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Season 2 of The Boys just wrapped up and it's going to be a long time until Season 3 is on the air, so I thought it would be fun to talk about one of the greatest issues presented in the show. One of the main characters is a "supe" named Homelander (played by Athony Starr, who does a fantastic job), a stand-in for Superman. Though the public thinks that his origins are exactly like Superman's (last survivor of alien species, raised on a farm, etc), it is revealed that he was actually raised in a lab because of the immense danger he posed (and in the comics the lab is built on top of a nuke, ready to blow at the first sign of trouble). This obviously results in Homelander having some pretty severe issues, not the least of which is his callous attitude towards people. At the end of Season 1 it is revealed that Homelander has a son, the result of him raping a woman, who the same scientists are attempting to raise with the mother in order to correct the mistake they made with Homelander I've been mulling over how one would best raise a literal god to keep them from going the Orwell "Absolute Power" route, and thought it would be fun to discuss itt.
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Oct 11, 2020 14:09
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very carefully
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Oct 11, 2020 16:44
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don't... be a Nazi? something like that?
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Oct 11, 2020 16:46
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Lift with the legs.
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Oct 11, 2020 19:39
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Seems like a question of bioethics, I think the bigger questions is whether it's even possible to ethically raise what amount to living weapons.
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Oct 11, 2020 19:48
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if it were up to me and I knew all the logistics, I would put kryptonite in that kid's crib and never look back, and I'd only feel slightly worse about this than I would about hitting a button that said "permanently disarm all nuclear weapons".Still Dismal posted:Seems like a question of bioethics, I think the bigger questions is whether it's even possible to ethically raise what amount to living weapons. Superman sort of dodges this by being extraterrestrial, except, from my bleary understanding of the canon, Kol-El was caught up in all sorts of political BS and it seems like Superman's race weren't really vastly more enlightened and not lovely than ours, they just happen to have super powers when removed from redsunworld and taken to Earth. The Boys is actually one of the best, and the most recent, examples of a show I found to be thought provoking, well written, well acted, but bailed on because the degree to which it's just dark, cynical and violent became boring to me. Yes, I know much of the real world is like that, I don't need Netflix or whoever spent the money to produce the stream I am consuming to remind me of it constantly. I wish I could understand the delta between this show and (the original) Utopia, because if anything that was even more atrociously violent, but it held my attention through both seasons no problem. Cabbages and VHS fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Oct 11, 2020 |
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Oct 11, 2020 20:48
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Does Superman weigh more than an average person?
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Oct 11, 2020 21:34
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:Does Superman weigh more than an average person? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqwUdp5-2D8
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Oct 11, 2020 22:30
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Professor Shark posted:I've been mulling over how one would best raise a literal god to keep them from going the Orwell "Absolute Power" route, and thought it would be fun to discuss itt. The Superman analogue, Homelander, becomes a way-too-eager father to the kid he never knew he had. It's a very old tale of "kid is not in the mold of what the father expects" so they have awkward games of catch, he tries to teach him to fly by tossing him off the roof of the home, etc. A lot of this is framed as Mom v Dad stuff, where the mother acknowledges he has gifts, but actively dissuaded the child to use them. Homelander instead wants him to cherish and enjoy the power he's been given. And it kind of comes to a head when Homelander compares the child's upbringing to the extremely sterile, impersonal, fraud of a childhood he had. Homelander wasn't just kept in a lab room as a child, he had a rotating crew of caretaker-moms which were loving terrified of him and lied about loving him, which he ultimately murders when he discovers their fear. His son is living a very sheltered, controlled life, with his mother limiting his access to the outside world as he's actually in a giant corporate-controlled compound in a remote rural location. There's a kind of Truman Show going on because, to the suits, the kind of crazy that manifested in Homelander was apparently due to a lack of attachment to a mother figure. Homelander, correctly, calls to light the falseness of the kids childhood and how bugfuck he'll go once he learns of the ruse. I dunno, it just kind of seems funny to me that the show says "you can't just fake someone being a good, down home, country boy".
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Oct 11, 2020 22:55
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ok we've gone over and over The Boys, that's not the question, the question is. Baby superman. You have one. How raise? My answer is: You kinda gotta take your life into your own hands? Like, hosed up as that is when talking about a human baby but its a similar concept to if you were hand raising a baby tiger. If you are scared all the time of getting killed all the time they can probably sense that and it'll negatively affect their behavior. You have to really truly be at peace with the relative fragility.
