Sometimes I re-read the two part special #40-#41 of Adventures of Superman and I'm always in AWE
Will never be over Max Landis' ability to write an incredible Superman while genuinely not understanding ANYTHING about him.
Like, the whole comic is a deconstruction of both Superman and Joker. How Joker isn't all that deep, just an edgy archetype in a costume and Superman, yes, is vague but that's a strength actually. Which, yes on the first part, but Superman is not vague at all. He's an immigrant who fights against the system and in favour of the marginalised because he identifies with them. From a meta-textual perspective the whole thing is gibberish.
But then you see Clark's characterisation and it's like. Yeah. Yeah that's him alright
Cause here's the thing. For the entire interaction, Clark treats Joker like a joke. He laughs at his quips, points out how his plans don't really make sense, how his stories don't seem real. He's acting like he's no threat at all.
Then he switches up. Still not treating him as a threat, but now acting threatening towards him
He even points out that, hey. He's not Batman. He IS going to kill him if he has to. He puts the fear of God into this man.
And then in the end he reveals the whole thing was an act! He was damn well aware the Joker was a threat, he just also knew that attention and power is what he wanted. He acted like he wasn't taking him seriously because
it was ruining his fun thus making him less likely to actually do anything and
It was a power move. Joker was not the one with the power in this situation and Clark wanted to make this very clear
He WAS taking Joker seriously. He was just perceptive enough to know he should under no circumstances let him know
And THIS. THIS is the shit right here. Superman being extremely emotionally perceptive, crafty and manipulative because right now that's gonna yield the best results
Clark, Kal El, Superman is at his best when he's allowed to let his inner theatre kid shine.
Meta-textually this comic doesn't have a leg to stand on. Max Landis, predictably, does not understand anything about Supe's themes. The point this comic is trying to make is extremely stupid and also wrong. But, Clark's characterisation? Incredible. Spectacular
I mean, think about it, what does that mean meta-textually? Nothing. The reader knows who Clark is. Or, at least, they're supposed to. Him being vague to the reader offers nothing. Nobody actually writes him like that and ends up with a good Superman story. Even if you don't interact with the immigration themes in his story outright, you will still probably interact with how he navigates the world while having his powers or dealing with the fact that he's the only Kryptonian left, aka, his Kryptonian heritage OOPS you are interacting with him as an immigrant, you just have to make the correct writing decisions to not create a xenophobic narrative
In-universe tho? The citizens of Metropolis, or any city on Earth do not know what Superman's life is like. Most of them think he lives in a crystal palace in the Arctic. They don't know he had to grow up with America's social issues and they don't know he's directly affected by them or has to see people like him affected by them. They have no way of knowing that his morality was born out of his own marginalisation and identification with other marginalised people. To them he really is just a nice guy who wants to help.
Yes, in-universe Superman ABSOLUTELY is vague. He makes sure to be vague about his internal life. That's the point of Superman as much as it is Clark Kent. Although Superman is also the expression of his heritage he IS a public persona, not an authentic representation of him, like Clark Kent is also a persona he takes up to conceal his heritage to avoid retaliation in his everyday life, not who he is. The time he is allowed to be Kal El, an immigrant from Krypton living in America, is limited and only for people close to him.
And it IS a strength to be vague in both of these instances, both as Superman AND Clark Kent for the reasons listed above. Because the less people know about you the less they can expect from you while thinking they know you. Clark Kent works as a disguise because people think Clark Kent is just a sweet normal guy who's passionate about his work, definitely not an Alien God and Superman works because people think he's just an Alien God, not a guy with a nine to five job.
Right here we are seeing THE most important aspect of Clark's character (His talent of twisting the truth and other people's perception, born out of a necessity to survive in xenophobic America as an immigrant that is now ingrained to his person and character) along with other important parts of his character (intelligence, emotional perception, strategic thinking, etc) executed flawlessly
Him weaponising the fact that Joker doesn't know him and, thus, doesn't think there's anything more than he can see while TELLING HIM THAT is incredible. Like, while he's literally pointing out that Joker doesn't know what's going on in his head, he's actively deceiving him about what's going on in his head (by acting like he doesn't consider him a threat while he very much does)
I also love how he's technically not even lying a lot of the time. (either because while his attitude is dishonest his words are not, he's not lying outright or because, again, the writer doesn't know what he's talking about)
Like, yeah, Superman 100% meant the entire diss track he just spat at Joker. He isn't lying about his powers. He doesn't consider him a threat (to himself). He will do whatever it takes to avoid taking a life, but he WILL and HAS done so if the need arises. He really doesn't have "a code, or a limit or rules " Superman's morality rose from his own lived experiences in tandem with those of people plagued by the same systemic oppression, not by separating individual actions into morally acceptable or not. He looks at the whole picture and decides which course of action will result in the least harm, aka, he really is doing what he thinks is right in every situation.
(We also see in the end that he actually does find his jokes funny)
I think what's happening here is that Max Landis KNOWS how a well written Superman behaves, but has absolutely no idea why he's behaving that way. So he knows how he should write Clark and knows what makes a good Superman story but has no idea how to justify it since he's so far removed by the marginalisation themes in the Superman mythos so he throws some bullshit at the wall based on the one thing he does understand about Superman: he's nice
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