Friday, August 13, 2010

The Existentialism of Superman

Felicity Rose
After I buried my mom, I had stood there after everybody had left, and I thought...is this it? I mean, is this all that there is? Working in a cubicle six days a week until I'm too old to do it anymore, then I die? Is that it? Is that what we're here for? What's the point?
When we all graduated from high schol, I thought -- we all thought -- we're gonna go off and do great things. If somebody said, "Hey, you're gonna pump gas the rest of your life," or "Better get used to cleaning up after other people because that's gonna be your whole life," we'd've laughed at them."
It's not fair! None of it's fair! And don't you dare tell me it is!
Superman
I won't because you're right. It's not fair. John Lennon is dead and Moammar Kadaffi is still alive. J.F.K. is dead and Castro is alive. Gandhi is dead but Manson keeps hanging in there. It's not fair. But it's not unfair either. It's just...is.
Felicity Rose
 That's it. That's the best you can do. "It's neither fair nor unfair, it just is."
Superman
Because that's the truth. 
You're right when you say we all come out of high school thinking we're going to save the world. And sometimes we do. And sometimes-- -- sometimes we don't. So you don't think about saving the world. You think about saving just one person. Because sometimes, that's enough.
All I know is that we have to try. That's what life is. We push back against the darkness, just a little.
J. Micheal Straczynski
Action Comics # 701



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Superman literally walks across America on a journey to reconnect with ordinary people.  In Philadelphia, he encounters Felicity, a young woman who's contemplating suicide.  Superman listens to her angst, even as she extracts a promise from him not to interfere with her ultimate decision.

I teared up while reading the dialogue. Whoever said that comics can never be personally relevant is bullshit ;)

28 comments:

  1. haven't seen you in a while (sorry)

    this one's amazing. thanks for sharing. :)

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  2. I agree. We can get lessons from almost everywhere. Comics are after all reflections of the writers themselves.

    I haven't read any DC comics though. I just find superman the most beaten up superhero despite his so called powers.

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  3. I never would've imagined such an unguarded, sincere and heartfelt moment from the Man of Steel. A moment that is so human. Vulnerable and honest. Based on the artwork, it's probably one of the more contemporary releases. Delighted to see they've made it more relevant and accessible. :)

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  4. Alter: hey, wel-cum back! :D

    JT: ah, a loyal marvel fan, is see.

    i do both.

    not in THAT sense, you silly boy :P

    Red: that was last month's issue, so yeah, it's pretty current.

    some fans are turned off by the emo stuff that strancynski is dumping in the pages of action comics.

    to each his own, i guess ;)

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  5. I love comics. Marvel's Civil War series had some of the best (and literary) scenes I've encountered in my life. I think they are very much underappreciated.

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  6. Fickle: apir! itayo ang bandera ng mga comic geekzoids! wahahahahhaha

    shame on me though, i skipped on the civil war storyline, save for the ones affecting the x-men :P

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  7. I don't know much about comics, but I don't think anyone should say that they can't be relevant. They're art after all. :D

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  8. hmm..uuumm ..errr...marvel? sa cne ko lng pinapanood, lahat ahaha...

    komiks? eheh seijin manga lang ang alam ko bwahha :P

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  9. Manech: true dat! :D

    Soltero: hmmm baka hentai kamo.

    weeeeee

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  10. All I know is that we have to try. That's what life is. We push back against the darkness, just a little.

    True.dis liit.

    BTW, in fairness parang top kaya si Caridad!

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  11. This is rare ha.


    Yun lang.


    *Nosebleed*

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  12. That's what life is. We push back against the darkness, just a little.

    Ohhh, I will be keeping this in mind. Hehehe.

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  13. @I teared up while reading the dialogue. Whomever said that comics can never be personally relevant is bullshit ;) << I agree! I used to feel the same way when I collected/read the Uncanny Xmen. These Marvel Comics aren't just inkblots and watercolors splashed on paper. They have very good story lines written by some of the best writers.

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  14. SUPERMAN + EXISTENTIALISM = Nietzsche

    Wah! Pasensiya, I can't help it... Sabi nga ni pareng Nietzsche:

    "You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.... The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth.... Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss … what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end."

    Superman is an ideal - we can never be him since we merely bridge the gap between beast and him. We are means for the Ideal and I'd like to think that being such, we contribute on the "pushing back" of darkness. Heck! If it were not for the distressed - who would Superman be? Pasensya ulit, overreading... Hehehe

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  15. this is nice. it kinda reminded me of the conversation between Dream and choronzon in the Sandman series.

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  16. Iurico: di mo na kailangan i=push an darkness away.

    dahil parang si caridad, e may sarili kang ningning.

    echooooozzzz! lolz

    Caridad: kasing rare ng kagandahan mo ;)

    Mugen: pushing away the darkness is always a wise choice :D

    Sam: tumpak!

    Kaloy: not supisingly, übermensch is exactly what superman stands for in the dc universe - to do what is good, right, and just.

    Narnian: now, we're talking! gaiman raised the comic book genre into the realms of literature with his writing in sandman ;)

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  17. nice lines. too bad i don't read superman. did you read JMS' Thor?

    That was also great. Shakespearean.

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  18. Engel: i did! some people found the pace too plodding, but jms' scripting was superb :D

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  19. Very wise! I wouldn't have expected it to come from a comic book.

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  20. I haven't touched a comic book in ages
    Hay
    Ang dami ko na nami-miss tuloy
    Hehe

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  21. I totally agree!

    when do you draw the line between comic books and graphic novels?

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  22. Raft3r: a little secret - you don't have to buy.

    just download :P

    Narnian: good question - technically, any compiled story arc is a graphic novel.

    but what really matters is how it strikes a resonance within you, or that it actually makes you think.

    that, for me, defines a good read ;)

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  23. I tried to look through my archive and look for something similar only to realize that contemporary X-Men titles have lost the "human" touch present in the dialogue between Superman and Felicity Rose.

    The last time I read something this touching was when Nightcrawler died, and there wasn't even much of a dialogue.

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  24. touching. i'll let superman say such lines, not batman. never. =)

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  25. awesome. i will always remember the lines :D

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  26. Cathy: you'd be surprised with nuggets of wisdom you'll find in comics ;)

    Mark: imo, contemporary marvel seems to be more plot-driven rather than character-driven. a reflection of the times, perhaps?

    Paci: can i touch you??? wahahahahaha

    ps. batman is a GROUCH :p

    Yas: nice the dialoue, right? :D

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  27. I never did understand the whole comics thing. I used to read a few when I was a kid but I didn't really get to the big boy ones. Ones with dialogue like this.

    "You're right when you say we all come out of high school thinking we're going to save the world. And sometimes we do. And sometimes-- -- sometimes we don't. So you don't think about saving the world. You think about saving just one person. Because sometimes, that's enough. "

    This is really, really good. I guess it stems from the man in us, always needing to rescue something out of somewhere. When truth is, half the time, we need saving too.

    idk

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  28. City: ironically, the hardest part to fix is ourselves, is it not? ;)

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