What was this story of the "god-like man?"
March 7, 2013 11:49 AM Subscribe
What was this dimly-remembered short story about a superhero ignoring big world threats in favor of saving kids from escalators?
All of this is subject to being poorly recalled by my beer-picked brain, so take it with a grain of salt.
Years ago, as a younger comics reader, I saw a short story that meant to explore the issue with superhero comics - namely that a super-powered individual who just saves kids from speeding cars is obviously neglecting a million more serious issues.
I am pretty sure "god-like man" was used to describe the superhero (a fairly transparent reference to DC's Superman) and it details him ignoring despots, dictators, mass killings, starvation, etc, till finally swooping down and saving a child from an injury on an escalator, or some similarly trivial thing.
I've long thought it was written by Bill Willingham, who then would have been doing Elementals and is now known for Fables. But it could well have been Dave Sim, given the hostility to superbooks.
Proper identification would be great. The text, online, would be better. Or did I write this in my sleep and fail to transcribe it?
All of this is subject to being poorly recalled by my beer-picked brain, so take it with a grain of salt.
Years ago, as a younger comics reader, I saw a short story that meant to explore the issue with superhero comics - namely that a super-powered individual who just saves kids from speeding cars is obviously neglecting a million more serious issues.
I am pretty sure "god-like man" was used to describe the superhero (a fairly transparent reference to DC's Superman) and it details him ignoring despots, dictators, mass killings, starvation, etc, till finally swooping down and saving a child from an injury on an escalator, or some similarly trivial thing.
I've long thought it was written by Bill Willingham, who then would have been doing Elementals and is now known for Fables. But it could well have been Dave Sim, given the hostility to superbooks.
Proper identification would be great. The text, online, would be better. Or did I write this in my sleep and fail to transcribe it?
Response by poster: Hah! No, this was a pure text essay. It came about around the time the comics industry was going through this dark introspection, what with Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. I feel like it was someone's response to that sort of claim of increased "realism" and an assertion that any such thing inherently could not be realistic, but that might be the layer my mind dropped on top of it.
posted by phearlez at 12:47 PM on March 7, 2013
posted by phearlez at 12:47 PM on March 7, 2013
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posted by griphus at 11:51 AM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]