Supermanic Monday #1--Superman Sends A Child To His Death

So, in the infamous Superman #701, Kal-El talks to some drug-dealing "gangsters" who are such badasses that they are not afraid to get into the face of the Man Of Steel:

Superman proceeds to set all of their stashes on fire:

Smooth. And then, Superman does the more careless, negligent thing you can possibly imagine:

He asks a ten year-old to take a threatening "message" to the gangsters he just burned.


Repeating: Superman couldn't be bothered to interrupt his walk for even half an hour, so he had a little boy tell angry drug dealers to move on or else.

Now, what do you think the odds are that this child comes out of this unscathed??

Remember, the kid is from that neighborhood, and has no secret identity. The pissed off gangsters have to know where he and his family live, so even if they don't rough him up or kill him on the spot, there's a pretty goddamned good chance his house is going to see some drive-bys, right? Because aggressive, gang-banging drug dealing thugs are pretty well-known for reprisals. (And also remember, we are told that even the police are afraid to come into this neighborhood, so good luck getting protection.) Or maybe the thugs will just take the hostage as leverage against Superman keeping his promise to come back.

Oh, sure, you can postulate a lot of scenarios--these guys are suddenly scared of Superman where they weren't before, or don't think to put their stash in lead-lined fire-proof safes in the future, or suddenly find Jesus, or whatever. But that's bullshit--the way the scene has been portrayed, and the way it takes place in what JMS would like us to think is "the real world," you know that's not going to happen. There's no way the kid or his family doesn't get hurt. Kal-El has as good as signed their death warrants.

If you think about it, this is the equivalent of Batman asking some innocent bystander kid (aside from Robin) to take a threatening message to the Joker...or maybe Orion making some Apokalyptian waif to take a challenge to Darkseid. And you know how that would turn out.

It's stupid, it's thoughtless, it's selfish, it's grossly negligent, and it's something Superman would never do. But JMS just a) had to have his cool scene but b) couldn't have Superman interrupt his walk.

And when JMS has that little concern for the character of Superman, well, that's why I'm dropping the title. Call me when the walk is over (or when JMS gets bored and bails...like The Twelve, or Supreme Power, or Thor, or...)