Lois and Superman

[Corax]

I think that this is one of the few pieces of modern media that gets the character right.

Whatever else he is, Superman is earnest. Whatever else he represents, he represents hope and virtue.

The character seems square and boring to us, because we're supremely jaded.

[Yoda]

Yeah, there are really only two versions of the character I care to see:

1) Dorky do-gooder. Potential for fish-out-of-water comedy.

2) Emotionally distant quasi-deity. Potential for modern mythmaking and Watchmen-like moral considerations.

Anything inbetween comes off as cosplay, at least to me.

[Corax]

Yeah, there are really only two versions of the character I care to see:

1) Dorky do-gooder. Potential for fish-out-of-water comedy.

That's the way I thought of this version too and for the longest time, but I think I just didn't get it. And I think that I didn't get it, because I am jaded.

There's scene in Mad Men where Peggy and Don watch a clip of Ann Margaret sing "Bye Bye Birdie." Peggy has grown up a lot since joining the agency and finds Margaret's performance to be transparently cloying. "Isn't her voice annoying?" is her main comment. Don rejoins that Ann throws herself at the camera, "pure, makes your heart heart." In short, she's earnestly in the moment and that's why she's enticing. Peg can only see enticement as artifice.

I think I've been like Peg most of my life. Anything like the Lone Ranger must be playing it for comedy, right? Who believes that stuff? The time of the straight-up hero in a white hat seems to be a thing of the past. Give us a flawed hero, an anti-hero, a hero questing for redemption, a dark knight, etc. A doo-gooder seems to be a bit of a fool. Superman's innocent naivety seems a graver threat to him than Kryptonite.

All Star Superman puts things into perspective in a final showdown with Lex Luthor. Lex takes on Superman's powers, but when does, he finally see the world the way Superman does (with super perception and consciousness). When he does this, he finally realizes that he was wrong.

Overwhelmed by his new perception, and understanding the connectedness of all living things, Lex says, "This is how he sees all the time. Every day. Like it’s all just us, in here, together. And we’re all we’ve got," as his new powers begin to fade. Now human once more, Lex rushes Superman, blaming the Kryptonian for taking away the insight that would have allowed him to save the world. Clark responds with a hard right cross and the line, "You could have saved the world years ago if it mattered to you, Luthor."

https://screenrant.com/allstar-superman-lex-luthor-biggest-victory-greatest-moment/

The doo-gooder is, in part, ripe for comedy, but that's not the heart of the character. The heart of this character is virtue. Modern audience reject virtue out of a sort of inverted piety (How dare anyone think they could be so good?) and I think that leads us to roll our eyes at vanilla Superman, the doo-gooder.

In a sense, Clark and Superman are both a critique of humanity (riffing on the Kill Bill moment here, where Tarantino, through the character of Bill, offers his take) in the sense that they represent our lost sense of virtue, nobility, and hope. It just doesn't ring true to us.

Make him a joke or make him a god, but don't ask us to believe in heroes.

Watching this show has made a believer in this character and that's saying something. I feel a bit like old Lex.