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Oct 11, 2020 23:54
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I mean ultimately you try to do the best you can. A lot of why Superman is the way he is in the comics is because (leaving aside the cornball worship of the Kansas farmer) he was raised by loving and caring people. He just is able to express those values on such a huge level because he was Superman; even if he was just Clark Kent he would still be a good person. You do run the risk that Baby Superman will grow up to reason that he ought to be the emperor of the world because he knows better than everyone else. Not much you can do about that one. I suspect all of these complex 'raise the child upon some kind of horror death thing to kill the child if it risks upsetting world power structures etc.' things would be just as likely to give the kid crippling anxiety and desire to please for the sake of proving to people that they aren't in fact a source of murderous death. Which of course may be the idea, get the superman to be eager to prove to you that they're a good person and say "If you're a good person, then... go do 9/11!! For us!!"
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Oct 12, 2020 00:23
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"They can be a great people, Kal-El, if they wish to be. They lack only the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." Part and parcel to the thematic bedrock of the DC Universe is an optimistic world view. Even Batman and his gritty world of Gotham, which has been a foil to Superman since their mutual invention in many ways, has at its heart a fundamental optimism that it is CRIMINALS that are a superstitious and cowardly lot, not the average person. That by using fear as a weapon against evil, you can give good the chance to flourish in evil's absence. DC Comics takes as axiom that human beings are inherently good, and while they can be led down dark paths by negative emotions or difficult circumstances, at the end of the day as long as you have something in your life to inspire you to hold your course or change it toward a better end, you will always find your way. The Kent family and the El family are BOTH, in most interpretations of the character of Clark/Kal/Superman, moral paragons. They instill their son with the values and morals that allow him to become Earth's greatest hero, not because of his powers, but because of his ability to use them in a way that act as a beacon of hope that pushes others to better themselves. How the Kent's specifically accomplish this isn't always consistent across various incarnations of the character, but it usually falls into a few general categories: 1) providing him with a stable and healthy home environment, and strongly reinforcing the idea that exposure of his abilities would inevitably mean an end to that life 2) treating him as a "normal," child despite his superhuman abilities. Since the scale of his abilities and when they manifest during his development varies, how this works also varies, but in general is means trying to make him understand that he is not better than others and thus has no special privilege, authority or right over others just because he is stronger than them 3) Demonstrating compassion and empathy to others as a core value that is worth emulating, and generally acting as positive role models Later in his life when Superman discovers his Kryptonian heritage, this basic structure is generally overlaid by Jor-El with messianic elements: that he is the Last Son of a great and wonderous society far beyond that of Earth, and he has a responsibility to carry on its legacy, that he should take pride in that legacy and all the knowledge and strength that comes with it, and that of all the planets in the Universe he was sent to EARTH because they have the potential to reach a similar pinnacle, and that he can use his gifts to help them achieve this. This acquisition of knowledge of a Special Destiny and concurrent Responsibility then comingles with his existing Values and Morals and the continued expansion of his powers to increasingly greater heights as he reaches full physical maturity to create The Superman. In other words, DC says that you raise a Superman by being good yourself, setting an example so your Superman will emulate it, and providing him with an environment that will encourage him toward that emulation and reward it.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:26
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It's a moot point because no parent would survive rasing a baby that could shoot laser beams from it's eyes every time it got upset. Have you ever had a toddler go ballistic over the dumbest things? What if the little tyke could also lift 90,000 tons and fly?
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Oct 12, 2020 05:52
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935 posted:It's a moot point because no parent would survive rasing a baby that could shoot laser beams from it's eyes every time it got upset. Have you ever had a toddler go ballistic over the dumbest things? What if the little tyke could also lift 90,000 tons and fly? It changed depending on what version of Superman we're talking about, but in some of the Superman origin stories, he didn't start displaying superpowers until he was 8 or 12, or some version of late childhood or early adolescence, to avoid the whole "Baby Superman has tantrum, destroys Kansas" problem.
