Reboot One Superman Character

[WalterO5james]

Tana Moon. i'd have as homeless shelter worker in her mid-to-late teens, who meets Conner when he busts out of Cadmus and crashes at her workplace for a few days.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I really, really dig this idea, Johnny. There was always something so damn confident about Terra Man's origin. It used old spaghetti western ideas, but just confidently presented in, well, space. You adding the idea that Terra Man doesn't even give a damn about the fact that Clark is an alien, but rather is more fixated on the fact that he's a Kent is a a strong, simple, and effective idea.

There's a new found sense of western style dread to when her and Clark finally clash. If this were a movie Tarantino would write and direct it.

Thanks! It must be a generational thing, the idea of Space Cowboy just doesn't sell anymore. In some ways, I think Lobo has taken Terra Man's place. What I find interesting is how much Starlord reminds me of Terra Man, especially the whole bit of being raised by galactic pirates, of course Terra Man had no pity for his Yondu. I definitely think Clint Eastwood was the original inspiration for Terra Man, but he always looked more portly. He reminds me of Vicente Fernandez (look him up) the way Curt Swan would draw him at times., actually that's how I would re-boot Terra Man. I'd make him a Space Vaquero or Mariachi Mercenary and get Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to direct it.

[Mutant God]

The Toyman. He's a vicious sociopath who makes puppets from the corpses of the people he kill.

It sounds more like a gimmick for a Batman villain.


My choice:
Nuclear Man - A human ego driven businessman who endorses and makes profit off of nuclear power is given super powers after being caught in an accident. Power corrupts him even further making him lie even more and always tries to play the victim. Personality wise I say a mix of Mr. Burns and Donald Trump.

[daBronzeBomma]

Everyone.

All of the Superverse characters, including and especially, Superman himself.

Rooting HARD for a Crisis in 2024, followed by hard reboot for everyone in 2025.

Rebooting Supes requires its own thread. But his supporting cast and rogues gallery? We'll take those one at a time.

More to come ...

[TheRay]

I would like to see Saturn Queen as a Zatanna rogue.

[godisawesome]

Resurrected this thread because I noticed some similar thoughts in threads about Metallo, Parasite, Toyman, and others.

And I’m going to repackage the posts I had in those threads for this one... but first:

Power Girl

The spunky, sassy, and full of attitude Karen Starr has a funny origin.

She would have been a failed clone of Kara, like the other Bizarro-Supergirls, who’s creation was ordered and carried out by Lex Luthor via corrupt members of STAR Labs. Lois Lane and Jimmy managed to uncover it, though, and Emil Hamilton wound up rescuing one of the cloning cylinders, and worked overtime to try and rescue the clone inside, hiding it as his own side project.

He wound up managing to stabilize the clone with human DNA... from his dead daughter. One of the side effects was that the clone experienced a slightly increased rate of maturation. Because Hamilton had grown to view the clone, named Karen Starr after both Supergirl and his old job at Starr Labs, as his daughter, he grew desperate to try and fix her increased aging. So... he approached Luthor, working for a few years on projects while trying to conceal exactly why he needed LexCorp’s computers. Meanwhile, Karen, grew from pre-adolescence to adulthood before he managed to restore a more normal aging process, and grew to embrace the internet, TV, and Hamilton’s library of books as her world, while desperately desiring to interact with others behind a computer screen (Hamilton forced her to abandon social media profiles she created as soon as she got too old to fit her initial profile set-up, so she’s not entirely without social interaction... but she’s still initially awakes in public - but fearless because she’s a major social butterfly.)

Eventually, Hamilton was forced to ask Superman for help when Lex went to far, and Karen got involved, revealing herself, leading to an a wayward interaction with Supergirl and an also awkward public debut... before she quickly decided to assert herself

Karen embraced her new found freedom, and quickly became a minor celebrity while dealing with the legal ramifications of being an explicitly artificial sentient being cloned from an alien, but also very much a native Earther compared to Superman and Supergirl’s publicly known persona. She managed to start the Starr Foundation with Lana Lang’s help to fight for her rights and those of other individuals tied to the insanity created by all the sci-fi stuff in Metropolis.

