BEST versions of Superman!

[superduperman]

In the previous thread I asked about the worst versions of Superman. Now, for some positivity: Which are the BEST versions of Superman? It can be any version from any medium.

Ruby Spears Superman: This is, far and away, my favorite version. It defined the character for me as a kid in a way that I didn't realize even then. Mostly it was the Family Album segments. It was the first time I actually saw him as a person and not just a figure. As a kid, seeing one of your heroes as your age getting to use his powers was one of the best experiences of my life. If there is a downside, it's that 1) the show really hasn't aged well and 2) all other versions compare poorly to it. Particularly their origins.

Donner movies: Like RS this version also defined the character for me even earlier on. Now, we've hashed out all the problems with it in the previous thread and I don't think we necessarily need to go over them again here. Suffice it to say, this isn't exactly the most realistic version they've ever done. But Christopher Reeves is probably the closest version to a real life Superman that will ever be. Both in terms of look and personality. He also defined Zod for all time. It was also the first real "alien" looking version of Krypton ever done that inspired all future versions. From Byrne's MOS to the DCEU's MOS! It also opened the door for the very idea of super-hero movies. For better or worse, this movie changed how the entire world sees Superman.
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Golden Age: I think the appeal, at least for me, is the simplicity of it. The character was still being defined so much of what we know as the mythos hadn't been established yet. He was just a really strong guy who pretended to be weak in his everyday life until someone needed his help. Most of the stories were more down to Earth and he took on actual corrupt crooks and businessmen and politicians. And he had some abilities he doesn't have today! Like being able to reshape his face to look like other people and hypnotizing someone just by looking at them.

Silver Age: This is just a fun era for the character all around. Nothing too serious and plenty of mythos to work with. I like him somewhat for the opposite reason I like the GA version, more of a playground to play in. Curt Swan was THE definitive Superman artist and actually made the fifties and sixties a believable looking world. Much of what we know of as the mythos was established during this time and it was all done playfully and fun!

Bronze Age: This one's a little further down the list because I don't think it's quite as "fun" as it's earlier incarnation. But I still like it largely because it essentially is the same as the SA just a little more serious. The mythos was refined and more functional continuity was established. If there was a downside, it was that it wasn't a stable continuity in the sense that we know of one today. Which might have something to do with why he might have been rebooted.

Birthright: This is probably my favorite comic book origin. Krypton looks just right. Clark goes out into the world to find himself. You have both small town and evil billionaire Lex. The fake alien invasion sounds exactly like something Lex would do. Lois and Perry's relationship is about perfect. DC probably should have just sat on this script and turned it into a movie. I'm really disappointed this didn't work out. And I can understand why. Trying to force it into the mainstream books as the official origin was probably one of the stupidest things DC could have done thinking that fans wouldn't call them on it. It was also the start of all the continuity problems DC is currently facing. I'm guessing if they had this to do over again, they wouldn't.

Smallville: I feel like I'm going to have to justify some of these and this is one of them. COIE created a huge divide among Superman fandom. I feel like Smallville came the closest to bridging the two versions. It had all the best elements of both and knew how to use them. Lex was both his friend and a corrupt billionaire. Clark had powers early on but not all of them. He was a super-boy but not a Superboy. Smallville was still a suburb of Metropolis AND in Kansas. The downside being that a lot of the stories went off the rails sometimes. Their Doomsday comes to mind. Lana as an ancient witch for another. The teen angst got a bit much but consider the channel it was on. They took some creative liberties but I don't feel like they took too many.

New 52: Again, this is one that I feel like I have to justify. First of all, I know that it messed up the rest of the DCU and I'm sorry about that. It was handled poorly in other titles and a lot of characters, Superboy being one of them, didn't come out of it the best way. That having been said, I felt like Superman needed a clean slate. He had something like three origins alone in less than a decades time by then and a hard reboot seemed like the fresh start he needed. The callbacks to the GA were also a huge selling point. Yes, we lost the marriage. Again, another unnecessary casualty. And the WW relationship just seemed off. And the books went off the rails pretty quickly, unfortunately. I'm one of the ones who took it the hardest when Rebirth happened because I felt like it was going back to the things that New 52 were getting away from.

