superman

I do not know why but I have been reading a lot of Super Man comics from the Library. I am guessing it involves some combination of nostalgia and the appeal of simplicity. Simplicity in terms of right and wrong, good and bad. I none the less have been enjoying catching up on my Super Man comic reading.

As a long time reader of comics and Superman specifically, I have noticed a new thing. The Superman of old (pre 1986) was so very super and the near godlike superman. He could do the impossible. Then the re-vamped him in the eighties, powered him down and made him more man than super. He couldn't travel through time or need no air, he couldn't do the impossible. He was vulnerable to more than kryptonite. This went on for a while.

Now it seems (there was a hiatus in my super man comic reading) they have fused the two ideas together. There seems to be a recapturing of the super mystique but still make the man part of the stories. There is the grand excitement of old as Superman battles Monsters, Villains and alien armadas. The newer stories seem to allow him doing the impossible stuff without it being so contrary to an interesting story. So maybe I am saying the writings better but it seems still a different thing. The zeitgeist of the 80's revamping was to do exactly that, rewrite the history not just improve the writing.

To restate: I am unabashedly reading superman comics. There seems to my long reading eye a fusion of the idea of Superman that was from my and previous generations and the one remade to be more reasonable, more "realistic" in bent. I am enjoying the return to an older flavor but without the dryness bred over decades of .........I don't want to say limited imagination, because it wasn't but it was weird, and hobbled some how.

I understand the the whys and significance of when the stories where written but they tended to repeatedly and over time to paint themselves into a corner. How many stories can you write about avoiding exposure of your secret identity. Who is your challenger when you are impossible in everything.

I'd need to think this through more to keep going.
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