Weekly Geekly Rundown for December 20, 2024
Why Does Superman Have a Secret Identity? My Thoughts on the Superman Teaser Trailer.
“Krypto. Home. Take me home.”
Other than one child quietly calling out Superman’s name, those are the only words spoken in the Superman teaser trailer. It’s a line that has made me weep no fewer than four times. I’ve watched the trailer more than six times now and I’m not sure if I’ve cried every time at that moment or just a little over half the times.
The reasons for my misty eyes are many. James Gunn’s Krypto, based on his own dog, looks a lot like my wife’s and my current dog (Snowball) who herself looks a lot like my wife’s dog Oreo. Jody and I took Oreo into our household the year before we got married and Oreo made it almost instantly apparent that I was “her man.” I was overwhelmed by her capacity to love and when she died a few years later (at the age of 20), I was heartbroken. I remember the moment well because she woke me and Jody up early that morning. She licked my hand and pawed at me. I woke up, petted her and then she died. I heard and felt her last breath. There was no whimper, just “I love you, goodbye.”
I had to leave for a business trip later that day, so it was a very hard flight and even though that business trip was followed by my first trip to GenCon I was a wreck most of the time. Jody was even more heartbroken. I had only lived with Oreo for a few years, but Oreo had been Jody’s dog for almost 20 and as much as I was “her man,” Jody was the head of the pack. This is as things should be because Jody and Oreo both share their love of others with the same joy and total commitment. I am a lucky man to have known Oreo, but even luckier to have met and married Jody. She is the love of my life and Oreo was a part of the total package.
So what does all of that have to do with Superman and my feelings about the trailer? Everything. Superman is my favorite superhero and not just because of how well Christopher Reeve portrayed him in the first two films and certainly not because of any power fantasies. He is my favorite superhero because he is in many ways the most human and most complex hero in comics. That complexity is demonstrated by the answer to one simple question.
Why does Superman have a secret identity?
If you answered “to protect other people,” you got it exactly wrong. Superman, given his power set, could be Superman all the time. He could be constantly saving people and has no physical need for the benefits of society. While it is possible to argue that keeping his powers secret as a kid protected Ma and Pa Kent, that doesn’t apply to Lois Lane or Jimmy Olson. He CHOSE to add them to his life and in so choosing put them at risk. His choice to be a reporter and work among people PUTS PEOPLE IN HARM’S WAY. His secret identity doesn’t protect people, it provides him with his greatest weakness. Villains can use those he loves against him.
So why does he have a secret identity?
The answer is over 2,500 years old and was provided by Aristotle.
But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state. A social instinct is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first founded the state was the greatest of benefactors. For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with arms, meant to be used by intelligence and virtue, which he may use for the worst ends. Wherefore, if he have not virtue, he is the most unholy and the most savage of animals, and the most full of lust and gluttony. — Aristotle, Politics, Book I, Part II. (Jowett Translation)
Superman needs to be Clark Kent because he needs to be a part of the community. In order to love, in order to be fully human, he needs “the city.” He is the “Last Son of Krypton.” At its heart, Superman’s story is a sad one. He is the last survivor of a dead planet. When he finds other survivors, they come of two varieties. They are either villains who have chosen the “beast” aspect of the solution and so Superman has to kill them, and yes Superman kills Zod in both comics and in film, or they are his one cousin and that cousin dies in Crisis. There’s a reason why Kara’s death is so affecting to Superman, it means the death of his born home. All that remains is his chosen home and he has chosen Earth as his home. It is where he will make friends and fall in love, which will enable him to become “the best of animals” because he will be one with law and justice.
What makes Lex Luthor such a great villain is that he too is a person of great, intellectual, power, but he typically chooses to reject the City and impose his own will upon it. While he lacks Superman’s powers, he is powerful and has “chosen” to become a “god” and in doing so becomes a beast. Because Superman has nigh unlimited power, he need not kill Lex because the City and he are powerful enough to stop Lex and Lex is savable. Zod, Doomsday, and Darkseid are not.
This trailer shows that James Gunn understands this tension. Superman longs for “home,” but where is home? If Ma and Pa Kent are alive it is with them. If they are dead, it is with Lois. If Lois is dead, it is (as Alan Moore demonstrated in the best thing he wrote for DC “What Ever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow”) it is the Fortress of Solitude, but that is no real home. That is a place of despair.
John Williams also understood this, which is why he used Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man as the inspiration for Superman’s theme. Superman seeks connection with the common man. We are not ants to him, as this trailer shows with the scene with the young girl, we are his chosen family. As with John Williams’ score, John Murphy’s new compositions play around with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, but with a bit of a prog rock edge. Any fan of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer will tell you that this is a natural connection.