Earth One: Okay, I saved this one for last because I knew it would be the hardest to justify. But hear me out: First of all, I don't think this should be the mainstream version of Superman. At. All. That was the whole point of the series. To do a different take on DC's main characters. To show these heroes on a learning curve. The Batman and WW books did the same thing. And I think some people may have missed that. That having been said, there are things in it I wish they had done with the main books and maybe that's why I was drawn to it. I felt like it went back to the simplicity of the GA. Especially at a time when the main comics were in a weird limbo. I didn't like Johns SO and the two page setup in it was just the simple version I wanted. There was also the fact that his personality made sense. For someone who spent his entire life hiding, of course he'd be reluctant to come out of the shadows. This doesn't mean I agreed with everything he did, but when you consider his circumstances, super powered kid growing up in a small town with no one to relate to, his perspective starts to make a little more sense. I also think he mellowed out in the later volumes. Not as much as he probably should have but the kid who was reluctant to help people in the first volume was clearly gone by the second. All that having been said, his reluctance to help in the first volume, and some of his mistakes later on, are blotches against him and that's why he isn't higher on the list. But I DO feel the movies should have swiped his costume wholesale!

Feel free to share your list! And feel free to criticize mine if you want, I won't take it personally.

[Soubhagya]

Now we are talking! Thor meme is appropriate(even though out of place). I absolutely love a thread on best versions. Why else am i here? At the same time it requires some thought. I will be back.

Let me post pics of two versions i love a lot. There are more then these two.

[GreatKungLao]

DCEU Superman. In general I like the idea to approach him The Watchmen way. Zack Snyder took a comic book character and put him in realistic world with realistic human perception. This is a world without deus ex machinas, which made it possible to put him into a situation where he had to make a hard call and then live with its consequences. DCEU explores the possibility of existence of heroism under the pressure of harsh reality and this Superman does a great job. Despite the worship, despite the public hate, he still choses to do the right thing and sacrifices himself for the sake of humanity because of their potential for goodness. This is a Superman who calls his mom in the middle of the night for reassurance. This is Superman who can doubt himself and the idea of Superman, but still come along and be one for the world. He does what he does after experiencing some major ups and downs, but in thethe end he comes to conclusion that being Superman is what he wants to do, not what he must do. The entire dialogue with Martha was about that, he doesn't owe this world a thing, so he can do whatever he feels is right out of his own choice and believes, not out of obligation to anyone. I also love how dynamic of his relationship with Lois was changed, we have witnessed double identity route way too many times and having her discover his secret right away gives a whole new perspective to a love story of 80 years old couple, plus it shows how smart Lois Lane actually is since she tracked him down using her best tool - investigative journalism, that's how good she is at what she does in DCEU. In BvS it was shown especially good how corrupted power and manipulation of information can turn people against their hero through deception and that having emotional effect on Superman, but despite that in the end he doesn't lose faith in humanity, even when humanity loses its faith in him and that is beautiful. There is this powerful scene in Ultimate Edition where Clark watches the news and sees that African woman saying "I want to look him in the eyes and ask how he decides which lives count and which ones do not" as if like he is a God who has the power to do everything, but choses not to, but that is the point of entire movie captured in that news feed after Clark saves Mexican girl "Maybe he is not a devil or a god figure, maybe he is just a guy trying to do the right thing" and that's true, he never asked for his powers, but having he choses to do the most good he is possibly able to. In DCEU man in Superman is a major part of Clark that indicates him not being entirely perfect, but Super stands for his ability to overcome the flaws and improve himself and that is much more inspirational, because if he can come out on top after everything that has been thrown at him then so can we.

Of course I can't leave Smallville out of the picture. Having 10 seasons long TV show dedicated to young Clark Kent still feels like a blessing, especially since it does a lot of justice to his character showing how he was developing his sense of morality and heroic attitude. Smallville also has the best Clark and Lex relationship probably ever, seeing them as best friends was heartwarming and that made it especially painful witnessing them becoming arch enemies of each other "I'm sorry I couldn't save you Lex". Smallville was filled with easter eggs and call backs to source material, it had Christopher Reeves passing the torch to Tom Welling, magnificent Erica Durance as Lois Lane and a lot of other great stuff that this shown can be remembered by. Truly amazing version of the character.

