He has super hearing and super speed, and can hear everything across the city. In NYC, an approximate analog of Metropolis, there are over 37,000 car accidents with major injuries or fatalities every year. That’s 100 car accidents each day, every day, just car accidents. If he were to actually try to save everyone he could, he would never have any time for anything else, not even sleep. It’s one thing to go take a sudden bathroom break when Lois is dangling from the ledge on the roof of a building. It’s something else to leave the room every 15 minutes of every hour because people can’t stop texting while driving.
In order for superman to keep his cover as Clark Kent countless innocents he had the power to save have to die every day.
Submitted 14 hours ago by Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
absentbird@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Well metropolis isn’t exactly NYC, and he doesn’t stop every incident. Mostly he is shown focusing on the major disasters, mundane incidents in close proximity, and on protecting a short list of people he looks out for.
Also he moves insanely fast, like he can canonically travel faster than light. So being able to stop even a hundred car accidents could be accomplished in a series of short bursts throughout his day.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Sure, it’s fiction, and Superman’s powers and limitations are whatever the plot demands.
But if he could move that fast, and he was in a real major city with real people and real problems, then he would be saving people nonstop. Because he could. If he’s faster than light, he could go save everyone without anyone noticing he left the room (setting aside physics, of course). But he’d never be able to stop, and he would never run out of people to save.
And none of it would be supervillains and giant robots or space lasers.
But then, applying any sort of real world rationality to Superman never ends well.
Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Superman deserves a healthy work-life balance
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 4 hours ago
He’s still only human, despite it all.
spittingimage@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Maybe you shouldn’t apply real-world logic to superhero stories.
Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
Why? Gives you bad feels?
spittingimage@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Because you’re pointing out that the thing which was never intended to be internally consistent… isn’t internally consistent.
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 14 hours ago
Really? I don’t think he’ll let anybody die just because there wasn’t a convenient phone booth around to get rapid changed in.
Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
I mean, I dont know about you but work will start to ask questions if Im taking a piss break every 10-15 minutes.
mangaskahn@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
He’s a reporter, I think he has a little latitude to be away from his desk for a few minutes, even days or weeks at a time.
Zorque@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
There’s often references to his flakiness. Its a common trope in various series that he’ll here someone in trouble and excuse himself to go save them. Sometimes it just shows him “accidentally” dropping a pen, reaching under the table to get it, and using his super speed to zip off and save someone.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Something has to motivate the hero. If not innocent lives the whose?
Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
This is true of public services. Society is always making choices which balance the level of service with the cost. If we wanted to save the maximum number of lives, there would be a hospital next to every home. We accept that some people, who could be saved, will die while they wait for an ambulance.