Is there anything that disqualifies someone from being a Superman fan?

[SiegePerilous02]

If you're a fan of even at least one version of Superman, regardless of what version it is, then you're a fan.

I do think someone who considers Injustice Superman their favorite would not have a lot of opinions I'd agree with, but I would try not to be arrogant enough and tell them they are not real fans.

[Kuwagaton]

Injustice Superman is easily the best "behind the wheel" Superman experience. There's a lot to like about him aside from his story.

Virtually anyone involved with production of Superman Returns

Oh, and Five For Fighting.

It makes me happy that Superman is this inescapable pop culture fixture and anyone can make a reference to him. Although honestly, most of those songs out there seem like a special kind of terrible.

[Buried Alien]

I guess the only way to get disqualified if one truly does not like or have any interest in Superman at all in any way, shape, or form.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Soubhagya]

I guess the only thing that disqualifies one from being a fan is desiring to not be a fan. To actively stay away from everything Superman. Anyone with even a preliminary interest in something Superman can be called a fan.

Of course, i find some ideas weird. Say someone says 'my favorite Superman is Injustice Superman and i don't like Superman from main comics'. But even that is good. They have found something which they like. I would surely encourage them to continue with their favorite Superman and try something more. There's a long history of Superman in comics. And surely there must be something more to like in Superman published as a hero. Superman is a hero. And Injustice is a perverted version. Perversion means its 'fundamentally' distorted but there is something common to the original. This approach is like 'You like a certain version. Great! Now please try this. You may like it'. I went with Injustice because its the most unusual example. Because Injustice in no way represents Superman. He's a perverted version. (I am speaking perverted as something twisted and corrupted and not about the more commonly understood meaning which is a bit different. A word to those who may be thinking i am calling Injustice guy a pervert).

Now someone who has spent some time with Superman develops a certain taste. They may like something and dislike something else. In that case, we are both fans. But with different tastes. We may not agree with a lot of things, but anyone who loves Superman enough to like something, read something, discussing or thinking about something, in short having love for the character its difficult to call that person not being a fan. That's why i don't like comments like you are not a fan because you like this or this.

Injustice however makes me raise an eyebrow. He is a version completely unlike Superman. A rejection of the basic idea of Superman as a good guy. Perhaps by redefining good itself in the context of the comic. I don't think anyone can be 'only' a fan of Injustice guy. There has to be something in him which is common to Superman of 80 years of history. Find it and try to expand. Just like i would say to someone who says i like only Christopher Reeve, and i don't care for any other version. The attitude then appears more casual in both examples. I have an experience that if i have love for something i want more.

So, fan means love. And love is intricately related to action. Action means everything here. Whether it be thinking (which comes from some input in the first place. Whether reading or watching a show for example which are actions in themselves) or visiting a Superman festival, or even looking up images in google. Anything. Love and action is very intricately related. If you have some love, some form of action follows which increases one's love and so on.

In short, i don't find any fan to be disqualified as a fan, even if i don't agree with most of the things. Rather differences shall be celebrated in my opinion. How can there be differences in opinion unless there's an opinion? And how can there be an honest opinion without some kind of love?

[Last Son of Krypton]

If you don't like Superman, you're not a fan.

[Celgress]

With all seriousness, I can't think of anything that would.

[The World]

I think you are holding yourself back from being a Superman fan if you don't check out certain runs. Like if the only exposure you had to superman was man of steel, the new 52 era or injustice comics, you are missing out on a lot of what Superman is. And I say this as someone who was just a new 52 fan at first, I finally went back and read some of the runs by John Byrne, Dan Jurgens, Joe Kelly, Geoff Johns(pre flashpoint), etc.. and I honestly found a whole new love for the character. Again, I'm not saying liking just one exploration of the character the most is bad, but if you disregard any of the older comics or history the character had, you are missing out on what truly makes him great.

But how much have you read of Siegel and Shuster? Siegel's second run? Pasko? Binder? Maggin? Bates? Hamilton? I'd say reading the works of those guys is more important than anything Geoff Johns has written at the very least. But that's the thing with Superman fanbase, it's not really like the Wonder Woman or Batman fanbases where you're instructed to just read the characters to understand them. Superman's fans all seem to have agenda's where they're trying to convince everyone of their viewpoint of Superman and in that way it's more similar to the Flash or Green Lantern fanbases where everyone's afraid for the future of their favorite Lantern and are constantly trying to convince everyone why that particular version of the character is the greatest.

