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Why Superman Sucks

As I was reading the article Why Superman Will Always Suck I couldn't help but agree with every word coming across the page. Not that I get too wound up about comic book characters but there's always been something about Superman that's bugged me - he's basically invincible and there's never any sort fear that he will lose. But then my brother pointed out a very interesting aspect to this whole thing that I've never considered before. Allow me to paraphrase:

DC Comics came first, but all the characters were campy and had no real depth or conflict to them. Primarily this was because when they were created (late 1930s and 1940s), you simply couldn't have a HERO who had problems. When you live in a world defined by either a) fighting Nazis and b) fighting communism, black and white is the only way it can be. By the 1960's when Marvel shows up, things are bit more complex and issues are more grey. Thus, you can have heroes that are complex and, by extension, more human. I mean, that's what makes Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, etc so compelling--it's not that they are superheroes, it's that they are humans with regular problems which become complicated with the burdens of superpowers. And thus, in order to tap into this, Batman from the DC universe becomes a dark character.

Kudos to my brother for putting a historical context on the whole thing and, thus, having it make more sense.

Apologies to my brother for directly posting an email from him on the Internets.. woops.