As for comic books I will go with Rebirth. After 5 years in hell it feels good to have everything back what was stolen from us. Superman becoming a father and gaining this family dynamic brought much more welcome New than actual 52, ironically.

[FishyZombie]

I guess first to get out of the way: really all of the main continuity incarnations of Superman: Golden age, Silver/Bronze, PC, N52 and Rebirth. I've dug into bits of all of them, some more than others, and theres stuff I like and don't like about all of them, but most of them have contributed stuff I love about the character, one way or another.

All Star Superman: Just really captured the magic of the character, I think. He's larger than life, he's inspiring, He wants to help others. Love All Star Supes.

Timmverse: yeah he's nerfed quite a bit, but they still did a lot of great stuff with him. George Newbern and Tim Daly both do really good jobs with him.

Justice League Action: Saw some bits online, he's charming as hell. Due to the comedic nature of the show, there's only so much they can do with him, but still it'd be a shame if this show doesn't stick around for at least a couple years.

Red Son: yeah not the most flattering portrayal of him, but still really interesting (much more interesting than Injustice) his values are shifted due to his upbringing, and he crosses some messed up lines, but he's still a great guy deep down.

[Adekis]

Still my favorite, maybe always will be. New 52 Superman for life.



I think Superman should always be a rebel and a little bit of a roughneck, and the post-Flashpoint Superman brought that to the table, but he also brought a real sense of depth. It wasn't enough to be the world's biggest badass, and this version of Superman was always aware of that and always tried to view the world complexly- but still wasn't afraid to be a badass like some versions can sometimes be. He also had a real sense of integrity as Clark Kent that I think most versions don't have, refusing to make his name reporting on "Superman" stories where a lot of versions of Clark spring at the chance to fake-interview himself or whatever.

I still think the single biggest contribution to the character will turn out to be the pure compassion of the street level mentality that he'd take to space with him, and the way that the pseudo-Golden Age literalizes that concept so perfectly.

Still, despite the fact that the post-Flashpoint version is my favorite, I think that the Silver / Bronze Age Superman is probably the best objectively.



He's just the purest and most "Superman" version of the character. He's got all the trappings and I often miss them in other versions of the character. I might really like the DCEU version of Superman, but he's never going to be Pals with Jimmy Olsen, casually pass the Bottle City of Kandor in his Arctic Fortress, or play catch with Krypto using asteroids!

I will say, even among versions of the character I'd argued against in the other thread, there's very few versions of Superman without any redeeming qualities, and very few with no drawbacks. For example, I may not be able to forgive the end of Superman II, and there's aspects I dislike about every Reeve movie, but Chris Reeve is a tremendous actor, and Chris Reeve's Superman is ultimately golden. Yeah he's so charming that the charm comes out his ears, but the reason he defined Superman for a generation isn't just charm, but genuine acting ability. Like it or not, no live-action actor before or since has ever sold the Kal-El/Clark Kent dichotomy half as well as Superman, and neither has any voice actor but Bud Collyer, and neither have very many artists who draw him in the books! And his performance gets better as the series goes on, too. I might not like the way that Clark can't figure out how to stand up to Rocky without powers, but that whole scene allows Reeve to nervously weave between his Clark Kent and Superman identities in a way that's at least trying to say something really interesting. Artistically, I respect that choice (not the whole movie, mind). Then in Superman III not only does Reeve solidify the difference between Clark and Superman more solidly than ever before, but he adds another version of Superman to the mix too! You just can't stop this guy! He even tries to develop Clark in a different direction in Superman IV, as he gets older and more crotchety. Obviously, the same problem doesn't apply to Superman, but he's older too, and has decided it's time to try his hand in the world's political arena. Sure the anti-nuclear weapons message was heavy-handed, but it attempted to do something really true to the character- political engagement! And yeah, I'm going to count that as part of Reeve's performance, because the whole thing was his idea. Superman IV might not be good in general, but my point is that Reeve's performance as Superman only ever gets more complex with time- he's never complacent with the character, and that's a sign of a great actor! In a lot of ways, the Superman franchise wasn't and still isn't good enough and complex enough to really deserve Chris Reeve's performance!

