AMoveableBeast
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2013
- Posts
- 987
To me Bond is like Superman.
Good original concept, but the same old same old and nothing resembling realism. Like the Austin Powers bit goes, why don't you just walk up and shoot him in the head?
Then again Bond could probably dodge a bullet from three feet away.
Boring as hell.
I think Superman has an undeserved reputation as inherently boring. The problem with Superman, is that everyone thinks of him as a hero, instead of a god. Stories about gods aren't about saving kittens and untying damsels from train tracks. They're about being a god, and inversely, about being human. God-for-life is a lonely position, full of big emotions and fascinating scenarios. It does not, however, satisfy the craving of action-adventure or fit well into the dramas of serial-heroism.
I do agree, though, that he and Bond suffer under a similar curse. Both of them are chained by their popularity, contained by the stereotypical image they helped to create. There is an uproar every time an author tries to take them in a new direction. As a result, people are shoehorned into turning out the same tired stuff.
I think Craig's Bond holds some value, though he's about a three decades too late on the tortured anti-hero bandwagon to be anything approaching a revelation. Likewise, the Superman of "Red Son" is interesting, as is the one appearing in "The Dark Knight Returns", "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", "Kingdom Come", a few others. Like anything, a character is only as good as his writer.