I have quite a fragmented perspective on the Man of Steel. I grew up reading his comics, watching his shows and seeing his movies. Superman is as much a part of my childhood, as Voltron, GI Joe and Phil Donahue. With that said however, I can honestly say that my respect for the character, is limited. On one hand, I adore his noble quality and awesome power. On the other hand however, I abhor the fact that most of his battles could truly be won by brute force, with absolute ease. Very rare is the circumstance in which the hero has that kind of power. The villain almost always has the fierce power, while the underwhelming power of the super hero, must be put to the test in order to defeat the enemy.
So where does Superman find his appeal? I think it lies in the characters dislikable qualities. It is sort of like when Green Goblin said to Spidey, in the first movie. "What people love more, than to see a hero succeed, is to see them fail...fall." Every time I see Superman take on Darkseid, I get this childish grin on my face, becase I know the battle will be epic and for good reason. When Superman does battle with an enemy, it is almost always a true battle of good versus evil. I'm not downing on some of the more petty rogues of other heroes, but Supes does deal with some truly malicious and malevolant beings like Imperiex and Darkseid. Those are the moments in which you apprecaite Superman's deity like power...and when you can respect him for what he does. At the end of the day, he does have some fun adventures.