Of course, it is interesting that I can consider Chris Reeve to be one of the greatest versions of Superman when I also consider his version of Superman to be (generally through no fault of his) extremely troublesome and problematic, but...

Another example: I generally prefer the Bronze Age Superman to the post-Crisis Superman, Maggin and Bates to Byrne and Ordway. That said, the pre-Crisis Superman's relationship with the question of killing villains is genuinely ridiculous, and the post-Crisis Superman had a much more nuanced take on the subject that I think defines how Superman-in-General ought to approach the matter. Post-Crisis Superman also has far and away the best supporting cast, the best version of Metropolis and of the Planet, in the character's whole history. He exists at a point in comics history where huge long-form stories were possible in a way I'm not sure if they are anymore, and because of that he's also got some of the very best long-form Superman stories ever written. I absolutely love them.

Golden Age Superman is obviously phenomenal and just plain fun, and without him we wouldn't have the whole franchise. I don't think of him as a proto-typical Superman or anything like that, he's just Superman, utterly distilled and lacking a lot of the (fun, great) stuff that was later grafted onto him. I still think I plan on introducing any kids I ever have to Superman through the Fleischer cartoons. The radio show is similarly wonderful, and Bud Collyer brings the goods as my personal favorite voice for Superman and Clark to this day. The stories have to be a little bit slower paced and dialogue heavy because of the medium, and I think that's a good reason why these stories, despite being characteristically unreflective for an unreflective era of Superman stories, feel a little deeper to me, a little more focused and less bombastic. Maybe it's just the lack of visual spectacle, I don't know, but I do know that I love the Superman radio show. Also the Yellow Mask is the one of the best Superman villains ever and it's criminal that he's never come back after the radio show wrote him out.

I don't think Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman gets enough credit for just how damn good it is. Not just Dean Cain's Clark, although his wry weariness makes him a good evolution of the way George Reeves played Superman as a crazy world's straight-man, but Teri Hatcher's Lois and Jimmy and Cat Grant and Luthor and everyone. A lot of it probably came from being an adaptation of a version of Superman with such a rich supporting cast, but you mix that in with straightforwardly good episodic storytelling and you've got a classic. I still think Lane Smith is the best Perry White in any medium.

And this list goes on and on. The thread's basically just an excuse for nerds like us to rant about how much we love Superman!

[Kuwagaton]

For the comics:
Beginning mid 1971 with the last phase of Dorfman, to the very end of 2003 with Superman #200, Adventures #623, and Action Comics #810. This is a pretty stupid chunk of history to put in as good, but with some exceptions this is my wheelhouse. Anything I think of as what should be in Superman exists in this time frame. This is generally a comic period where I'd say creators served the properties and not the other way around, so there are maybe a dozen names you'll see across 90% of this stuff, and so many of the guests were top notch. And though I specify "for the comics," Superman is a comic character so to me this is the top of the top.

Other print:
Earth N. I love the Golden and Silver Age stories as filtered through a more composed Siegel or Schwartz. Swan and Boring got to do a lot more expressive work in the strips and the modern day collections are ultra meaty and satisfying.

Other media:
The Animated Series. The Superman Adventures comic is really about the same, so it's also included here instead of separated to print. But this was a streamlined post crisis where continuity was loose and the rest of the DC universe was more malleable. Charming and accessible without really aging, could take the best of what the comics had and translate it without watering the material down.

DCEU. Not very well loved, but incredibly earnest. I think GKL up there said it very well.

Injustice Superman: guy has some great aesthetics to his combos, and they're mostly pretty easy. They call him mid tier but I think he's got everything a player of any level would enjoy.

[Jon Clark]

I actually have a hard time answering this one.

