Superman/Fridge: Difference between revisions

=== Fridge Brilliance ===

* Bizarro. He's an imperfect, backwards clone of Superman. He's also a metaphor for humanity on the whole. Think of it; Bizarro has all of Superman's powers (if reversed, in some continuities), and is strengthened by that little green gemstone that would turn Superman into a peanut-allergic kid at the Reese's factory. In the same vein, humanity has surpassed most if not all of its natural boundaries, defying the elements time and again at every turn. So given this, why isn't Bizarro the hero? Simple: despite his power, he's not mentally capable of bearing the responsibility that comes with saving and protecting the world. He's every bit as powerful as the Big Blue Boy Scout, but his twisted logic won't let him do the good and right thing despite how badly he wants to. Sounds about right.

*** The entire idea of the supposed unrealism of [[Clark Kenting]] is exaggerated in the first place, based entirely on weak jokes that are vastly overplayed and were never funny to begin with. Consider it a bit of [[Real Life]] Fridge Brilliance if you must although it's more like common sense, but think about it: if you saw a guy who was the spitting image of Arnold Schwarzeneggar behind the counter at a Starbucks, only he has that green apron around him and he's wearing glasses, would you go, "AHA!! So Arnold Schwarzenegger is really a guy who makes coffee at a Starbucks in Bristol, Tennessee! I can't BELIEVE you thought you had us fooled! What do you take us for??!!" Or would you say, "Hey, has anyone ever told you that you look like just Arnold Schwarzenegger? Nah, you probably get that all the time, I'm sorry." The only unrealistic thing is how seldom people seem to mention these fictional characters' resemblance to their alter egos, but that is to some degree [[Justified Trope|justified]] by it being a bit of [[Lampshade Hanging]] that would get old very easily, appearing to be nothing more than an [[Overly Long Gag|overly long]] [[Running Gag]].

*** Very true. Besides, we already have a real-life example of what happens when people assume that two similar people are the same person - the Elvis sightings. For all we know, tabloids in the DC Universe regularly run stories like "Man sees Superman in a bar in Texas!" What would the average person call someone who insists that Clark Kent is really Superman? Deluded, if they felt like being polite.

** [[This Troper|This Tro]]--''* smack* OW!'' Um, [[Batgirl 1]] has her own ideas about Superman's pose. Note that In the older comics, when Superman was mainly Superman and Clark was just a disguise, his standard pose was arms-akimbo. In the post-reboot comics, where Superman is Clark, he defaults to arm-crossing. Arms-Akimbo is an aggressive posture; arms-crossed is defensive. It can be thought to symbolically represent his being brought down to more human levels from his prior Demi-god status, or something. [[Batgirl 1]] may have too much time on her hands.

** Crossing his arms like that (especially if hovering so the bad guys have to look up at him) also makes him look like everyone's I'm-so-disappointed-in-you angry DAD!

*** I just had a moment of Fridge Brilliance while reading the above two posts. Perhaps Superman is intentionally copying his father? In every comic I've ever read, Superman is both extremely idealistic and looks up to his father (or specifically, foster-father). Batman, in contrast, tries to scare people into behaving better (hence the bat thing), but Superman genuinely wants people to BE better. Who made him who he is (a hero)? His foster-father. So who else would he try to emulate?

** A [[Boring but Practical]] explanation, at least from the movie and TV perspective, is that the arms crossed pose makes your biceps appear bigger than the arms akimbo pose.

{{quote|'''Lois:''' I had forgotten [[Required Secondary Powers|how warm you are]].}}

** If Krypton's sun really did go supernova (rather than Krypton itself exploding, as in the comics) wouldn't it have disintegrated all traces of the planet, leaving no kryptonite to wind up on Earth?

 

[[Category:Film/Fridge]]