She was offered/encouraged to join/semi-drafted to join the United Nations sanctioned Justice League International, and that’s why she’s usually out of Metropolis, and as someone who still loves interacting with other living human beings, she’s ecstatic to have the world to travel.

...But because Hamilton went to Lex, and didn’t manage to totally hide his work, Lex has data that shows how to blend human DNA and Kryptonain, and begins work on Project KR aka Project 13 aka Project Lionel...

[Will Evans]

La Encantadora.

Magic used. Thief. Cares for her brother and little else. Flirty and seductive. Can hurt Superman because she’s a magic user.

[godisawesome]

Toyman

Winslow Schott as the elderly, grandfatherly Toyman who is a mildly evil Santa Claus with a soft spot for kids (in a *good* way, mind you) who just happens to have a sadistic side towards adults who’ve crossed him...

“Junior” Schott, who’s the demented man-child with the toy-mask after making a bad deal with an Apokiliptikan-affiliated portion of Intergang; his transformation is something that drive the older Schott into semi-retirement, and he’s operating more on Blue and Orange Morality...

The Toyman formerly known as Jack Nimball, who’s basically a dead Jack Nimball that Junior tried to “fix” and improve, looking like the Alex Ross designed marionette version, and acts as Junior’s public face and proxy, almost like a video-game Avatar, with a very dark and macabre attachment to him/it from Junior (“My favorite toy!”)... until Jack manages to become sentient again, and retake control of his body thanks to the eldritch nature of Apokiliptikan tech.

Hiro, the Japanese amateur superhero who’s suing Schott for the name because he trademarked it first! .... and it’s bad publicity.

[manwhohaseverything]

Make Jon Kent evil because Clark ***** up in a really bad but understandable way. Jon intimate knowledge and ability to psychologically destroy Clark making Jon Kent into a Satan figure to Clark Kent. His hatred for Clark should be understandable, not something that Clark can truly be able to apologize for.

Maybe this can be his backstory....https://www.google.com/amp/s/screenr...storyline/amp/

Jon Kent is resurrected of course, but he is angry at Clark for betraying him. Becoming a monstrous Satan figure to Clark Kent as he becomes his joker.

Why I am doing this

Because Jon Kent and Connor would make a interesting rivalry. Psychopathic son vs the good clone who is more a son to Clark at this point than Jon ever would allow himself to be. A rivalry between them would be nice.


But I would not do any of this within continuity

This is jason toddish as someone else here said. not that i would mind jon taking on more jason toddish role. Heck! I would add in the goldenage superman or luffy-esque flair as well . To be different, How about we reverse this? How about we make the kid the hero, superman and his clone can be the bad guys? Heck! With Bendis's run it wouldn't take much effort to just replace ultraman with superman and lois. They are the abusive and neglectful. Conner follows in Clark's foots steps,after denying the legacy. He takes on a role of a traditional savior of metropolis figure. Conner telekinesis goes into massive upgrades. Lex's memories and intelligence began to be triggered in conner. He becomes more of a showman in terms of his psyonics. He becomes sort of like the silverage superman . He is uber powerful outsider. He faces the challenge of his personhood being coming to question due to him being a clone. his own resemblances to postcrisis superman being something used to enforce that and drives doubts in him. He actively ran from it before,now begins to face it. He has all these wierd out there adventures. He is the most powerful being in the universe. His stories are essentially morality plays.

Jon is sort of like the spiderman-esque,friendly neighbourhood dude who has mischievous adventures as well. He is more of an acrobat in terms of movement. He doesn't fly in traditional sense. Jon just becomes disillusioned by Superman, his royalty status and him as a figure.Jon is the outlaw fighting for the little guy. He starts living with jimmy and bibbo. He doesn't have a strict rule against killing. Kids are of the table. Anything that threatens a child would get their daylights beaten out of them. He kinda isn't a sun god. Jon is the idealist, with a disregard for rules.He wears the old and superman's first suit. this time, its a gift from dick grayson, alfred and damian wayne.It's kindof a return gift from him for the nightwing idea. Dick grayson gives him a suit of a colleague of his parents(cough! Cough! Original superman) . He makes some alteration to house of el symbol to piss of the corrupt and his own family.