All of this is to say, that I am extremely excited about James Gunn’s version of Superman. When James decides not to “Troma”-tize something, it’s usually pretty damn amazing. To be fair, his Troma stuff is also usually very good, but when he Tromatizes other works, not so much.
The Lamentations of Luke Y. Thompson
Luke has a new review of the new Kraven the Hunter movie up on his personal Substack, it’s behind a paywall and I haven’t subscribed yet but it’s a sign that he’s making sure to keep working out his movie review chops. Obviously, I’ll keep paying him to write here from time to time and will share his paid and personal reviews as a part of the Lamentations.
As I promised a while back when SuperHeroHype (no links for AI SEO maximizers) decided to shift away from human writers, I’ll be digging into some of Luke’s early reviews and sharing those here as well. He wrote a lot of good stuff for Voice Media when local independent papers were at their peek and I think he should put together a collection of them if he retains any copyright or if it has returned to him after a time.
Since it’s the week before Christmas, I’m sharing a column he wrote in 2000 in memoriam of Jim Varney. In the column he touches on a number of Varney’s Ernest films and Ernest Saves Christmas in particular gets some extra time. I’m linking the archive version of the article because the Cleveland Scene website wasn’t loading properly on my laptop when I looked at it and I don’t know if you’ll have issues. What I really like about this piece is how it defends the overlooked comedian.
American film critics love to scoff at, and write their most scathing and cruel reviews about, America’s clowns. Things they’ll love in a Mr. Bean or Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo performance will be excoriated in an American production. American critiques hated Jerry Lewis, but the French loved him and their comedies (beloved of those who hated Lewis) emulated him. So it is that they hated Jim Varney and still hate Adam Sandler or Will Farrell, except when they “break the mold.” Sure, there are moments in all of these comedian’s performances that become “routine” or staid, but there are often moments of real brilliance too. Varney entertained our inner child. Sandler and Farrell do too. Let them. The bits are funny even when they don’t have subtitles.
Courtney Howard’s View from the Center Seat
Courtney was one of the many (177) critics who contributed to IndieWire’s annual Critic’s Poll. The list uses a ranked choice points based system (Condorcet would like a chat) and covers typical areas like Best Film, Best Director, Best Performance, and Best Cinematography. I find lists like these to provide good data regarding why Critic Scores and Fan Scores differ so much on Rotten Tomatoes (hint: it’s not review bombing as much as critics want to blame that).
Courtney, as is typical, made a comment on her Facebook account that demonstrated why I like her so much as a critic and how she straddles the Tomato/Popcorn classifications. Her favorite result was that Fernanda Torres in I’m Still Here and Josh Hartnett in Trap tied for 10th in the Best Performance category. I’ve seen her advocate for Trap many times and her advocacy of films like it and Hot Frosty show that she’s a reviewer without pretense.
Mendelson’s Melodic Meanderings
Scott doesn’t offer as many free reviews as he used to, but his review of the latest Sonic the Hedgehog film is worth a visit. It’s a very good review from a parental perspective. While I disagree with him on Star Wars (and general fandom) gatekeeping as I think he uses commentary that is too broad in its strokes, I do agree that too much focus on franchise lore and fan service can alienate the broader audience.
Fan gatekeeping akin to that of Forrest Ackermann when he critiqued Clark Ashton Smith’s Dweller in Martian Depths (Wonder Stories March 1933) are unnecessary as they provide nothing constructive. Of that tale Forrest wrote, “I fail to find anything worth-while in an endless procession of ethereal lites (sic), phantastic (sic) visions, ultra-mundane life, exotic paradises, airy vegetation, whispering flutes, ghastly plants, and dirge-like horrors. May the ink dry up in the pen from which they flow!” There is nothing there except gatekeeping due to personal preference and Forrest was excoriated by Robert Howard and H.P. Lovecraft for his commentary.
Where I disagree with Scott is with regards to films/games that “subvert” expectations of the fandom. Scott will champion a film like The Last Jedi, while I will roll my eyes. Not just because it doesn’t fit in with the Skywalker Saga, which is different than fitting in with Star Wars (which it does), but because it is essentially an adaptation of the first few episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica and I think the Spider people in that are more creative than Rian Johnson’s “innovations.” I’m all for deconstructing or reinventing, but I think such things are best done in new products. Elric is a subversion and reinterpretation of Conan, right down to the litany at the beginning of his stories, but Michael Moorcock didn’t write him as Conan. Similarly, so many of the Lin Carter/Sprague De Camp Conan stories fail because they are about “Bizarro Conan” and not Conan.
All of which is to say that I would have really liked The Last Jedi if it was a tale from a different arc, but I found it lacking as a Skywalker Saga tale and I don’t think gatekeeping things to seek some sort of connection to the core myth is bad. I think bullying and attacking actors who are working hard and doing there best is bad, and Scott is right that a lot of that happened, but run of the mill “this isn’t Skywalker Star Wars” is highly defensible.
