Saturday, January 12, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/12/13.

O.P. [oh-pee]
adjective
1. Acronym. "Over-Powered".

EX. A lot of people accuse Superman of being overpowered and that O.P. heroes are not as interesting as say characters like Batman. I would actually argue Batman is quite O.P. because he has the power of billions of dollars and the fact that half of the people who write and read comics think Batman could beat anyone and therefore he usually does so by "outsmarting" them in the same way that they use technobabble on Star Trek to overcome every problem.

As for telling stories with O.P. characters, I think that the stories about Superman mean a lot more to me than stories about Batman. I think that latter character tends to be overshadowed by his villains in many stories, but I feel Superman holds his own as a character in his stories. I also find Superman, despite the fact that he has godly power, to be more relateable.

I think Quentin Tarantino's speech, performed by Bill (David Carradine), about Superman in Kill Bill  2 is incorrect. Superman isn't Superman, he is Clark Kent. Batman isn't Bruce Wayne, he is Batman. And Clark Kent represents the paragon of morality . He believes in "Truth, Justice, and The American Way". Before I sound jingoistic, I'll explain that "The American Way" is hope. You have to have hope to believe that there is truth and justice in the universe. That is what Clark Kent believes in.

If you wanna understand Superman better, I recommend reading All-Star Superman or the Superman story "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, & The American Way?". You can actually watch the animated films about both on Netflix, under All-Star Superman and Superman Vs. The Elite. The latter story is the perfect reply to every anti-hero character written to point out the "hypocrisy" of characters of Superman.

P.S. I have high hopes about the new Superman film, Man of Steel.