I could take the route some of you took and cite Golden Age, Silver Age, or Bronze Age- except that while each has elements I love, they each have elements I don't as well. So if I say I loved the Superman of my youth (Bronze Age) I'm thinking of things like "For the Man Who Has Everything" or "Clark Kent Forever, Superman Never" but also including those stories where he dressed like a giant bird or became king of Kandor or found out he's been hypnotizing people subconsciously for years. Any of the major eras is just too broad to define Superman at his best.

And some of the TV shows hit the same roadblock. George Reeves did a great Superman. If you don't focus on how close they look physically compared to the comics I'd say the Reeves Superman actually comes closer to the character than the Chris Reeve version. But if I point you to the show as an example of Superman at his best you get the goofier Planet staff and plots along with it. Superman able to walk through walls by force of will is in "rebuild the Wall of China vision" territory. Lois & Clark has Dean Cain turning in a superb version of Clark but his Superman is for obvious reasons not as fully developed and again the campiness of the plots makes it hard to place at the top of the list.

On the flip side trying to pick a specific scene or even a singular in-continuity arc as the best Superman seems too limiting. I mean is "Superman in Action Comics #500" a sufficient version of the character really? Or "Henry Cavill when his Superman takes his first flight"?

I'd place Morrison's New 52 Action run as some of the best- but most of the rest of the New 52 was hit or miss sometimes even within a single arc. And Morrison's version just feels a little rushed. I can see the outline of Superman's history but I'd want to see more of how we get from point to point before crowning his version best. Grant has a lot of definitive Superman scenes in JLA or All-Star so he's in the running.

I'd once have sworn Superman's pinnacle was Elliot S! Maggin but he has a few ideas on the page I just can't take in my favorite hero. But the scenes of Superman's childhood in his novels is my go to image of what Superman should be. And Maggin's Luthor is also the nuanced version I think of as the "real" Lex.

And while Mark Waid knows all the facts and can give great descriptions of Superman ideas, his actual written work doesn't really show those ideas dramatically in many cases. I'd put the pre-Superman section of Birthright as a close second to Maggin for what a Young Clark should be like.

[_Feely_]

Pretty much everything by Morrison.

But you knew I would say that...

[SiegePerilous02]

All Star Superman
Silver/Bronze Age
Alan Moore's Supreme
New 52 (or at least Morrison's)
DCEU- more for what he could be than what's been allowed to be so far, and because he gets **** on by some way more than is warranted.

[Ascended]

Nice thread.

Like others, its hard to pin down what I consider the best Superman because every version has things I adore and things Im not big on.

Generally, I think Morrison writes the best Superman since Maggin, so anything he wrote is gonna end up on my "Best Of" list, from him moving the moon and fighting a king angel in JLA to taking the time to save a suicidal girl in All-Star to his folk-tale hero origin in the New52....no one gets Superman in today's industry like Grant Morrison, and he's influenced my views on the character more than any other writer out there.

Speaking of, I do maintain that the New52 origin was hands-down the best origin the character has ever had.

Also a big fan of the early Golden Age stories. It's hard to see that character as a "perfect" version of Superman, since a lot of rough edges had yet to be smoothed out and many of the concepts and characters we consider integral to the franchise hadn't been invented yet, but those early years were full of a raw kind of energy rarely seen since.

A lot of amazing stuff was done in the Triangle era, though the majority of the *really* good stuff was about the setting and supporting cast more than Clark himself.

But I think the closest we will ever get to an "objectively" best Superman is the pre-Crisis Bronze Age, between the "Clark as WGBS news anchor" and the first Crisis. All the wild and crazy ideas were still there but the stories were being approached with a more contemporary mindset.

[Kuwagaton]

I'm indifferent to what the best origin is in favor of what results from it, but I would have to agree with Morrison's Action Comics being the best Superman we've gotten since 2003 by quite a bit.

[Lvenger]

Nice thread. Always good to have some positivity about the character.

All Star Superman - An easy obvious choice but Morrison managed to distill everything great about Superman into a single series. The infinite possibilities of the Silver Age, the pathos of the Bronze Age, the humanity of the modern age which made his Superman feel mythic yet relatable at the same time. Few writers are able to balance the Super and the Man perfectly but Morrison is one who can do that.

