, IMO, of course.

There's a reason why, when a new media adaptation of our favorite heroes gets going, it rarely puts us in a world mirroring the modern day comic book universe with absurdly high populations of powered individuals. We usually start off small . . . but overtime, a successful TV show universe (such as the Arrow-verse) starts approaching this problem the comics have had for decades . . . too many supers, too many super-villains, too many aliens, etc . . .

Superman debuted in the already too-crowded Arrow-verse, but has a very grounded story-telling style, much more so than the other shows in the franchise. It jars with the idea that Superman just can't get even a weekend every once in a while without the next only-Superman-can-save-us disaster . . .

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, yes. The entire enterprise is fictional . . .

But the idea presented in the show that Superman is failing the world when he takes a break to be with his family is a poorly constructed one, a false dilemma, IMO. Super hero stories work best when they mirror our world, but with the difference that this one guy has amazing powers . . . I find stories where the setting undergoes an escalation to quickly "jump the shark" so to speak . . .

Superman has amazing powers, that over the decades, become godlike (the writing, not in-universe) and every story arc needs a villain who can challenge Supes . . . and the cool villains never die (Zod, Metallo, etc) we just get more and more of them, and Superman also gets new super-friends . . . until the comic book world is seemingly populated with more costumed super-powered beings than regular people. These stories can be fun with comic-book tongue-in-cheek storytelling, or when exploring advanced humanity through a sci-fi lens . . . but it jars when juxtaposed with more realistic portrayals of the heroes like our man Clark struggling to be a good dad and husband without letting the latest ridiculous supervillain run around unchecked . . .

All, IMO, of course.

There's a reason why, when a new media adaptation of our favorite heroes gets going, it rarely puts us in a world mirroring the modern day comic book universe with absurdly high populations of powered individuals. We usually start off small . . . but overtime, a successful TV show universe (such as the Arrow-verse) starts approaching this problem the comics have had for decades . . . too many supers, too many super-villains, too many aliens, etc . . .

Superman debuted in the already too-crowded Arrow-verse, but has a very grounded story-telling style, much more so than the other shows in the franchise. It jars with the idea that Superman just can't get even a weekend every once in a while without the next only-Superman-can-save-us disaster . . .

Something I just remembered . . . .

During the run of Supergirl, Clark and Lois take several YEARS to live in Argo City with Kara's mom and the other Kryptonian refugees. Granted, that was before the reality reboot of Crisis, but how did Sam Lane handle THAT!