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Steve Younis wrote:
A particular report coming out from last weekend's New York Comic Convention caught my eye. The report focused on the Kevin Smith panel at the convention in which he basically stood on stage and answered questions put to him by people in the audience.

For those not familiar with Kevin Smith, the man is fairly highly regarded by many fans of comics and movies, he is screenwriter, film director, comic book writer and actor. His most popular movies are "Clerks", "Mallrats" and "Chasing Amy". As a comic book writer for DC Comics he wrote the "Green Arrow" title for over a year to critical acclaim.

For Superman fans, Kevin Smith was once commissioned to write a script for a Superman movie, but the script was never used. Some of the idiotic things Smith was asked by Jon Peters to include in the script were hilariously documented by him in "An Evening with Kevin Smith" (available on DVD and online via YouTube).

Anyway, at the 2007 New York Comic Convention Smith was asked for his current thoughts about the state of superhero fandom and came out with the opinion that "old" superheroes like Superman and Spider-Man should be killed off, the sooner the better, and that it would do them good in the long run. According to Smith, Superman should go because "you can only do so many things with the character" and he's been around long enough to have told his most interesting stories already. Smith compared Superman to Jesus, who went out on a high note and got lots of acclaim for it. He said that Spider-Man suffers from the same kind of problem, and that both of the comic icons should be killed off in high style and then left alone so that the "new Citizen Kanes" of the comic world can have a chance to rise to the top. "Give Speedball a chance!" he said.

At first I was tempted to report on this on the Superman Homepage website, but then I simmered down and said to myself, "This is just one guy's opinion. Don't give him the publicity he's obviously aiming to gain by such outlandish comments". And I held of saying anything about it on the website.

But the report kept coming up in front of me as I did my daily news hunting, and, well, I just couldn't leave it alone. I had to have my say in response to Kevin Smith's comments.


Superman and Spider-Man should be killed off, the sooner the better, and that it would do them good in the long run.


How does killing off a character permanently do him any good in the long run? In the long run he still won't be around!! It's like a doctor telling a patient, "Listen, instead of working on you any longer, I'm just gonna let you die. You'll be better off in the long run."


According to Smith, Superman should go because "you can only do so many things with the character" and he's been around long enough to have told his most interesting stories already.


Funny how Mr Smith (in his own words) got paid well to write a Superman movie script for a character who had been around for 60 years at the time, but now, less than 10 years later, that same character has no more good stories left in him. I think Geoff Johns, Jeph Loeb, and other similar writers might disagree with Kevin Smith on this point.


Smith compared Superman to Jesus, who went out on a high note and got lots of acclaim for it.


Is Kevin Smith seriously comparing a fictional character to that of a real person? The son of God no less? I won't even touch on how offensive his comment is in a religious sense.


Comic icons should be killed off in high style and then left alone so that the "new Citizen Kanes" of the comic world can have a chance to rise to the top. "Give Speedball a chance!" he said.


What nonsense! Perhaps part of Kevin Smith's comments were said tongue-in-cheek, I don't know, but why should Superman (or Spider-Man) be killed off if they're still popular? New characters are coming through and gaining popularity all the time, regardless of Superman or Spider-Man's continued existence. In the 1990s Spawn had no problem hitting the top of the comic book charts. In popular culture new characters are forever gaining popularity while still coexisting with older characters like Superman. Take Harry Potter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Lara Croft, and a dozen others I could easily think of without straining too hard.

Kevin Smith has always been quite an outspoken person with some controversial ideas. Like I said originally, he's just one guy with one opinion. I don't think he'll find too many people reading this column who agree with him. I definitely don't think DC Comics would agree with him.

Thanks for your thoughts Kevin. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Is Kevin Smith seriously comparing a fictional character to that of a real person? The son of God no less? I won't even touch on how offensive his comment is in a religious sense.

Steve Younis wrote:
As a Christian I'm not offended with the tendancy to make Jesus a Christ-like figure. I do however think it's wrong for Kevin Smith to compare the death of a real person to the death of a fictional character. And that's not even touching on the Jesus as a religious figure side of it.