Bronze Age Superman - Technically Bronze Age Superman is the same as Silver Age Superman but I feel the writing and approach to the character changed during the 70s. Obviously Elliot Maggins did the best work with Superman during that period but Dennis o'Neil and Cary Bates deserve credit for their stories as well. Bronze Age Superman kept some of the craziness of the Silver Age whilst shaking up the status quo with Clark working as a broadcaster rather than a journalist. If it weren't for the state of modern broadcasting, I might be interested in seeing Clark return to that job.

Pre Flashpoint Superman - This is the version of Superman I grew up with in the comics so I probably have some bias towards him. But when the right writers and creators handled the character, they really did wonders with this Superman. Joe Kelly, Grant Morrison, Kurt Busiek, Johns and Jurgens amongst others have written some definitive Superman stories in this period. Up until the New Krypton period, Pre 52 Superman was for the most part a well rounded depiction.

Reeves - It's a shame there were only two good Superman movies but even in the bad ones Reeves still had that tremendous sense in how he played Superman. He played the duality of Clark Kent and Superman perfectly and that scene where he takes off his glasses is a testament to his performance. Plus the depiction of Krypton was amazing as already mentioned.

DCAU Superman - This version was lucky to have two talented actors voice him, Daly and Newbern both nailed what the character should sound like. And despite how underpowered this Superman was, the characterisation and interpretation of Superman in both STAS and Justice League introduced the character to a new generation of fans.

Rebirth/Reborn Superman - I'm not sure if the current Superman is actually a different character from his Post Crisis self, I mean the main reason why I like him is because he's portrayed closer to his Pre 52 personality than the previous Superman. But the current status quo of Superman is probably the best and most stable the character's been in years from the end of Post Crisis to the New 52 period. The family dynamic works really well and the writing has been mostly good stuff.

[sunofdarkchild]

In the comics my favorite will probably always be the Triangle era. The quality was so consistent, as was the world-building and the character work. I don't think there was any other era where a story like the Death/Return saga would have worked half as well. This was a Superman who really inspired everyone around him, and the writing staff and editorial were on their a-game as far a continuity and quality control.

STAS is probably the most consistently well-written on-screen adaptation of Superman. So many fantastic episodes. Easily the best versions of the rogues gallery outside of comics.

Lois and Clark may not be as consistently excellent as STAS, but the performances really stand out, and Dean Cain was probably the most relatable version of Superman. And John Shea is the best Lex Luthor.

Christopher Reeve isn't my favorite, but his charm is undeniable.

[Kuwagaton]

This was a Superman who really inspired everyone around him, and the writing staff and editorial were on their a-game as far a continuity and quality control..

Absolutely. I consider the Triangle as the crown jewel of the Superman line regarding storytelling. My favorite example is probably the end of Action #656 going into Superman #47:




The character placement, dialogue, and some other details like Superman's cape matched up from the Action team to Ordway and the rest on the other title the week following. It's very simple, but requires great coordination and that pace was well maintained from over a decade. Kinda nuts.

[Adekis]

And John Shea is the best Lex Luthor.

As someone who doesn't really like Smallville except for Michael Rosenbaum, I feel obligated to defend his honor! :P

I definitely agree that John Shea is awesome though, and apart from the hair and the short tenure as villain I definitely like him better than the Clancy Brown Luthor.

And Dean Cain is 100% the most relatable Superman, hands down. Sure he might not have as much nuance in the difference between Superman and Clark Kent as I might find ideal, but his take on the character is expertly executed, incredibly charming, and was voted "Superman most likely to go out for a beer and watch the game" by the class of 1986.

Absolutely. I consider the Triangle as the crown jewel of the Superman line regarding storytelling. My favorite examples is the end of Action #656 going into Superman #47:



The character placement, dialogue, and some other details like Superman's cape matched up from the Action team to Ordway and the rest on the other title the week following. It's very simple, but requires great coordination and that pace was well maintained from over a decade. Kinda nuts.

Not to mention that the villains were probably more diverse than any other period in Superman's history! I occasionally like to complain, but in terms of how good the stories actually are, I just cannot get enough of this stuff! My only regret with triangle books is that it's hard to know which issue to track down next sometimes, haha!