What Man of Steel Got Right
THIS POST HAS SPOILERS. GREAT BIG SPOILERY-SPOILERS. MEGA-MONDO-HUGE SPOILERS OF A MOST SPOILERIFIC NATURE.
Okay? Okay.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will say that Christopher Reeves will always be My Superman. So, I was torn about going to see Man of Steel. But, lately, super hero movies have gotten so much better, which cheers my nerd girl heart, so I decided to give it a chance. And I was really, really surprised at what I saw.
Whatever flaws Man of Steel had, and they were legion, there is one thing that movie finally got totally and completely right. They stood one aspect of the continuity they stood on its head that I had never in a million years expected to see in what was looking to be another mostly-failed attempt by DC to catch up with the wonderful action-filled fun that is the Avengers movies. It is also the one thing NOBODY is talking about and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
Man of Steel FINALLY got Lois Lane right.
Lois as she has always been presented is impossible. She is always a bitch. Why? Because she doesn’t love Clark. She’s supposed to. He’s the nice, nebbishy guy. But she loves the big, hunky powerful Superman. How shallow! How can he really trust her with all his secrets when she doesn’t love Clark, who is who he really is? And of course he has to protect her, because he really does love her.
There have always been huge problems with this. First, he’s supposed to love her, but he’s lying to her, badly, hugely. First, he’s testing her. She’s got to love the right part of him first, and he has decided what the right part of him is. Second, he thinks its dangerous for her to be with him, and yet, he doesn’t stay away from her. He’s Superman for Pete’s sake. He could totally shut her down if he really wanted to But he doesn’t. He just keeps lying to her, and there is never seen to be anything wrong with this. The pressure is all on Lois to love correctly, not to love who or what she truly does, but who she is supposed to love and how she is supposed to.
But in Man of Steel, something totally new happens. Lois figures it out. Not because of any clumsy accident (Sorry, Chris!) or because she’s told after years of epic Not Getting It. Nope. In this movie, Lois acts like a reporter and she tracks the Secret Identity down and turns up on Mrs. Kent’s doorstep in Kansas and asks to talk with her son. And when she is asked to keep the secret, she does, because she chooses to. She’s not a bitch for not being to love the proper portion of the man who is ultimately lying to her. She’s not an idiot who can’t see beyond a pair of glasses. She’s an investigative journalist, and she investigates, and she gets to the right answer. This makes the start of their friendship and love an honest one. They each get to learn about who the other really is. That is a genuine foundation for a super relationship.