Superman - Deus Ex Machina?

Superman is one of the world's most popular superheroes, and yet an awful lot of comic fans hate him.

People who hate Superman often refer to him as a walking Deus Ex Machina.  He’s just so powerful, and he just has too many powers.  They say that nothing is a challenge for him, and that his comics are boring.  But they’re wrong, of course.  A character’s power level has little to do with how interesting their comics are.  They still have ways to create drama in Superman comics: They give him even stronger villains, or they put him in situations where his powers aren’t of any use.  Sometimes they also depower him, but that’s kind of cheating.  I mean, if I wanted to read a comic about a depowered super hero, I’d just pick a hero who has no powers.

Superman’s actually pretty versatile.  When he fights someone who is his physical match, the stories remind me of Godzilla.  Two incredibly tough creatures tossing each other into buildings, causing all kinds of destruction to the city around them.  When he fights someone magical like Mr. Mxyzptlk, it becomes more cerebral, with Superman solving puzzles to defeat them.  People think his only weakness is Kryptonite, but he’s also quite vulnerable to magic, alien weapons, and the fear of losing his loved ones.  The fact that he’s a big ol’ boy scout is probably his biggest weakness of all, because it means he has to hold back his full strength in order not to seriously hurt his weaker enemies. 

Yes, he has a lot of powers.  In a universe with so many super heroes in it, somebody had to win the super power lottery.  But it’s the writing that makes the difference.  

Batman, on the other hand… 

Oh, Batman.  For a guy without super powers, he has every ability it’s possible for a human to have.

Let’s see, he’s the World’s greatest detective, one of the world’s top ten martial artists, an expert ninja trained by the world’s greatest assassins… He’s one of the world’s richest people, which gives him access to the world’s greatest tech, which includes his utility belt, which, I’m sorry, but rivals the Sonic Screwdriver for being able to do whatever the plot requires at the time.

Batman has a genius level intellect, a mastery of science, and he has a photographic memory.  He’s at peak physical strength, and knows 127 forms of martial arts. He's been trained as a stage magician, he’s an escape artist, a master of disguise, he’s multilingual, he’s a pilot, he has a computer database with so much information that he can discover any enemy’s weakness, and he has an ability to plan ahead that borders on precognition.  Plus, he has a persona that strikes fear into his enemies, despite being every bit as moral as Superman when it comes to taking a life.

If you look at power levels, the only big difference between Superman and Batman is that Batman’s abilities aren’t considered “powers”.  And frankly, that’s just semantics.  If you want to argue what’s actually possible, Batman’s abilities really aren’t that much more realistic than Superman’s.  Yes, it’s technically possible for humans to do the things Batman does.  But for a single human to master every skill Batman has mastered?  That would take more years than the average human lifespan.

Besides, if he needs to, Batman can replicate any of Superman’s powers using technology.  So basically, Batman can do anything Superman can do, and much, much more.  If anybody is a walking Deus Ex Machina, it’s Batman.  The only reason Superman is always the target of this type of criticism is because comic fans prefer dark, brooding heroes to angelic paragons of morality.  So leave Superman alone!

That said...

I do wish Superman’s writers didn’t feel the need to make him the best at everything he does.  I mean, he already has the most powers, he doesn’t have to be the best at them too.  There shouldn’t be any question as to whether the Flash is faster than Superman.  Speed is the Flash’s only power.  Just give him this one.  Superman’s speed is just as impressive without having to make him as fast as the Flash.  Nor does he need to be the strongest or the most invulnerable, either. 

In many ways I find the original version of Superman more interesting.  Back when he was first designed, he was faster than a speeding bullet, but only barely.  He was more powerful than a locomotive, but that doesn’t mean he could lift a mountain.  He could leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he couldn’t actually fly.  And it was said that “nothing short of an exploding shell could penetrate his skin,” which is a lot more vulnerable than he is now.  But over the years, the writers kept giving him more and more powers, and his existing powers became stronger and stronger. 

One of my high school friends used to draw his own comic books.  He had a tendency to design absurdly powerful characters, basically gods who could only be challenged by other gods.  I remember this one character he showed me.  It was basically Superman, but with about a dozen extra powers.  

I remember my friend telling me that the only way this character could be killed is if you fired twenty-one suns into his chest.  You know, assuming you can build a cannon that fires suns in the first place, and then assuming you can get the character to stand still that long.  And how do you even load such a weapon?  Anyway, I told my friend, “Dude, there’s not going to be any drama there.  Characters who can’t be killed are so boring!”  My friend thought about that for a minute, and said, “Fine.  Thirteen suns, then.”

So my point is, Superman is a lot more interesting than some people give him credit for.  But he’s at his most interesting when he isn’t overpowered.