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Oct 12, 2020 06:09
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Given that any individual could grow up to be someone with influence and power over others, is there really a difference between the questions "how do you raise Superman well?" and "how do you raise a human well?". Yeah, boy Superman could accidentally knock a kid's head off on the playground but so can a rich kid run someone over in their land rover. Superman could take over the entire world easily and yet someone could become President or be the guy who decides whether or not to launch the nukes. Imagining how to raise a god like Superman, in essence, is coming up with an ideal on how to raise a person. E: unnecessary adjectives America Inc. fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 06:11
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Epicurius posted:It changed depending on what version of Superman we're talking about, but in some of the Superman origin stories, he didn't start displaying superpowers until he was 8 or 12, or some version of late childhood or early adolescence, to avoid the whole "Baby Superman has tantrum, destroys Kansas" problem. Fair point. The premise left some important details up for interpretation, so take the version that has a slow ramp up to full power like some puberty metaphor, to be frank I wouldn't do it differently than homelander. In our reality, what would there to be gained by raising superman? In real life there's no super powered threats, no world eating supervillains. And our government would NOT just accept a threat to their own power and existance. There's just no upside to superman existing, and countless downsides. So at the first hint of rebellion or aggression, the only logical thing to do is hit the killswitch.
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Oct 12, 2020 06:23
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935 posted:Fair point. The premise left some important details up for interpretation, so take the version that has a slow ramp up to full power like some puberty metaphor, to be frank I wouldn't do it differently than homelander. In our reality, what would there to be gained by raising superman? In real life there's no super powered threats, no world eating supervillains. And our government would NOT just accept a threat to their own power and existance. There's just no upside to superman existing, and countless downsides. So at the first hint of rebellion or aggression, the only logical thing to do is hit the killswitch. Who owns the killswitch? Who makes the decision to kill? Say the US government makes the decision, and Donald Trump kills Superman after he tries to stop police from firing on protestors. I assume you would actually prefer that he doesn't exist.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:08
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935 posted:Fair point. The premise left some important details up for interpretation, so take the version that has a slow ramp up to full power like some puberty metaphor, to be frank I wouldn't do it differently than homelander. In our reality, what would there to be gained by raising superman? In real life there's no super powered threats, no world eating supervillains. And our government would NOT just accept a threat to their own power and existance. There's just no upside to superman existing, and countless downsides. So at the first hint of rebellion or aggression, the only logical thing to do is hit the killswitch. In Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne points out that killing Superman could be the only thing Batman ever does that really matters, because Superman has the power to lay waste to the entire planet, that if there is even a 1% chance that he could turn on the planet it must be taken as an absolute certainty. This line paraphrases a quote from Dick Cheney discussing how America should treat Pakistan because it was possible they were giving Al Queda nukes, by the by.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:13
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Back when Cracked wad still doing videos, Alex Schmidt did a video essay about the dislike of superman, and his theory was that a large reason for it is because we have problems with the idea that its possible to be a good person, especially if that person is powerful. I don't know if that's true or not but its worth thinking about.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:31
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Epicurius posted:Back when Cracked wad still doing videos, Alex Schmidt did a video essay about the dislike of superman, and his theory was that a large reason for it is because we have problems with the idea that its possible to be a good person, especially if that person is powerful. I don't know if that's true or not but its worth thinking about. On the directors commentary for Man of Steel, Zach Schneider admitted that the reason he had Superman kill Zod is because he felt like Superman needed a REASON to think killing was bad, and the trauma of having done it once was his vehicle for that. The director of a Superman movie felt like Superman would not just KNOW that killing is bad, he needed motivation to reach that conclusion.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:37
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Epicurius posted:Back when Cracked wad still doing videos, Alex Schmidt did a video essay about the dislike of superman, and his theory was that a large reason for it is because we have problems with the idea that its possible to be a good person, especially if that person is powerful. I don't know if that's true or not but its worth thinking about. This comes up with Superman because as the prototype it really all gets down to that. I think a lot of people don't think that it is possible; that if good is done with power it would be done due to constraints or by accident. I also don't think this is the same as "is it possible to do evil with power," because that is obviously the case.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:49
