It’s been more than two years and a hundred thinkpieces since the release of Man of Steel, and the debates over its merit as a Superman story are still being fought. Now comic book writer Mark Millar, in a GamesRadar editorial, has thrown his thoughts on the Zack Snyder film into the Internet vortex. Millar is no stranger to the famous red and blue-suited superhero, having written the acclaimed graphic novel Superman: Red Son in 2003, but he feels that Snyder’s film took the character a step too far in the wrong direction.
His primary concern is with the ending where Superman defeats General Zod by breaking his neck:
“Now I got the logic of that scene and it absolutely made sense within the context of the movie as the villain had taken down half of Metropolis and killed hundreds of thousands of people. But even so. This was Superman. This was like seeing Sylvester the Cat finally getting his hands on Speedy Gonzales. Elmer Fudd blowing away Bugs Bunny. I loved Superman as a kid not because of his edginess or his potential for a fatal solution, but because he could do anything he wanted and still chose to be nice. This was always the moral of a superhero comic to me.”
This is not untrue, although many comics writers, Millar included, have been tweaking and reshaping the ideologies and tones of superheroes and comics in general for decades. And if, in Millar’s words, it “absolutely made sense within the context of the movie,” then what’s the objection? If a filmmaker’s decision fits into the intent of their work, then they’ve done their job right, even if the writer who once had Captain America violently stab an enemy with his shield doesn’t agree with that.
Source: GamesRadar
