Since it still comes up even four years later and people are keen to cite it as proof that Zack Snyder doesn’t ‘’understand’’ Superman or some equally meaningless load of nonsense, I’d like to talk about Superman killing Zod at the end of Man Of Steel and, given how often it’s brought up to write him off, use it as a way to broach the wider subject of the reception of DCEU Superman in general.

First and foremost, let’s get one thing out of the way: Superman does kill. You can say that he shouldn’t or that he shouldn’t without some truly extraordinary circumstances but the simple truth is that Clark has taken lives before. He did it in the comics, he did it in the Reeve films and he did it in Smallville. It was not something Zack Snyder pulled out of thin air or added because he wanted to make him more ‘’edgy’’ or whatever bullshit term people want to use.

Let’s all agree to be reasonable and ignore the so often repeated claims of Superman being a ‘’murderer’’ (He isn’t) and take the context of the scene, which detractors so frequently and willfully ignore, into account, which is that Clark was faced with the agonizing choice of killing Zod or being forced to watch as Zod killed innocent people.

Let’s also address the fact that almost no other alternative that is so often suggested would have worked in the heat of the moment and there was literally no way for Clark to preserve his moral code and save the family at the same time. He had to make a choice and I don’t think anyone could have expected him to choose his code over the lives of innocents as that is not something Superman would ever do nor should fans expect writers to write him in such a way.

I see a lot of people criticize the mere existence of the scene itself with the repeated statement that Superman should never be placed in such a situation, that putting him in a situation like that flies in the face of his character. I find such a mentality fascinating as people are essentially demanding that Their favorite character not be put in a situation where They may have to do something They don’t like.

I don’t know why exactly people would ever want such a thing. Why would anyone want a character not to have to face tough choices? I think a lot of it goes back to the insistence of so many people that Superman can and should only be seen a certain way which is in the mode of an icon. He are supposed to see him as aspirational figure high above us with a crystal clear moral code that he never has to violate. Superman isn’t supposed to be human. Not really, anyway.

I see this as also extending to the other dominant criticism of the handling of Clark in these films, which is supposedly not making him ‘’hopeful’’ or ‘’optimistic’’ enough even when he’s facing situations through which no person should reasonably expected to not display some form of melancholy or sadness. The same people have also said that putting him in a world where he is hated and feared by so many is antithetical to his character.

For all the shit Zack Snyder got for supposedly ‘’forgetting it’s the man that matters, not the super’’ and ‘’making him out to be a god’’, the detractors and purists don’t want him to be a person like Them. They want him to be an escapist character who never has to compromise his morals, never has to make tough choices, never feels negative emotions of any kind, always knows exactly what the right thing to do in any given situation is and has no trouble whatsoever doing it, doesn’t doubt himself for even a second, and never feels any kind of sense of sadness or isolation or any of the completely understandable emotions people go through every single day.

They want Superman to exist in a bubble where he is universally adored and beloved by almost everyone and They go absolutely ape shit when you try to put him in a world like our own.

This goes back to the fact that so many are so keen to talk about the Reeve films, which are posited as the ‘’REAL’’ Superman films. The films in which he is literally able to turn back time to save Lois Lane and in which he give up his powers in a moment of short sightedness and get Them back easily enough.

Such a mentality is frankly unhealthy. Characters are supposed to suffer. They’re supposed to have Their ideals tested and Their spirits put against real challenges. It isn’t something unique to Reeve fans. I recall the same kind of stuff in the Doctor Who fandom when fans would often use scenes of the Doctor sparing an enemy as ammo against Steven Moffat’s Doctor, conveniently ignoring the way in which the enemies were usually dispatched by a Deus Ex Machina mere minutes later. The mentality is the same there and here: Fans want characters with strict moral codes but They don’t want to ever examine the consequences of such a code.

This is especially applicable to Superman, a character who, for years, has lost popularity in mainstream pop culture due to an inaccurate perception of him that the Reeve films and fans of Them have created over the years of a character who is more perfect than perfection itself, always finds a way out of tough situations, is universally beloved and whose own moral code and standards of behavior we could never hope to emulate.

How exactly is a person existing in the 21st century supposed to relate to someone like that? How is anyone supposed to relate to someone like that?

It’s no coincidence that these films have won over a number of people who, for years, had been lukewarm to the idea of Superman or always preferred Batman, a character defined by his inherent humanity. The films have finally shown people the human element that makes up the core of Superman, that he is simply a man trying to do the right thing in a world where that isn’t always clear. Sometimes it means making a hard choice you don’t want to.

The purists are famously keen to cry ‘’Not MY Superman’’. And They’re absolutely right. It isn’t Their Superman and I don’t want him to Their Superman.

He’s our Superman. A Superman who knows what it’s like to feel alone, to despair, to feel guilt and anger and hatred, to be hated and every other thing that makes us human. He’s a Superman who has truly shown so many what hope is. Hope is, as someone else on here put it, not always a shining light. Sometimes it’s a tired frown that keeps moving forward.

He’s our Superman and I wouldn’t want any other.