All of that said, I appreciate Scott’s points on the latest Sonic film. As popular as the Sonic games are, a film should be accessible to those not “deep in the lore.” John Favreau’s Iron Man was great because it was lore true, but didn’t require large knowledge of lore. It was made for a large audience, so too were the first two Sonic films. This one is more lore, and fan service, oriented and is less good because of it. If you are going to be lore heavy, you need a guide for the non-lore audience too.
As always, Lyn Perry does a great job rounding up the Sword & Sorcery marketplace, though I find the recommendation for holiday scones concerning. My German sensibilities know that Christmas is a time for wonderful German pastries, sausages, cold cuts, Doppelbock Bier, Glühwein, and the touch of Swede/Dane demands a little Julgrot be eaten and left out for the Tomten. Kidding aside, it’s a great entry. Some highlights from the article were the recommendations to read were the discussion at Silver Key regarding the ambiguous ending of The Green Knight film and Dark Worlds Quarterly’s examination of A Christmas Carol in Comics.
Retroist dials the nostalgia meter to 11 with an entry on the birthplaces of various G.I. Joe characters. He focuses on New Jersey, but I had to have a look at Texas (where I was born), Nevada and California (where I grew up), and Idaho (where I live now) just to see who connected. Sadly, none were from Reno, NV and Vegas dominated the Nevada Joes and I’m going to claim that Snake Eyes comes from somewhere in the Mountain West or Pacific North West, even though his actual origins are Classified, because it just seems to fit.
TheTabletopEngineer has a cool entry that discusses the new Star Trek RPG boxed set. Modiphius’s Star Trek game is fantastic and this looks like a great way to jump in. Add to that the fact that he shares a video from Uncle Atom at Tabletop Minions asking if the wargaming market currently has “too many” wargames and you’ve got a newsletter specifically aimed at me.
I fall strongly into the “anyone who thinks there are too many wargames today is absolutely incorrect” camp. Not only is it a great age for wargaming, but for fans who have any kind of memory of the hobby there have always been an abundance of games. Take a quick visit over to Caliver books and the History of Wargaming Project and you’ll see that wargaming has long been a rich hobby filled with multiple rules sets. It’s a medium that promotes and provokes amateur creations. It’s very DIY and I love the fact that publishers like Osprey, with its little blue books, are giving professional polish to some great DIY efforts.
My own love of wargaming led me to purchase copies of the British Model Soldier Society Bulletin, where I found the Tony Bath rules that inspired Chainmail, which itself was a part of what led to Dungeons & Dragons. Are there more wargames than any gamer can play in a lifetime? Yes. Is that bad? No. It should be a spark of inspiration.
Marc Normandin has a wonderful column discussing his favorite “retro games” this year, which is to say games that were old but new to him. It’s a really cool list and I envy him the time to play as wide a variety of video games as he gets to play. I’m busy putting over 200 hours into the Pathfinder Kingmaker video game, so I guess that’s my retro game of the year.
J.Q. Graziano takes a peek inside Imagine Magazine #12 and shows some of the beauty that was the old English role playing game magazine. J.Q. shows visuals of some of the contents and I’ll likely have Imagine be my first deep dive old game magazine examination. Imagine was a wonderful magazine and it deserves the attention.
Thog's Table has released his first OD&D zine and it’s a really cool entry. Check out the Substack about it and download the issue. I also highly recommend giving Original D&D a try. I love all versions of D&D, but each has an individual charm that isn’t replicated by other editions. OD&D is where the game started and it’s a bit more free form than modern editions because the rules are so open.
Speaking of alternate rules Chris McDowall has a brief post on alternate mechanics for non-sword weapons. The specific mechanics are for his Bastionland series of games, but the concept is one that could be adapted to any game you are playing. Make weapons interesting.
Ethan Sabatella over at Senchas Claideb has a cool article on solo game play and the specific tool kit he uses when playing solo. I’ve played a lot of solo rpgs over the years, particularly when I was younger, and it’s cool to see how others approach the issue. One thing stood out to me in particular and that was Ethan’s nostalgia for “Keep on the Shadowfell.” It was nostalgia that reminded me of a maxim I’ve often quoted, “4th edition was someone’s first edition of D&D.” I love 4e and Ethan shows that having that edition as your gateway can lead you to more obscure corners of the hobby.
James M. Spahn discusses his upcoming White Box Cyclopedia and I’m super jazzed for this product. It builds on the White Box OSR rules set and based on the name intends to be a White Box equivalent of the old D&D Cyclopedia that combined all the rules from the BECMI set, combined and adapted them. James has produced a lot of cool material for White Box over the years and combining it and reimagining/remixing some of it is something I want to see.
