An idea: Revise the Deceased Earth 2 Superman as the New 52 guy

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Occurred to me while thinking about Nicola Scott's Action Comics 1000 cover:



I was thinking about how she went with her own Earth 2 Superman design rather than Rebirth or Reborn as the example of trying to refine the principles behind the New 52 armor into something more workable - a fair enough choice in my opinion for her cover - and I realized that guy's now entirely redundant to the 'local multiverse'. As presented he was clearly meant to be Classic Superman relative to the guy we were seeing in Action Comics/Superman/Justice League, but now we have Classic Superman again in the driver's seat. Even given he's dead, his symbolic role is taken.

In that case, I was thinking about Sacred Knight's old proposition that the New 52 t-shirt and jeans dude turn out to be the resurrected pre-Crisis Earth-Two hero, and a modification seems in order. Since the JSA seems to be returning to the 'main' DCU there's little reason to reboot Earth 2 past where it was left off, but at the same time that already had a reboot at the end of its own book, making room for some tweaks (I think it had the pseudo-JSA as the first heroes, but that kind of defeats the setup of the entire thing, and I think memory tampering was involved in-universe, so I'd just have everyone's memories of the Trinity come back with time). In that case, if classic Superman is the main guy, might as well flip it and reimagine the late Earth 2 Superman as the t-shirt Golden Age rabble-rouser, as per benefiting his heritage, who grew up to wear the Scott costume, raise Power Girl, and ultimately die saving the world from Darkseid alongside Wonder Woman and Batman rather than get an ending as cheap as Final Days. If you wanted you could even revise it so that the original Batman/Superman arc still happened, but with the young out-of-control Earth 2 guys meeting their more seasoned Prime Earth incarnations.

It'd largely be a spiritual gesture, since the premise of that Earth demands he be dead in the present anyway. And I want far more of that guy's life and times incorporated into the main version anyway. But since the version originally presented by Robinson/Scott/Pak/Lee/Levitz/Dougherty no longer has a purpose, it'd be fitting to bring the lost Superman meant to capture the Golden Age spirit to the traditional home of the Golden Age takes, and a provide the validation of keeping that guy as part of the history of a 'major' Earth.

[GodofBoredom]

I'd rather not.

Rebirth Superman being all the previous versions, the T-Shirt social crusader, the impulsive superhero, the wise icon is what appeals to me, immensely, as you can actually see the growth. Even more so, when we get a glimpse younger streak, from time to time.

Cutting him up into little chunks, and each "Superman" gets one is not for me.

As for JSA, I'd rather they have nothing to do with Superman. The Justice League are the 'Gods Patheon in action', while the Justice Society is, in essence, a family story. Having separate versions of Supermen on the teams diminishes them both, imo.

[superduperman]

I'd like to see him make some kind of comeback just because I feel like he got screwed over. We saw his history and then they kill him off. I feel like he deserved better than that. Now, should he return to the main Earth? Probably not. But I think he deserved more than what happened to him.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think retroactively explaining that the New 52 Superman was the resurrection of the Earth-2 Superman, whose essence has been now once again been re-merged with the mainline Superman would be a nice touch.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I'd rather not.

Rebirth Superman being all the previous versions, the T-Shirt social crusader, the impulsive superhero, the wise icon is what appeals to me, immensely, as you can actually see the growth. Even more so, when we get a glimpse younger streak, from time to time.

Cutting him up into little chunks, and each "Superman" gets one is not for me.

As for JSA, I'd rather they have nothing to do with Superman. The Justice League are the 'Gods Patheon in action', while the Justice Society is, in essence, a family story. Having separate versions of Supermen on the teams diminishes them both, imo.

I agree that he should be one character with many facets now. Tomasi and Gleason's Action Comics #1000 story crystallized that notion for me. There's just one Superman, but he exists simultaneously throughout the Multiverse in many permutations. The one we read about in the monthly comics is the flagship version that boils the strongest elements of all of them down to one iconic version, but there's an infinite number of variations of himself out there.

[Sacred Knight]

Actually its flipped a bit, my idea was that the current, main Superman would be revealed to actually be the spiritually successor to Earth-Two Superman, where New 52 Superman (or a Superman like him) would end up being the successor of the original Earth-One Superman. But either or doesn't really matter when all is said and done. I really just equate the current Superman more with E-Two because he has a wife and family now, kinda like the Mr. and Mrs. Kent days. Plus it'd be kinda cool if Earth-0 was a revamped Earth-Two because finally the designations would make sense. That was the "first" world, so it has the earliest designation, zero.

I wouldn't have minded if the Morrison stuff had been merged to the singular Earth-0 Superman, but that does not sound like that's the case. Most New 52 aspects were erased with Reborn, not merged, all of Morrison's stuff seemingly on the cutting room floor in favor of Secret Origin. This seems like it might be made concrete in the Sideways story with a T-shirt and jeans era Superman, as considering the lore of that book, its very likely that's an alternate Superman in of itself. Either way it does seem like Morrison's origin is up for grabs, by their own design.