It's why the whole "They're all more or less the same guy" shtick just doesn't work because no one really believes that, it's just a sloppy attempt at blurring the lines to add legitimacy to this version or that version by absorbing what they feel to be significant of the other versions. But if the N52 did anything was that it reaffirmed everything I had witnessed prior to it during Post-Crisis with the Superman fanbase. Supes fanbase is largely comprised of disparate hermit readers that latch onto what they enjoy about the character and desperately reject anything else regardless of whether it came before or after what they like. I mean if you found him too aggressive in the N52 you simply aren't going to make it through the Golden Age Superman that guy made the N52 guy look like Mary Seacole. If Superman's suit being from Krypton instead of Earth was too much for you then how the hell were they going to deal with a guy who was ready to die with his birth parents ON Krypton in a seminal piece by Siegel himself in the Silver Age? It was painfully clear the post-crisis guys were at least significantly unfamiliar with Superman prior to 86' and in some cases believed that Byrne made the character.

It's why the constant finger wagging about "getting" or "understanding" the character seems increasingly silly to me. It's like watching a bunch of people trying explain to someone else how to get to a destination but they're all only willing to look at a portion of the map they like.

I can assure you that most of Superman's writers in the past 25 years know none of the works of any of the guys I just listed and if you have a fanbase and a writers pin that won't do any reading that threatens to contradict what they like and they don't know anything about the character beyond what makes them happy then that brings us back to the starting question of Superman no longer having any real meaning and just being whatever you like it to be.

[The World]

I don’t think anything would disqualify a person from being a Superman fan but there are a lot of people who sure don’t get the character. I guess people who think Superman should be a “badass” and his strength is the only important thing about him, don’t really get what he represents.

Like you said, if someone thinks Injustice Superman is the best version, they’re way off.

Pre-Crisis he was a complete badass. I've noticed a lot of post-crisis guys are iffy on this thought but Pre-Crisis he was a total badass.

[Kuwagaton]

Say someone says 'my favorite Superman is Injustice Superman and i don't like Superman from main comics'.

I tried to throw them a bone if they really exist, but although it's come up a few times, I don't see where these "Injustice primarily/only" fans are coming from. Who really says that? And if they do, do they mean the comic or the game, since there are different elements across mediums?

But how much have you read of Siegel and Shuster? Siegel's second run? Pasko? Binder? Maggin? Bates? Hamilton? I'd say reading the works of those guys is more important than anything Geoff Johns has written at the very least. But that's the thing with Superman fanbase, it's not really like the Wonder Woman or Batman fanbases where you're instructed to just read the characters to understand them. Superman's fans all seem to have agenda's where they're trying to convince everyone of their viewpoint of Superman and in that way it's more similar to the Flash or Green Lantern fanbases where everyone's afraid for the future of their favorite Lantern and are constantly trying to convince everyone why that particular version of the character is the greatest.

Pre crisis fan to pre crisis fan, what makes those stories inherently important besides age? Which ones, since that's hundreds if not a thousand stories?

Of course I don't speak for DP, but those seemed like examples. If someone takes exception to Bates, Binder, Hamilton, etc. (basically, everyone except Siegel whose oldest comics are reprinted constantly) not being brought up regularly as writers, it's probably because DC hasn't been encouraged to promote those runs. Therefore they remain lesser known and not many people think deeply about those contributions or get to dive in. The Superman readership basically bottlenecks from 1992 to now, unfortunately, and for many people being a fan doesn't mean the relentless pursuit of smelly old books across the internet.

If I had to describe my agenda as a Superman fan, it'd be to promote more Superman. There are clearly things I like and accept more easily than others, so I push them as I can, but the fun thing to me isn't having people agree so much as sharing that experience of those delightful things. If someone reads what I like and doesn't like it, well, it's better than not reading it, imo.

But you know, it goes both ways when people throw the post crisis version under, haha. No one even brought up the pre vs post tangent before you just did. Like your following examples:

It's why the whole "They're all more or less the same guy" shtick just doesn't work because no one really believes that, it's just a sloppy attempt at blurring the lines to add legitimacy to this version or that version by absorbing what they feel to be significant of the other versions. But if the N52 did anything was that it reaffirmed everything I had witnessed prior to it during Post-Crisis with the Superman fanbase. Supes fanbase is largely comprised of disparate hermit readers that latch onto what they enjoy about the character and desperately reject anything else regardless of whether it came before or after what they like. I mean if you found him too aggressive in the N52 you simply aren't going to make it through the Golden Age Superman that guy made the N52 guy look like Mary Seacole. If Superman's suit being from Krypton instead of Earth was too much for you then how the hell were they going to deal with a guy who was ready to die with his birth parents ON Krypton in a seminal piece by Siegel himself in the Silver Age? It was painfully clear the post-crisis guys were at least significantly unfamiliar with Superman prior to 86' and in some cases believed that Byrne made the character.