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Nessus posted:Yeah I think a lot of Superman stuff ends up pivoting on the idea of, "Do you think that a person can, deliberately, choose to do good with power?" People absolutely believe that good can be done with power, by design. What they're cynical about is human nature. Not that Superman can do good, but that Superman ALWAYS does good. That's why people pejoratively refer to him as a "boyscout," and talk about how unrelatable he is. They don't balk at the idea that Superman can solve all the world's problems because he's so mighty, if they balked at that idea then dickheads wouldn't have used Trump having his logo on an X-ray when he was maybe dying last week. Trump's followers believe that Trump is Mr. Strong Man who can do anything. But even Trump's most devout followers don't pretend he's morally perfect. If anything they revel in his flaws and use them as an inherent virtue in direct contrast to other "Elites," who care about society's expectations and rules. What people balk at is the idea that Superman could possibly be so good while also DOING good. They believe Iron Man can do good because he's a drunk. Spiderman can do good because he got his uncle killed. Batman can do good because he's mentally damaged. But Superman is just... good. With nothing motivating him to be so. People can't accept that. This by the way is why recontextualizing Superman is so popular. Its why Kill Bill had a speech about the idea that Clark Kent is a parody of humanity, making Superman into an arrogant prick. Its why Injustice AND Justice League Unlimited premised storylines on the idea that Superman had a breaking point and if he crossed that line he'd become a Turbo Hitler, showing his goodness has limits. Its why alternative takes on Superman like Irredeemable and Brightburn where Superman is horribly flawed and it leads to tragedy are usually so successful. People are cynical, and they believe that if something seems too good to be true, it absolutely must be. After all, if Superman can have all that power and not be corrupted by it just because he's a good person, what does that say about ME? No, he must be a secret rear end in a top hat, or else its bad writing.
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Oct 12, 2020 08:15
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Sanguinia posted:
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Oct 12, 2020 08:28
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Charlz Guybon posted:Maybe it means you're the rear end in a top hat? That would be the joke, yes. Unless you thought by "ME," I meant... you know, myself, and not the hypothetical Superman-hating cynic.
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Oct 12, 2020 08:36
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Epicurius posted:Back when Cracked wad still doing videos, Alex Schmidt did a video essay about the dislike of superman, and his theory was that a large reason for it is because we have problems with the idea that its possible to be a good person, especially if that person is powerful. I don't know if that's true or not but its worth thinking about. It's really kind of amusing that Cracked was ostensibly a comedy website of loving top ten lists but sometimes the writers went into these deep philosophical discussions
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Oct 12, 2020 09:12
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You know, I just now realized how rare it was for Superman to drop down in rural Kansas and not end up a horrible human being from what I've heard and read about rural Kansas. Go Kents.
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Oct 12, 2020 10:00
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Epicurius posted:Back when Cracked wad still doing videos, Alex Schmidt did a video essay about the dislike of superman, and his theory was that a large reason for it is because we have problems with the idea that its possible to be a good person, especially if that person is powerful. I don't know if that's true or not but its worth thinking about. That's a pretty hot take that I enjoy and never thought about and I love it. So I'm going to make a mostly spoilery post. And I think the OP should add that if you haven't seen the Boys season 1 and 2, not only should you do so but don't read this thread. What I like about Homelander is he's....real? This is a guy who has the body and power of superman but his mind is trapped in arrested development in teenage years. Anthony Starr does a terrific performance where you really can never tell if he's going to snap or back down from unleashing his anger on people. But I think for all the awful poo poo he does in the show, and he's truly a villain it's pretty clear that Homelander's behavior basically comes down to nurture. Emotional pleas can reach him, he can think normal humans are "mud people" but seemingly balks at the idea of "White genocide". He's a really 3 dimensional character and for all the vile things he does there tends to be a moment that shows why he's the way he is. He craves people having positive feelings toward him, it's all that's keeping him in check. He needs people to love him. Because even if it's superficial, he's never had someone genuinely love him for who he is. Everyone just manipulates him for their own gain. What really stands out to me is how everyone is afraid of him, and EVERYONE lies to him. Everyone except Billy Butcher. I can't imagine how lonely an existence it would be where you can't take anything anyone says at face value and you are unquestionably the most powerful being on the planet. And with that unending demigod power that people only desire you tot to leverage for the things they want.