Jon would be this with more lean build and messies hair. He turns the symbol of el house back to just an s for superman.

Clark becomes the earth's president. He is on a quest to unify the universe with united planets initiative. Clark can't make mistakes now.lo and behold! The kid causing trouble and chaos. On top of that, he himself is starting to fall into the darkseid of intergalactic politics. He starts to question the effectiveness of united planets. Owing to certain doubles standards and moral inconsistency. Influence and diplomatic power deciding certain policies and decisions. His own personal love life and reporting duties face challenges as well. Ma and pa starts to feel clark is becoming too embroiled in the politics. Ma and pa takes on the sanctuary duties for metas. Lois and clark have disagreements

Essentially, i bring back all three supermen through three supers. Clark is the "classic" farmboy postcrisis superman. Conner is the silverage-man of tomorrow. Jon is the goldenage defender of the defenceless outlaw.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Linda Danvers.

Yeah, I think Linda Danvers deserves a shot at someone figuring out how to make her work in a post-Kara Danvers status quo. Perhaps make her Supergirl's adoptive sister like Alex on the TV show, but with certain elements of her old Post-Crisis stuff thrown in there, minus the convoluted Pocket Universe nonsense.

[godisawesome]

Metallo

A mercenary and hit man dishonorably discharged from the US Army - John Corben was not an affiliate of Major Lane at all, and in fact is someone who was trying to kill Lane for a paycheck at one point. Milton Fine, Brainiac’s agent and herald on Earth, hired him to take out Superman, and supplied him with an adaptable armor and Kryptonite battery for the job... without telling him it would spread to replace his body as time went on. Corben was freed from Brainiac’s control when Superman defeated him.

1. Attitude-wise, make him more of a professional criminal and mercenary, one who defies the push for a personal rivalry or grudge with Superman: make him more akin to Shocker, the Flash’s Rogues, or Wallenquist from Sin City. He really, really shouldn’t want to fight Superman, draw his attention, or do anything besides make money and seek out his own self-interest. Now, as to why he wants to make money... well, he’s a cyborg who’s had his senses reduced, akin to the STAS version, but investing money into hardware and software to restore his sense, repair, and improve them. And maybe he’s a guy whose enjoyment of sensory input after being denied it has left him as a guy who doesn’t mind the idea of living forever.

2. Put him with Intergang as their “kingmaker” subboss. He doesn’t have to want to be the “big bad” but he should be too smart to just be a henchman. He’s too powerful to take orders, but too self-aware and self-centered to try and run a huge organization by himself. STAS got some good mileage out of Corben being a guy who could have henchmen *and* bosses; make him be comfortable as a lieutenant.

3. Make him a “practical” anti-Superman cyborg. Emphasize his durability, give him more modular weapons, and *keep the Kryptonite heart... but mostly as a power source* he only uses as an emergency weapon, as exposing it is also exposing his heart. So while he prefers his Kryptonite and covets and hunts it from others... he can and often does run off more “mundane” radioactive sources, and perhaps even lives in a nuclear reactor as his fallback spot when under pressure.

I’d keep the idea that he was designed to fight Kryptonians, which gives him a lot of specialized weaponry that makes him unbelievably powerful, but which he actually “misuses” by trying to avoid fighting Superman, Supergirl, or others unless he has to... or is promised such a substantial reward that it makes sense he pursues them.

[godisawesome]

It’s been 24 hrs, so here’s another:

Cir-El, The Strange Visitor

(The Strange Visitor name is really more her wanting a code-name to fit with the “S” herself, since she doesn’t want to step on Kara’s toes as Supergirl.)

