Superman Is Too Overpowered

[moossabi]

The comic books of course.

That's a range of several decades (will be a century 18 years from now) worth of content from a wide range of authors over a wide range of social climates - any chance of narrowing that down?

[Saintheart]

It would be rather amusing to make a story where the first book has a fairly normal plot but ends with the protagonist dying. All further books in the series take place in the afterlife and the protag never gets resurrected or has any contact with her/his friends again. Like a portal fantasy but with the afterlife, they just have to move on and deal with a new setting.

For interest, the book series Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg is actually analogous to that. Starts out as what you might call a proto-isekai series, where a D&D-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off gaming group gets teleported into the setting, which is a lot more real, gritty, and deadly than they'd originally thought. The first book is about getting home ... and then getting back to the setting, for reasons I won't get into. And the conclusion of that first book basically then slams the door on them ever getting home again, they have to adapt to the world they're in.

[Rockphed]

Now, I'm a bit constrained by my own preferences, I'm sure people with a wider taste (re: any taste or culture at all) than the murderous evil magical space Lich can do orders of magntiude better than I.

Do any Jane Austen stories count? Persuasion has the idiot sister who bashes her brains out, Pride and Prejudice has Jane almost die of a cold she gets walking in the rain, Sense and Sensibility has Maryanne decide to become a romance heroine and perish in sight of her one true love, Mansfield Park has the brother who gets sick. I don't think Emma is ever in any danger, but my wife doesn't like the movie and I have never read the book all the way through so I am sketchy on the details.

It would be rather amusing to make a story where the first book has a fairly normal plot but ends with the protagonist dying. All further books in the series take place in the afterlife and the protag never gets resurrected or has any contact with her/his friends again. Like a portal fantasy but with the afterlife, they just have to move on and deal with a new setting.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven has this as the premise, though it does spend most of the book going through flashbacks to the protagonists life.

[Peelee]

Honestly death can get downright farcical in some stories, the myriad of random nonsense deaths in the later seasons of Game of Thrones had me laughing regularly at how stupid they got. Limiting conflict to just "they need to have a fight scene where someone dies" is a hugely reductive way of looking at storytelling. Narratively speaking, death for the sake of death alone is worthless.

What branch of media are you basing this entire premise on (i.e. what Superman media have you read/watched)? This sort of position on Superman usually stems from only knowing vague surface-level details of his power roster and absolutely nothing about the deeper character writing (I was there myself before actually engaging with his content).

The comic books of course.

Well in that case Superman is vastly underpowered. Why, there was even a time when he had to constantly eat hamburgers as fast as he could, or he would starve to death! How could you expect Superman, who provides all his services for free, to pay for such a vast amount of hamburgers? Clark Kent has a bank account, but he's a meek reporter and isn't making enough of a fortune to fund his enormous hamburger needs. What is he supposed to do, punch his stomach into submission? That will just make him vomit and need more hamburgers! Use heat vision on the hamburgers? They're already cooked! What is a poor Superman to do?!

[dancrilis]

Well in that case Superman is vastly underpowered. Why, there was even a time when he had to constantly eat hamburgers as fast as he could, or he would starve to death! How could you expect Superman, who provides all his services for free, to pay for such a vast amount of hamburgers? Clark Kent has a bank account, but he's a meek reporter and isn't making enough of a fortune to fund his enormous hamburger needs. What is he supposed to do, punch his stomach into submission? That will just make him vomit and need more hamburgers! Use heat vision on the hamburgers? They're already cooked! What is a poor Superman to do?!

He also has a major disadvantage.


... I am not talking about kryptonite.

[Aotrs Commander]

Do any Jane Austen stories count? Persuasion has the idiot sister who bashes her brains out, Pride and Prejudice has Jane almost die of a cold she gets walking in the rain, Sense and Sensibility has Maryanne decide to become a romance heroine and perish in sight of her one true love, Mansfield Park has the brother who gets sick. I don't think Emma is ever in any danger, but my wife doesn't like the movie and I have never read the book all the way through so I am sketchy on the details.

I mean, probably? Like I say "anyone with actual tatse or culture" would know better than me...!

[Tvtyrant]

Do any Jane Austen stories count? Persuasion has the idiot sister who bashes her brains out, Pride and Prejudice has Jane almost die of a cold she gets walking in the rain, Sense and Sensibility has Maryanne decide to become a romance heroine and perish in sight of her one true love, Mansfield Park has the brother who gets sick. I don't think Emma is ever in any danger, but my wife doesn't like the movie and I have never read the book all the way through so I am sketchy on the details.



The Five People You Meet in Heaven has this as the premise, though it does spend most of the book going through flashbacks to the protagonists life.

That was a good book. I actually cried when I read that one!

[Brother Oni]

Children learn. I've been assuming unkind things.

Given his absolute reliance on Grammarly and the fact that he's mentioned he has a mental disability (I believe he's moderately autistic), you're probably being a bit unkind.

[Bartmanhomer]

That's a range of several decades (will be a century 18 years from now) worth of content from a wide range of authors over a wide range of social climates - any chance of narrowing that down?

No. I don't think so.

[Tvtyrant]

No. I don't think so.

Thankfully then, Superman died when exposed to the sun and is now a time traveling deity who doesn't directly influence the situation on Earth. He is no longer overpowered.

[Morgaln]

Leaving aside even the chasm-wide differentiation between "peril" and "actual potential for character death" as children's shows use the former but not the latter, I wonder how many examples of good stories where there was no strictly no credible threat of death¹ if we could be bothered?

That is very much genre-dependent; for example romantic comedies almost never deal with peril, much less actual potential for character death. So for people who like that kind of story, the answer would be "many." Which is, as you pointed out yourself, the problem with this question. As soon as you ask for "good" stories of that kind, instead of just stories, you're asking for a subjective opinion.

[Willie the Duck]

Because it bring impact for the readers.

One of the most loved, hated, reviled, cherished, criticized and defended but most of all talked about DC comic narratives was a seven volume series where the entire JLA is reduced to a complete and utter mess of self doubt, moral uncertainty, personal devastation, and death -- all through the mechinations of one mentally ill spouse of one of the B-list heroes, using said heroes technology once and then everything else through manipulating C- and D-list villains.

[moossabi]

No. I don't think so.

Ah got it so you have no desire to rationalize any of your positions to better understand yourself and just want to post uninformed hot takes based on kindergarten qualifiers like "character needs to die." This thread makes sense now.

[GrayDeath]

Lol it's like some of you have never seen a Bartmanhomer thread before.

QFT.


I tried quite a few times to actually discuss/help.

I have given up now.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Closed for review.