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Oct 12, 2020 10:32
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Nessus posted:Yeah I think a lot of Superman stuff ends up pivoting on the idea of, "Do you think that a person can, deliberately, choose to do good with power?" The problem is: His power is violence. All supermans powers do for him is make him invincible and real loving tasty in a scrap. Now I want you to tell me how the gently caress anyone supposed to solve capitalism with their fists. Or racism. or covid. or climate change. Of course, if anyone... If *I* was given supermans tasty tasty fists. I know what I'd do. I'd have bitchslapped trump so hard his head would point the wrong way during one of his rallies and than spend the rest of the time doing a prisyadka dance while hovering above the crowd just field-goal kicking any maga hated heads I spot in a hilarious and gorey display of contempt. And hey, if racists get scared enough that their public racism is going to be answered by someone slapping them across the cheek with enough speed that their brains cook from kinetic friction... if oligarchs get their companies and infrastructure literally dismantled overnight, if whaling ships get yeeted into low orbit to forever serve as a frozen, floating reminder to the rest maybe social progress will happen but mostly just a lot of people will die and everyone will be scared by a big fat mediocre white dude with godlike powers loving poo poo up all over the globe because that's all superman can do.
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Oct 12, 2020 12:55
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Perhaps if you punch the head off of anyone who gets too rich you could constitute a material condition that makes being rich impossible, thus necessitating a new organization of society. You'd have to be very committted to punching people's heads off though.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:20
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Sanguinia posted:
I think a lot of recontextualizing occurs because people really miss who Superman is. Kill Bill gets it exactly wrong. Superman is the mask, Clark Kent is the real person. Clark Kent acts as Superman to inspire people. Clark Kent is an honest good person because he was raising by a loving couple and taught to always to do what's right. He had a very typical kid life growing up, complete with high school hijinks, and so he's optimistic. Compare that with Batman who's entire childhood and adulthood is framed by the murder of his parents.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:29
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Cabbages and Kings posted:The Boys is actually one of the best, and the most recent, examples of a show I found to be thought provoking, well written, well acted, but bailed on because the degree to which it's just dark, cynical and violent became boring to me. Fwiw the series is somewhat optimistic compared to real life, insofar as regime change is in fact possible. In the comics every major superhero dies, the psychopathic clone dies, the president dies, everything collapses in a way that opens the opportunity for a less screwed up status quo. The TV series is taking a roundabout way to the same conclusion by featuring similarly horrible politicians, but the hero roster is dropping pretty rapidly. quote:Yes, I know much of the real world is like that, I don't need Netflix or whoever spent the money to produce the stream I am consuming to remind me of it constantly. You probably dont, but hero worship of the rich and powerful is still a major problem so I'm all for at least one show that takes the most literal of hero worship and runs it through the wringer. Oh yeah the kid, i'm guessing they might do a spiderman origin where accidentally killing his mom makes him more self-concious of his powers, and less of a raging rear end in a top hat. That might not be brutal enough for a Garth Ennis series though. I dont think there's an easy way to raise what is essentially a walking WMD. Neurolimal fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Oct 12, 2020 13:33
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I agree with the previous poster who said that you need to have a teacher/ teachers who are willing to sacrifice themselves in the goal of creating a healthy, well adjusted adult (with the power to destroy/ enslave the world), just like Homelander had a mother-figure who he killed by hugging
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Oct 12, 2020 13:47
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Yeah the trick isn't so much teaching the super kid to be good as teaching them to be normal.
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Oct 12, 2020 14:24
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Following current doctrine, when you have a potentially dangerous threat/weapon what you need is more of those in order to control it. Easy. Or maybe NOT having this in the first place solves the problem as well, but where is the fun in that.
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Oct 12, 2020 14:37
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Neurolimal posted:Fwiw the series is somewhat optimistic compared to real life, insofar as regime change is in fact possible. In the comics every major superhero dies, the psychopathic clone dies, the president dies, everything collapses in a way that opens the opportunity for a less screwed up status quo. The TV series is taking a roundabout way to the same conclusion by featuring similarly horrible politicians, but the hero roster is dropping pretty rapidly. Yea, this all makes sense, and is why I am conflicted. I think it's a good show with relevant and prescient messaging that makes it more "significant" than any of the Marvel crap (even though I'll stand by S2 of Luke Cage being amazing, but, I think they sort of stumbled into lightning in a bottle there with the combination of casting for the bad guys, and writing, and relevant current racial issues). So, it's not that I think it's a bad show, or that I wouldn't find it thought provoking and interesting and suspenseful to stick with. There's just so much evil poo poo and collateral damage and violence, though, and I'm already stressed and worried enough about the evil poo poo and violence that the ruling classes are inflicting somehow causing collateral damage on my family or myself, that basically, I just need to loving watch TNG reruns until sometime next spring. tl;dr this show is high on my list of things to revisit when the world itself is, hopefully, a little less anxiety producing. If that never happens, welp. Your point about hero worship is well taken, and I did appreciate the complete inversion of that right from episode 1. No, these are not the Justice League, these are just humans with big guns built into their bodies and they are just as murdery and rapey as you'd expect.