Cir-El is Jon Kent’s younger sister... from a possible future. And she’s currently a “Chronal-refugee” from that timeline, making it so she’s acting a bit like Jon’s older sister instead.

The timeline she comes from, along with her companion and grouchy best friend Helena Wayne, is another one of those dark timelines, but with a somewhat unique tie to the present; the timeline is the result of one of those “madmen trying to change the past” things, and the timeline’s resident know it. It’s a world where many of the characters can trace back where their lives went wrong to a specific moment of our present - someone caused the events that lead to the deaths of first Bruce Wayne, then later Lois Lane, and finally Jon Kent and Damian Wayne, along with millions of others.

Cir-El grew up as a natural part of this timeline, and looked up to and loved her mother and idolized her older brother when he was alive. She sometimes hides her pain behind humor and optimism, but it’s telling that she’s spent most of her time as Supergirl in her timeline, and not with her human name, Lucy Kent - she prefers Cir-El and had buried herself in Kryptonian customs as a way of avoiding the pain of having lost most of her human family.

She and Helena, who’s been raised almost exclusively by a widowed Selina Kylo with the aid of the “Brotherhood of the Bat” in Gotham, stumble across a time-lost Teen Titans team that has both Jon and Damian on it from our present. Connecting the Titans with the remnants of their timeline’s Justice League, it’s decided that Cir-El will go back in time to escape this hell scale she’s born into and try and prevent it... and when Helena goes to tell her goodbye, since she refuses to abandon her mother and Gotham, Selina Kyle actually “steals a future for her daughter” by tricking her into the time machine as well.

Cir-El and Helena are now active heroes in the present time, though Helena doesn’t get along with most of her family and wants to find a way to return to her original timeline even if it must be erased, while Cir-El finds herself in love with a brighter world, and a living family... albeit one where the interactions can be a bit awkward.

[achilles]

Since none of the writers who used Power Girl ever bothered to do anything with the Earth 2 thing, and since it's arguably held her back with DC, I'd simply swap her over to Krypton 1/Earth 1 origins, and make her another relative to Superman, or perhaps give her a unique Krypton origin of some sort. I would NOT make her any sort of clone of SG or anyone else, but rather her own person; she's been marginalized enough by DC.

[Cel]

Well...it actually was done before, but in a one-off story in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #106 back in 1970, but after half-century, I think it's worth another shot but doing it on an ongoing basis.

A black Lois Lane.

Now hear me out. I don't want it done simply for diversity's sake or because it might be conceived as PC, but to really play off the idea of Superman and Lois being a couple from two separate worlds--not just literally, but also socially in America as well. Clark Kent was from a small town. This new Lois could be from the "'hood" or the suburbs. Although they both moved on to bigger things after high school, neither Clark nor Lois forgot where they came from, nor their different experiences in life. Lois may have encountered both racism and sexism as a black woman. She may look at Clark was being a product of white man's privilege in her eyes, and may not see people the same way he does. Their different worldviews could play into the trope of opposites attract, but it could also be what defines both characters, especially as they eventually find common ground and sometimes not.

[Restingvoice]

Well...it actually was done before, but in a one-off story in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #106 back in 1970, but after half-century, I think it's worth another shot but doing it on an ongoing basis.

A black Lois Lane.

Now hear me out. I don't want it done simply for diversity's sake or because it might be conceived as PC, but to really play off the idea of Superman and Lois being a couple from two separate worlds--not just literally, but also socially in America as well. Clark Kent was from a small town. This new Lois could be from the "'hood" or the suburbs. Although they both moved on to bigger things after high school, neither Clark nor Lois forgot where they came from, nor their different experiences in life. Lois may have encountered both racism and sexism as a black woman. She may look at Clark was being a product of white man's privilege in her eyes, and may not see people the same way he does. Their different worldviews could play into the trope of opposites attract, but it could also be what defines both characters, especially as they eventually find common ground and sometimes not.

She's the daughter of a military general though. That comes with its own privilege, though may still experience racism