Flaws of a Superman
Just some thoughts in lieu of yet another 'Superman has no flaws except for being an alien parasite grr!' thread on /co/.
Significant Character Flaws Of One Super Man.
Perhaps the most traditional is Clark Kent's sense of awkwardness and loneliness; he is a large, awkward man who seems to be a bit of a coward, and he suffers in his every day life because of this, alienating friends, coworkers, and sometimes seriously threatening his source of employment. This bleeds over to his Superman persona; how many stories have we read where Superman accidentally alienates or offends a fellow vigilante? In both identities, Superman's proven to not be great at socially navigating the sea of humanity, not just as an excuse for his disguise, but because he is genuinely vulnerable to the same doubts, anxieties, and miscommunication as any other social creature. This has been a part of Superman's secondary theme of isolation and loneliness that has been with the character since the 30s.
Superman's admitted that he sometimes worries that he does not do enough-not just helping people, but in trying to get people to help themselves and improve society. And frankly, this could be true-we don't know how it would go down, but Clark erred on the side of caution and often hampers or restricts himself so that he never becomes what Luthor thinks he is. It's something Superman's terrified of, and sometimes he makes mistakes or suffers because of this. Perhaps the most striking case of this is Superman's refusal to speak out against Lex Luthor as President of the United States; his reasoning was that if he took on such a political role, it would ultimately be an abuse of his fame, and people voting against Luthor because Superman Said So, and not because they think he's wrong. On the other hand, Luthor's presidency and its subsequent downfall was a key dividing line that laid the ground work for a Crisis and Luthor's ultimate evolution into the world-threatening science terrorist he is currently.
On the lighter scale, he's kind of a show off. Sometimes Superman just can't help it and does something crazy and awesome like play fetch with whole trees. The possible consequences of this have been documented fairly extensively, but to keep this from being too tl;dr the point here is that Superman and Clark both kind of hurdle through parts of life as a necessary stress release of Superman and Clark needing to be fairly reserved in their professional lives. This has been used against him in the past, mostly by supervillains and angry bloggers.
In conclusion: He shaves using his heat vision. Have you ever smelled burning hair? Not fun. I still remember the kicked puppy look on Clark's face, not because he was pissed off over Lois snapping at him when he had no other options besides a full beard, but because he had honestly just never thought it would have been a problem. (A classic 'stupid spouse trick'.)
These flaws are important to remember when writing the character, not just because he needs them injected sloppily into his personality to make him more understandable, but because they're a part of the character. He's a big guy who tries very hard not to smash through the world-weather physically, socially, politically, or emotionally-and sometimes fails at that. His personality is almost defined by the idea of self control and the fear of that failing, and frankly I do not know anyone who has not been bothered by that at least once in their lives.
Significant Character Flaws Of One Super Man.
Perhaps the most traditional is Clark Kent's sense of awkwardness and loneliness; he is a large, awkward man who seems to be a bit of a coward, and he suffers in his every day life because of this, alienating friends, coworkers, and sometimes seriously threatening his source of employment. This bleeds over to his Superman persona; how many stories have we read where Superman accidentally alienates or offends a fellow vigilante? In both identities, Superman's proven to not be great at socially navigating the sea of humanity, not just as an excuse for his disguise, but because he is genuinely vulnerable to the same doubts, anxieties, and miscommunication as any other social creature. This has been a part of Superman's secondary theme of isolation and loneliness that has been with the character since the 30s.
Superman's admitted that he sometimes worries that he does not do enough-not just helping people, but in trying to get people to help themselves and improve society. And frankly, this could be true-we don't know how it would go down, but Clark erred on the side of caution and often hampers or restricts himself so that he never becomes what Luthor thinks he is. It's something Superman's terrified of, and sometimes he makes mistakes or suffers because of this. Perhaps the most striking case of this is Superman's refusal to speak out against Lex Luthor as President of the United States; his reasoning was that if he took on such a political role, it would ultimately be an abuse of his fame, and people voting against Luthor because Superman Said So, and not because they think he's wrong. On the other hand, Luthor's presidency and its subsequent downfall was a key dividing line that laid the ground work for a Crisis and Luthor's ultimate evolution into the world-threatening science terrorist he is currently.
On the lighter scale, he's kind of a show off. Sometimes Superman just can't help it and does something crazy and awesome like play fetch with whole trees. The possible consequences of this have been documented fairly extensively, but to keep this from being too tl;dr the point here is that Superman and Clark both kind of hurdle through parts of life as a necessary stress release of Superman and Clark needing to be fairly reserved in their professional lives. This has been used against him in the past, mostly by supervillains and angry bloggers.
In conclusion: He shaves using his heat vision. Have you ever smelled burning hair? Not fun. I still remember the kicked puppy look on Clark's face, not because he was pissed off over Lois snapping at him when he had no other options besides a full beard, but because he had honestly just never thought it would have been a problem. (A classic 'stupid spouse trick'.)
These flaws are important to remember when writing the character, not just because he needs them injected sloppily into his personality to make him more understandable, but because they're a part of the character. He's a big guy who tries very hard not to smash through the world-weather physically, socially, politically, or emotionally-and sometimes fails at that. His personality is almost defined by the idea of self control and the fear of that failing, and frankly I do not know anyone who has not been bothered by that at least once in their lives.