What do we, as critics, viewers, listeners, readers, and fellow creators do when bad people make good art? Here’s an interesting attempt at an answer to the age old question.
by Jessica Mason
Yesterday, photos were released of Brandon Routh as Kingdom Come-era Superman in Crisis on Infinite Earths. After I got over how awesome he looked, I got to thinking about how great Routh was in the red and blue in Superman Returns…and how I don’t know if I’m comfortable ever watching that movie again, because of the allegations against both Kevin Spacey (who played Lex Luthor) and director Bryan Singer. It’s a tough spot, because Superman Returns is a really interesting transition point in comic book movies, but it would take some effort to watch without thinking of Spacey and Singer’s bad acts. This isn’t an isolated problem: Increasingly nowadays, as MeToo and cultural reckonings dominate the discourse, we have to consider what to do when the art we love is made by horrible people.
by Larry Brody
