#supertag

And it was just. Sooo nice. I think this may be a problem with me instead of tv, but American speculative fiction shows are just so gentle now that it disgusts me. There’s no lasting interpersonal conflict. No one’s allowed to be an asshole except the Designated Assholes. Everyone talks about their feelings all the time, which, as a millennial, horrifies me. And worst of all, the show’s so afraid of hurting people’s feelings that none of the jokes are funny.

I know this reads like a middle-aged incel rant, so let me soften the blow with things I DID like:

First and best, the action. Anime influence really works well for it here. Superman’s speed is illustrated by a Mach 5 kind of effect, where the air around him is disturbed by his movement. He’s constantly flying off with little mini sonic booms, it’s tight. I have more to say about this, but I think I’ll rewatch some of the earlier episodes to get some more specific details to praise. Moving on!

The character designs are all pretty great. There are not one, but two mean butch women with bad haircuts! Livewire in particular is a delightful asshole who is a joy to watch. Much has been made of young Deathstroke’s white haired anime boy transformation, but he looks great in motion so I find it hard to complain. Superman’s look is a hard one to translate to this style, but I really like the way it was done here. He’s still markedly huge, but his head is more proportional and his eyes are larger to emphasize his youth. As both Clark Kent and Superman he tends to be in a hunched over posture, signaling the lack of confidence that’s his defining feature in this series. Also, I don’t think there’s any really meaning to this, but Parasite looks like Eva Unit 01 and that’s important to me.

Finally, and most importantly, Superman gets beat up a lot in this one. If you’re anything like me, then you know that there is something very special and sexy about big strong men getting their asses beat. It has kept me coming back to superhero bullshit again and again, and it elevates any Superman thing that features it. They really go out of their way to emphasize the vulnerability. My man gets tossed, punched out of the sky, and electrocuted in particular like nine times. An old standby pseudo-weakness in Superman cartoons, sure, but he screams like every time it happens so it’s all good to me. The only whining I can do here is over the lack of clothing damage, but I think that’s cause the suit’s supposed to be indestructible or something.