Hariharan

This isn't an exaggeration btw. CBM fans genuinely believe that a Superman who acts like an adult with real emotions is just a "slightly nicer Homelander". He has to act like a whimpy dork because he would otherwise be too threatening to them. It might seem like a stretch, but the demand that Superman behave like a clumsy dork to be palatable mirrors the real-world "gentle giant" phenomenon, where white supremacy forced large or muscular Black men to become minstrel shows, and perform a non-threatening, hyper cheerful persona to put biased spaces at ease. In both cases, there is a deep inability to reconcile physical power with inherent goodness. The moment a serious, emotionally mature Superman or a Black man drops the performative, self-deprecating act to display real adult or complex emotion, implicit bias immediately recategorizes that power as an impending, malicious threat. Also hilarious that this is the exact viewpoint of Batman and Lex Luthor in BvS. Both of them simply couldn't tolerate the idea of a powerful entity being inherently good. It's only when he's stripped of that power and his weaknesses exposed that he was finally seen as a person