Quote Originally Posted by Psyren View Post
I... honestly don't know how much I can safely say about First Blood and its surrounding context here, but while it was certainly a character study, it was also very much about specific events and themes that I don't know would translate to a Superman story very well. (Not that a superhero property couldn't incorporate them at all - while it didn't do nearly as good a job as First Blood did, the better parts of Falcon and the Winter Soldier did visit some of these themes.)
I'm not saying the specific themes of "soldier who fought in war has difficulties acclimating" (and, having actually seen Winter Soldier, I would argue that it handled that theme cartoonishly, but that's neither here nor there). I was more referring to the general theme of a highly competent person whose skills are not suited to the world they now occupy. It's not a perfectly straight 1:1 analogy, but just as Rambo was in charge of million dollar equipment over there and over here can't even get a job parking cars, so too is Superman capable of fighting off galactic threats but can't treat depression or fix world hunger. He can stop murders, but he lives in Metropolis - even though it's no Gotham, crime is still abundant enough in a city of 11 million people. He can't stop every mugging, every assault, every extortion. And hey, he can even stop a mugging, but he can't stop the underlying cause. He's one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and he dedicates himself to helping mankind, but there are some problems that he cannot solve as Superman. And that can be interesting. There could absolutely be a character study done about that, about how Clark Kent could help in ways that Superman can't (just as an example, not as a mandate that must be touched on). Hell, Joker grossed a billion dollars, and was nominated for gobloads of Oscars, so it's not even like an idea like this is completely out of left field. And Superman is way more interesting than the Joker as a base character to build on.

Seriously. If SMBC can come up with interesting moral and logistical issues for Superman (albeit veering sharply into the absurd with its outcomes, because it's a humor-based format), then Hollywood with all its resources sure as hell can.