I can assure you that most of Superman's writers in the past 25 years know none of the works of any of the guys I just listed and if you have a fanbase and a writers pin that won't do any reading that threatens to contradict what they like and they don't know anything about the character beyond what makes them happy then that brings us back to the starting question of Superman no longer having any real meaning and just being whatever you like it to be.

Like how most of the people who wrote Superman in the last 25 years are over 50 years old now and could have easily read further back than most of us. And plenty of them have given very specific examples of the pre-crisis material they grew up reading. Jeph Loeb even recounted to working out the ideas of Superman #247 with Maggin.

Pre-Crisis he was a complete badass. I've noticed a lot of post-crisis guys are iffy on this thought but Pre-Crisis he was a total badass.

And you know, how it gets weird to maintain Superman as a badass. Superman is great in a way that many other characters from competing eras aren't because there's a weight to the most powerful man on the planet being the one who lets his guard down. Morrison described him basically as a man who invulnerable to virtually all but heartbreak. Maggin (thanks to BBally for that vid) asserted that Batman would always beat him because that's where Batman's heart is versus his. I think just seeing Superman only as a badass and hinging fandom on that leads to disappointment in the moments where he really isn't.

[superduperman]

Well, only liking Injustice might do it!

In all seriousness, though, we all have versions we like and versions we don't like. Now, if the versions we don't like are versions someone else likes, does that make us less a fan in their minds? If someone doesn't like your favorite version, are they less of a fan to you? I like Smallville but a lot of fans don't because of the teen angst stuff. Which I totally get because it got on my nerves a lot too. I didn't care for the DCAU version of Superman for a whole slew of reasons too numerous to list here. But if that's the version that someone else grew up with, am I less of a fan in their eyes? To go back to the example of Injustice, what is the persons reason for liking it? "The finally made Superman a badass by having him kill people!" So it sounds like the reason you like this version is because of a characteristic that doesn't exist in any other version of the character. So what you really want is the Punisher with Superman's powers. That might mean you're not a Superman fan so much of a fan of a particular version of Superman. Which is a wholly separate issue.

Cracked did an article about something like this a while back but the example they used was Batman. So you have someone who only saw the Nolan movies but considers themselves a Batman fan. They've never read a Batman comic and have no interest in doing so. Are they really a Batman fan or just a fan of a particular version of Batman? And is that really a bad thing? If someone only watches episodes of Sherlock but have no interest in the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories, are they really fans of Sherlock Holmes or just fans of the show? And is their fandom "less than" fans who have a much broader interest? It would make going to conventions difficult if all you want to talk about is one version of a character. I think there is a difference between being a fan of a version of a character and being a fan of the character themselves. I have versions of Superman that I love and versions that I hate and most just fall somewhere in between. There are versions I'm completely indifferent to either because I don't know much about them or have no real interest in them.

Here's a delima: Are fans of Teen Titans Go! Really fans of Teen Titans? Or just fans of funny cartoons and this one happens to use super-heroes to do that? If they like Cyborg on the show is their fandom "less than" someone who grew up with the Wolfman/Perez version? Toxic fandom is scaring off normal people who just want to enjoy something. The moment we start having entrance exams to fandom is the moment fandom dies. No one benefits from that.

[Miles To Go]

It makes me happy that Superman is this inescapable pop culture fixture and anyone can make a reference to him. Although honestly, most of those songs out there seem like a special kind of terrible.

They'd have been all over Superman Lives if it'd been made.

Only one I've ever liked was Daughtry's "Waiting for Superman". Stick that on a Snyder film and I'd be giddy.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

What about these two?

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

[GreatKungLao]

Only one I've ever liked was Daughtry's "Waiting for Superman". Stick that on a Snyder film and I'd be giddy.

[Lukmendes]

Only someone who doesn't get the character at all, preffers their own version over any of the adaptations, basicaly someone who knows nothing and only likes one idea of the character, but even someone like that I wouldn't "disqualify" as a fan, just see as someone who likes something about him, which in a way makes them a fan, even if not a knowledgeable and willingly ignorant one. Trying to disqualify someone as a fan is honestly pety elitism and it only pushes people away for stupid reasons.