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Oct 12, 2020 14:53
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lllllllllllllllllll posted:Or maybe NOT having this in the first place solves the problem as well, but where is the fun in that. Yeah, the best option is to just not have a Superman (just like nuclear weapons), however I wanted to take the approach that he is born, basically indestructible, and go from there. Assuming that you can even raise him in a way that he doesn’t become corrupted, would it be in humanities best interest to use him to advance the species by having him bring mineable asteroids closer to Earth? In that case, a lot of work would have to be put into him in order to build an understanding of science. Or do you just keep him humble, happy, and quiet for his whole life?
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Oct 12, 2020 15:50
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It's not just raising him that's an issue. Imagine the worlds response to knowing a Superman exists. In the boys they had like 60 years to get around to the idea, but if some dude that could fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes announced himself tomorrow the world would collectively poo poo itself. How do you prepare a person for that kind of status? Half the world would deify him and the other half demonize him. And what about the international repercussions every time he crosses a border to help someone? And how does he deal with being able to hear peoples cries for help constantly nonstop 24/7? That's the kind of pressure that would make even the most resilient person snap. BvS is great because it actually explores these issues a bit, Superman doesn't just need a proper upbringing that highlights the importance of restraint, but he'd also need a coping mechanism, and something to ground him to keep him from becoming isolated and detached like Homelander, because the second that happens is the second he pops someones head open like a grape. And that's aside of the enormous temptation to gather up every politician in a country, lock them up in a room and not let them out until they offer a solution to the bullshit problems they're having.
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Oct 12, 2020 16:20
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Motherfucker posted:The problem is: His power is violence. Probably the single most universally recognized and iconic image of Superman's heroism isn't punching any bad guy, its catching a crashing airplane and taking it safely to the ground. I think the view that Superman's power is violence is a really bleak and cynical perspective. Admittedly Superman can't single-handedly solve systemic problems just with his powers. One of my favorite superman stories of all time involves him trying to solve world hunger by carrying loads of food to every country in the world, and it ends in failure because some countries don't want his help and actively drive him away, while another has a corrupt leader who uses chemical weapons to poison the food when Superman refuses to hand it over to him. That story ends with him going back to Smallville as Clark and teaching a class of local school children on a field trip to the Kent farm how to plant and manage crops. Superman doesn't save the world by punching aliens, he saves the world by helping people help themselves. Being strong and invulnerable and fast and having Freeze Breath and Heat Beam Eyes is just the window dressing. His real power is to help people believe that they can do things that would otherwise be impossible because they have something to back them up if they fail and protect them if someone tries to stop them. Superman is the Social Safety Net.
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Oct 12, 2020 19:17
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Cabbages and Kings posted:Yea, this all makes sense, and is why I am conflicted. I think it's a good show with relevant and prescient messaging that makes it more "significant" than any of the Marvel crap (even though I'll stand by S2 of Luke Cage being amazing, but, I think they sort of stumbled into lightning in a bottle there with the combination of casting for the bad guys, and writing, and relevant current racial issues). I think Cloak & Dagger also handled racial, class & gender issues really well, but it seems like nobody watched it.
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Oct 12, 2020 19:45
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I'd just say have a little faith in people. People raise children all the time without turning them into school shooters. Good parenting would be more than sufficient for a teenage Superman. Flying/Laser-eye infant would be akin to raising chimps or gorillas, who quickly become much stronger than their zookeepers - but you show them love, you establish humane barriers for everyone's safety, and they grow up perfectly well-adapted. Maybe Supertyke's adoptive parents would need to set up a kryptonite habitat / safe room to get through the Terrible Twos, but that's usually why pre-adolescents aren't given powers in fiction.
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Oct 12, 2020 20:38
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