Ross and I, once again, got into a debate about who played a certain character better. This time it was Superman. The argument about Batman recurrs frequently and we only sometimes agree on all points.

This conversation, however, began with his question if I’d watched Superman & Lois on CW. I haven’t and said as much but that I’d seen the guy playing Superman on Supergirl before I gave up on it. It was too bubblegum for me. I like my DC stuff dark and gritty. Ross, in his turn, made fun of me for adoring Dean Cain‘s portrayal. I realize that I just said I prefer my DC stuff to be dark and gritty and that Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was anything but. I would like to point out that I was like 14 and Dean Cain was hot.

I mentioned Henry Cavill and then noted that he really only played Superman and wasn’t as well rounded. Not his fault, just the way the movies were laid out. I have every confidence that, given a proper chance, Henry Cavill could play an unassuming small town rube. Plus, I adore him.

Then we went through the list as discussed:

• Christopher Reeves – Great Clark Kent/so-so Superman
• Dean Cain – Cheesy but all around pretty good at both.
• Tom Welling – Only played Clark Kent but did a decent job
• Tim Daly (cartoon voice actor, because if we include Kevin Conroy in the Batman conversation, this one needs included too). Good Superman/so-so Clark Kent
• Brandon Routh – He really only played Superman and did a decent Christopher Reeves impression but i’m not sure he did anything to make the character his own
• Henry Cavill – AMAZING Superman/non-existent Clark Kent
• Tyler Hoechlin – (my own personal choice) Meh Superman/don’t know about Clark Kent.

Here’s the thing. Portraying a character that has two distinct personalities is hard. It’s hard to make everyone happy in their expectations of the characters that have been in popular culture for eons. As an actor, the real question is which identity is the real one? Which half of the personality is the true self and which one is false?

I sometimes think that Ross and I should be having conversations about life goals, or shit like that. But no, we debate who was the best Superman or Batman. I’m not entirely sure what that says about us, other than we love to debate weird shit.