The day the super-villains won
I.
This is not a post about comics per se but it begins with the 2003’s release of the Superman: Birthright 12-issue miniseries by DC Comics in which a new, revised origin story was imparted on the character.
As it turns out the publisher decided it was time to give a different, more modern approach to the character and get him onto that Smallville (TV series) bandwagon. The result was not pretty; it was actually a mish-mash of good ideas thrown in with very poor execution.
Anyway, the story (also) expanded upon the frequency range covered by Superman’s vision; as it goes Superman can now see beyond radar and radio waves and whatnots; he can actually glimpse this quasi-Kirlian halo glowing around each and every living being. It is suggested that Superman can, hence, see our souls (and because of that he’s made a vegetarian, but I digress).
I think I might have a similar super-power, only in reverse: I think I might be able to automatically look for the worst in everyone. This is a claim corroborated by as early as my mother (going for more than a decade now) and as late as old College classmates, my ex-girlfriend and room-mates as well.
(Work-mates obviously don’t count for not being the same as real friends, but they probably have the same opinion anyway.)
II.
Up until now I was kind of torn between love and duty, see? Yeah yeah yeah I know, such a cliché, but all those books and movies and etc would eventually end up piling up on my psyche like that. What can you do.
I sincerely hoped that, being such a supposedly-bright, smart, rightful kid as I am, I would indeed find a way to beat the system, find a way to circumnavigate the mundane and the ordinary, and make good to the promise of a pristine tomorrow shining in silver with just the right person by my side (means you, by the way).
Life itself, however, marks the passing of the days on the calendar by how many of our dreams it shoots down and how many high-hopes lie crushed beneath the wheel of fortune:
Love has been quelled by Atavism, Friendship has been soiled by Pragmatism, Romance has been silenced by Routine and above all the wind beneath our wings has simply stopped blowing with no greater explanation or advance warning other than, Grow up and Get real.
Wanna know the truth? Real life f*cking sucks.
Each of us is alone in this and there is nobody left to save the world, so let’s not bother keeping our hopes up- because in the end the very last one of us will too be forced to sell out and give in to conformity.
III.
All that said- despite all the venting and the rambling above- this one ends with J.D. Salinger quoting from some Austrian shrink in The Catcher in the Rye:
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
Damn those super-villains for having taken over the world… Heh.
This is not a post about comics per se but it begins with the 2003’s release of the Superman: Birthright 12-issue miniseries by DC Comics in which a new, revised origin story was imparted on the character.
As it turns out the publisher decided it was time to give a different, more modern approach to the character and get him onto that Smallville (TV series) bandwagon. The result was not pretty; it was actually a mish-mash of good ideas thrown in with very poor execution.
Anyway, the story (also) expanded upon the frequency range covered by Superman’s vision; as it goes Superman can now see beyond radar and radio waves and whatnots; he can actually glimpse this quasi-Kirlian halo glowing around each and every living being. It is suggested that Superman can, hence, see our souls (and because of that he’s made a vegetarian, but I digress).
I think I might have a similar super-power, only in reverse: I think I might be able to automatically look for the worst in everyone. This is a claim corroborated by as early as my mother (going for more than a decade now) and as late as old College classmates, my ex-girlfriend and room-mates as well.
(Work-mates obviously don’t count for not being the same as real friends, but they probably have the same opinion anyway.)
II.
Up until now I was kind of torn between love and duty, see? Yeah yeah yeah I know, such a cliché, but all those books and movies and etc would eventually end up piling up on my psyche like that. What can you do.
I sincerely hoped that, being such a supposedly-bright, smart, rightful kid as I am, I would indeed find a way to beat the system, find a way to circumnavigate the mundane and the ordinary, and make good to the promise of a pristine tomorrow shining in silver with just the right person by my side (means you, by the way).
Life itself, however, marks the passing of the days on the calendar by how many of our dreams it shoots down and how many high-hopes lie crushed beneath the wheel of fortune:
Love has been quelled by Atavism, Friendship has been soiled by Pragmatism, Romance has been silenced by Routine and above all the wind beneath our wings has simply stopped blowing with no greater explanation or advance warning other than, Grow up and Get real.
Wanna know the truth? Real life f*cking sucks.
Each of us is alone in this and there is nobody left to save the world, so let’s not bother keeping our hopes up- because in the end the very last one of us will too be forced to sell out and give in to conformity.
III.
All that said- despite all the venting and the rambling above- this one ends with J.D. Salinger quoting from some Austrian shrink in The Catcher in the Rye:
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
Damn those super-villains for having taken over the world… Heh.
posted by 186282mps at 7:09 AM
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