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Tarantino, in a nutshell, proposes that the Clark Kent persona is a caricature of humanity, based on how Superman views us — i.e., fragile and ineffectual. While most fans consider Bill’s Superman musings a garbage assessment of the character, some believe Tarantino was right on the money. Both opinions are frankly irrelevant: Bill is wrong, but that was likely the director’s intention.
Quentin Tarantino Isn’t Using Bill to Express His Own Opinions on Superheroes
Bill’s monologue is often mistaken as Tarantino’s own feelings on the Last Son of Krypton, and it’s easy to understand why. Screenwriters often use their characters as mouthpieces for their own opinions and beliefs. While Tarantino has done this in the past — John Travolta’s famous Pulp Fiction speech about the European names for American fast food sprang from a real-life trip the director had taken to Amsterdam — there’s no reason to believe he took that approach when writing Kill Bill.
What’s more likely is that Bill’s assumption that Superman looks down on humanity with pity and disdain is more a product of his own skewed view of the world rather than a reflection of Tarantino’s comic book literacy or lack thereof. For proof, let’s look at the greater context of the scene where Bill gives his grand speech on Metahumans. Bill has just injected The Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), with a truth serum so he can question her on her decision to quit the life of a top-shelf assassin in favor of roleplaying a humble record store clerk in rural Texas.
While waiting for the serum to take effect, Bill begins monologuing like every narcissistic movie villain since the dawn of cinema. Rather than giving away his evil master plan, however, Bill instead delivers a diatribe about Superman and how his “disguise” as mild-mannered Clark Kent mirrors that of Kiddo’s nom de guerre, Arlene Plympton. According to the self-described “murdering bastard,” Clark Kent is a “costume” that Superman wears to blend in with us.”
“Clark Kent is how Superman views us,” explains Bill. He then goes on to list the key aspects of the Clark Kent persona from his point of view, “He’s weak, he’s unsure of himself, he’s a coward.” “Clark Kent,” Bill states, “is Superman’s critique on the whole human race.”
“Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plympton,” Bill continues, drawing a parallel between Superman’s secret identity and what he calls “the costume of Arlene Plympton,” that Beatrix Kiddo would have worn to fit in in suburbia while hiding the “natural born killer,” she is at heart.