Castle Grief approaches the Mörk Borg game from a slightly different point of view in the latest post. What if the “lore” in the rule book is propaganda from one side of a religious schism. It’s a great approach and I came at the mechanics of Mörk Borg from a tangential perspective when I began designing my Jul Borg Christmas adventure (out Monday?) for this year. I used the doomsday mechanic in a different way. One of the great things about Mörk Borg is how hackable it is.
This newsletter is already pretty long so I’ll keep this short and sweet. I have fond memories of watching Flash Gordon serials with my grandfather. It instilled in me a deep love of the character, so much so that I own every Flash Gordon role playing game. I reviewed the first one on my YouTube channel and think it is very underrated.
While the old FGU game my be underrated, the more recent Savage Worlds based Flash Gordon RPG is underappreciated. It’s a damn great game that has a ton of great support material. Scott Woodard did a great job bringing the setting of Alex Raymond’s comic strip to the gaming table and the Savage Worlds rules set are perfect for it, so perfect that there was a Flash Gordon with the specifics filed off version released a while back called Slipstream. That’s great too, but I cannot recommend the Flash Gordon game highly enough. If you love pulp science fiction with rockets, then you must pick it up.
Oh, and as Scott has done for the past few years, they’ve even released a Holiday themed adventure for it. The whole adventure fits on a single page, so you can run it in a single session. FLASH! Ahhh ahhh!
I’ve been letting YouTube’s algorithm introduce me to new music lately and Royal Otis’s If Our Love is Dead came up in one of the playlists. Royal Otis are an interesting attempt at a return to power pop and the song has been growing on me.
I found the song very reminiscent, in nostalgia terms if not specific chord progressions and melodies, to The Bravery’s An Honest Mistake. I hadn’t heard that tune in a while, so I listened to it and am adding it here because I think it still holds up.
Speaking of holding up. Shallow Dive, that collection of youthful New Zealander’s who have decided to rekindle the post-punk sensibilities of Joy Division for a new generation have a new song out with Undefined. Like their previous songs, there’s more than one influence here. In this particular case, I thought I heard the soft echoes of The Church in this melody.
This isn’t the exact The Church song I was thinking of, but Under the Milky Way is a very strong post-punk entry that evokes the kinds of atmosphere that would be later channeled by Shoegaze bands in the mid to late 90s.
Last, but not least. Our house plays a lot, and I mean a lot, of Good Kid. My daughters love this band and given that they are almost single handedly keeping pop-punk alive, I love them too. The video for Bubbly brought back some semi-traumatic flashbacks of when I used to play travel soccer (Association Football for you non-Americans), though in our case we were never running in place. We did these sprints around the field every practice. They were arduous and the later windsprints using the field lines were a blessed relief from the 30 minutes of continual exertion. Good Kid only go at it for a couple minutes, but I could feel their exhaustion…and it’s a fun song.
The Santa Class (2024)
Okay, you may or may not hate me for this one, but I’m a long time fan of Hallmark movies when they are at their best. I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy and good Hallmark films are good romantic comedies. None of them rise to the level of You’ve Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner or an Irene Dunne staple, but when they are solid they are heartwarming. One of the strongest entries this year is The Santa Class.
Lucie Guest directs this simple tale where a young woman who has inherited control of her father’s failing Santa School has to help an amnesia-stricken Santa Claus (the real one) while also saving her school. I find that the “the real Santa is here” stories tend to be among the strongest Hallmark films and that is the case here. Part of what makes it work so well is the screenplay by Alexandre Coscas, Joseph Kelbley, and Russell Hainline. They manage to “hang the lantern” on a lot of the Hallmark tropes and wink at the audience while remaining sincere.
One of the best examples of this was the fact that they got Paul Campbell to play “Television’s Paul Campbell,” a television Christmas movie actor who is looking to audition to play Santa in an upcoming television movie. He plays his alternate persona in hilarious fashion and dissects the actor personality with charm and humor. The film features Kimberly Sustad, who I’ve loved in these since she starred opposite Brandon Routh in The Nine Lives of Christmas. I’ve since gone back to watch her in a number of productions and she’s always charming. Longtime Hallmark romantic beau Benjamin Ayres plays her match and Gary Jones (of Stargate) plays one of the students at the school.
I don’t want to reveal too much, because while there aren’t a lot of twists there are a lot of in jokes, but I will say that when the father tells his daughter that he trusts her to provide a good enough Santa education that the class would be able to secure “those premium Santa jobs,” I knew that this would be the Glengarry Glen Ross of Santa School films.
Always Be Clausing.
Cool beans
Thanks for the mention!