Would the DCEU Earth have been better off if Kal had never existed?

[Superbat]

Zod never goes to Earth
Doomsday is never created
Lex doesn't summon Steppenwolf

Am I wrong or has his involvement has caused more harm than good.

[Coal Tiger]

You could say that for nearly any superhero.

[Adekis]

You could say that for nearly any superhero.

I'm with you on this. In Amazing Spider-Man, Peter enabled Curt to become the Lizard Man, for example. And most of Iron Man's movie villains either use Stark tech or were motivated by hatred of Tony.

Realistically, the answer is probably "yes," but that's just because movies like to tie everything up in a nice little bow so that there are as few sources of crazy SF stuff as possible. Makes it seem more realistic to people or something. Superman's threats just happen to be, proportionately, the biggest. Blaming him for them as if that means anything in the larger picture of either super-hero movies or Superman stories is just not really worth doing.

[Agent Z]

There was a Kryptonian outpost on Earth before Clark was even sent there. Zod would have come to Earth eventually and he likely would have succeeded in destroying humans if Clark wasn't around to help repel the invasion.

[Superbat]

There was a Kryptonian outpost on Earth before Clark was even sent there. Zod would have come to Earth eventually and he likely would have succeeded in destroying humans if Clark wasn't around to help repel the invasion.

Zod only went to Earth because Clark activated the beacon on the Kryptonian ship.

[Agent Z]

Zod only went to Earth because Clark activated the beacon on the Kryptonian ship.

He was already looking for outposts before that.

[Superbat]

He was already looking for outposts before that.

He explained to Clark that after finding the other outposts he had been waiting for 33 years until Clark activated the beacon. He didn't know about the Earth outpost till then or didn't care.

The only reason Zod wanted to terraform Earth was to recreate Krypton with the codex. No Clark means no codex so he even if went to Earth he would just collect the Kryptonian ship and leave.

[Superbat]

"You led us here"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIRiRgilstI

[adkal]

Zod only went to Earth because Clark activated the beacon on the Kryptonian ship.

The beacon probably would have been activated by humans once they dug down to it. It might have taken a few years (to get through the ice safely and get around the security drones) but they would have gotten there eventually.


However, according to the Prequel comic, the ship sent out a signal before Clark accessed it (he was on a fishing boat at the time).

[Superbat]

The beacon probably would have been activated by humans once they dug down to it. It might have taken a few years (to get through the ice safely and get around the security drones) but they would have gotten there eventually. However, according to the Prequel comic, the ship sent out a signal before Clark accessed it (he was on a fishing boat at the time).

The humans couldn't have activated the distress beacon because they didn't have the key, only Clark had it. The signal the humans picked up could have been a different local signal the ship was sending out but it only started going off because Clark was close enough for it to detect him.

You can say the same thing about Bruce Wayne in TDK and TDKRises. The Joker, Bane and Talia only try to destroy Gotham because Batman is there. Even in TDKRises, where Batman has been retired for 8 years and Gotham has improved, Bane and Talia still target the city and want to take down Batman. As mentioned earlier, Tony Stark creates a lot of his own villains and problems as well. Same for Oliver Queen and Barry Allen in the Arrowverse, and the Defenders characters from Marvel Netflix. Heroes are flames and villains are moths.

Ra's tells Bruce that the League of Assassins had been trying to destroy Gotham since the time of his parents. If Bruce hadn't become Batman, Gotham would have been destroyed. Batman did attract Joker and Talia did seek revenge, but that was because he had saved Gotham.

Stark created Ultron and put the world in danger but he and the Avengers undoing Thanos's snap is going outweigh anything else he's done. DCEU Superman doesn't have that.

[Doctor Know]

Ra's tells Bruce that the League of Assassins had been trying to destroy Gotham since the time of his parents. If Bruce hadn't become Batman, Gotham would have been destroyed. Batman did attract Joker and Talia did seek revenge, but that was because he had saved Gotham.

Stark created Ultron and put the world in danger but he and the Avengers undoing Thanos's snap is going outweigh anything else he's done. DCEU Superman doesn't have that.

MCU # of films 22 - DCEU # of films 7

There's a notable disparity. Maybe is the DC films can get to COIE or World War III or Final Crisis. Then Supes will have a moment to be the big hero you proclaim to want to see.

Not that I think it will make a difference. I've noticed that when Supes does have an accomplishment or inspire someone, most people don't notice. And if they do notice, most people don't care.

I have no confidence that people actually know what they want Superman to achieve or even be.

[adkal]

The humans couldn't have activated the distress beacon because they didn't have the key, only Clark had it. The signal the humans picked up could have been a different local signal the ship was sending out but it only started going off because Clark was close enough for it to detect him.

Don't dismiss the ingenuity of the likes of Lex et al. They would have found a way.

Zod didn't know the ship had been sending out a signal prior to Clark using the key - he assumed it was because of the El-key. Furthermore, the signal had been active for several months - Clark was on a fishing boat when it went off but he was then working for several months in the truck stop (we know this from Lois interviewing the waitress) before he heard about the discovery at Ellesmere Island and made his way there. That's more than enough time for a deep space signal to reach the Black Zero

Stark created Ultron and put the world in danger but he and the Avengers undoing Thanos's snap is going outweigh anything else he's done. DCEU Superman doesn't have that.

DCEU Superman stopped a dozen Kryptonians from terraforming the planet and wiping out the human race, and (unwillingly/unwittingly, admittedly) came back from the dead and stopped Steppenwolf from taking over the world and handing it over to Darkseid.

[Powerboy]

Zod never goes to Earth
Doomsday is never created
Lex doesn't summon Steppenwolf

Am I wrong or has his involvement has caused more harm than good.

At first, it would seem that way. Zod would have settled on some other planet and never come to Earth.

But Steppenwolf was only hesitating to return to Earth after thousands of years because Superman was there. Yes, conveniently, he could have returned anytime in the last several thousand years but waffled until Superman showed up and then had to wait.

It's always this sort of argument with superheroes as with everything else. We would be better off without them as long as we ignore the times we would no longer exist without them.

[stargazer01]

Zod never goes to Earth
Doomsday is never created
Lex doesn't summon Steppenwolf

Am I wrong or has his involvement has caused more harm than good.

who created Doomsday and called Steppenwolf? Lex. Nobody forced him to do it but his own hate.

In Superman 2, it's Superman himself who frees the Kryptonian criminals. In the same movie he decides Superman is not needed anymore and he loses his powers to be a normal human for Lois. But then in some convenient way he gets his powers back and is able to defend the world from Zod.

[Superbat]

who created Doomsday and called Steppenwolf? Lex. Nobody forced him to do it but his own hate.

In Superman 2, it's Superman himself who frees the Kryptonian criminals. In the same movie he decides Superman is not needed anymore and he loses his powers to be a normal human for Lois. But then in some convenient way he gets his powers back and is able to defend the world from Zod.

Lex did it because of his hate for Superman and was only able to do it because of Superman. No Superman means no Doomsday or Steppenwolf attacking Earth again.

Superman II sucked but in Superman: The Movie Lex's plan had nothing do with Superman. Zod's crew took over the world but they didn't kill as many people as Lex would have if Superman hadn't stopped his plan. Without Donnerverse Superman, Zod's crew wouldn't have terrorized Earth but this is outweighed by the millions of people that would have died due to Lex's plan.

The DCEU's Superman existence has caused more deaths that would have been prevented if he had never been sent to Earth.