if Action Comics 1 came out today ...

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

It's 2019. Except for some noirish types like The Phantom, and The Shadow, or some sci-fantasy types like Flash Gordon, The Jedi, and The Matrix, nobody's ever seen or heard of superheroes. None of the tropes exist.

S&S are releasing their brainchild. What would he be like? Who would his antagonists be? What would Clark Kent's background be? Would he have a secret identity? If so, what would his day job be? What powers would he have?

Run wild.

Aesthically he would be closer to Hernan Guerra from JL Gods and Monsters. Im not sure he would be of Mexican descent as they could always keep him white/jewish or make him more ambigious.

His personality might also skew closer to Gods and Monsters. We tend to lean more towards antiheroes or deeply flawed heroes that mean well but get in their own way.

Powerset might be the same because they are simple and easy to grasp. The actual source of his powers could be different.

[superduperman]

First of all, they'd ditch the cape. Probably wear a one piece costume. He'd probably start out with original GA powers if we're talking about a world with no other super heroes. He'd still go after corrupt politicians and gangsters. Probably a lot of "allegories" for real politicians. Wouldn't be hard to tell who is an allegory for who. Not sure about the alien origin. I doubt it would be named after an Earth element, that's for sure. It would be interesting if he'd be a private detective or a police detective that uses his powers in secret. Kind of like a Jessica Jones situation.

[Vordan]

First of all, they'd ditch the cape. Probably wear a one piece costume. He'd probably start out with original GA powers if we're talking about a world with no other super heroes. He'd still go after corrupt politicians and gangsters. Probably a lot of "allegories" for real politicians. Wouldn't be hard to tell who is an allegory for who. Not sure about the alien origin. I doubt it would be named after an Earth element, that's for sure. It would be interesting if he'd be a private detective or a police detective that uses his powers in secret. Kind of like a Jessica Jones situation.

The costume would definitely be the biggest difference. Honestly something similar to the New 52 armor would probably be what a Superman created in the modern day would wear, very “sci-fi”-ish.

[phantom1592]

Superman's powers are so generic wish fulfilment, with the exception of heat vision, that I think if no one had gotten around to it yet, they might keep them going forward. Flying (or being able to leap tall buildings) seems like such a fundamental human wish that I could see it carrying over. Same with super strength and invulnerability. The Sampson like ability to tear things down, like say a wall, would probably be something the sons of immigrants would still find appealing.

Agree with this. If no other superheroes existed... I think the end result would be pretty much the same that we got. There wouldn't be any tropes or stigmas against it that people are tired of... the whole thing would seem fresh and new as is.

I'm not 100% sure on whether or not this was the intention behind Clark being a reporter initially, but wasn't it in part so that he discovered who needed his help? With that in mind, I could see him being a reporter or investigative blogger maybe. "Media" has a bad rep now, but I think people still hold true investigative reporters in some esteem. I could also see him being some sort of NGO worker who would be able to travel and have access to a lot of problem areas in the world, keeping the more modern take on social justice that was present in the beginning. Lois would also likely still be relevant in either setting. Sadly even in 2019, a strong, independent, intelligent woman is still seen as a threat and excluded from many things. Her presence in either a media company or something like a NGO would still resonate.

Yep that's what I've always heard to. Daily Planet was the media hub. He needed to be at the center of the information web to know where he was needed and fast...

Now days? I agree the 'paper' is a dying art, but I think he'd still be somewhere that he could get first crack at emergencies.

The secret identity aspect would probably be even more interesting if it originated today given how our modern society privacy is such a weird issue. With anonymity on the internet being both a blessing and a curse and with people being so much more open and sharing to the public. I mean the way people can have their lives completely upended when something they do goes viral would I think reinforce the need for a secret identity. Superman's going to definitely go "viral" so Clark having some respite and privacy would still resonate I think.

Costume wise, that's so hard to judge because so much of what we see as superhero costumes comes from Superman and what came after in response to him. I think it'd be something utilitarian maybe? Probably closer to like a military style outfit or like your generic indiana jones type look with some kind of face covering.

I don't think there would be much of a difference. It would be less 'circus strongman' and more 'professional wrestler' but the look still works for 'generic hero'. Frankly that's the only explaination I think needs to be thrown into the comics. Have a young Clark Kent watch Hulk Hogan take down Andre the Giant or Ultimate Warrior with the good vs. Evil spandex fights and you've got all the explaination you ever need for the capes, spandex and trunks.

THe really interesting thing to think about would be whether or not he'd still be able to pass as either human or your generic white guy. I think that might still be true, because I've heard people talk about that element being inherent in their conception of him and underlying the immigrant narrative. But I think he'd have to be more racially ambiguous today, to keep that element intack.

One thing Star Trek and Doctor Who has taught us is that 90% of all aliens look like generic earthlings. I really don't think anything would change there. For two Jewish kids to decide that their hero needs to look like some OTHER race to achieve that feeling of immigration and isolation doesn't ring particularly true to me.

If anything the idea that he looks just like the majority but ISN'T really one of them, is much more lonely than going THAT route...

[Jim Kelly]

Given the what if question, we have to assume a lot of other things about comics. Seems to me there wouldn't be a DC or a Marvel as we know them. The stuff that took off in the early days would be funny animals and heroic adventure--with a boost in military stories during WW II. Crime and horror would become popular in the late 1940s, but the protests against them would still have happened, driving out publishers like EC and Lev Gleason. Westerns and science fiction would dominate in the 1950s, with more funny animal and teen humour in the 1960s. There'd be a return to horror in the early 1970s and a boom in sword and sorcery.

Western Publishing (Dell/Gold Key) and the Gilberton Company (Classics Illustrated) would make their money by adapting existing works and hiring the best talents to produce them, emerging as the top two publishers. Gilberton would adapt Conan the Barbarian, with Roy Thomas and John Buscema being the prime talents on that. Western would keep the license to adapt Tarzan and other ERB works, but Joe Kubert would take over as the main artist/writer/editor. Gilberton would acquire the Star Wars license, with Carmine Infantino, Al Williamson and Gene Colan working on those books. Western would get the rights to Indiana Jones and assign that to Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

Independents would rise in the 1980s and 1990s doing much more adult oriented humour and crime adventure. Dark Horse and Image would rise to the top and start to challenge Gilberton and Western. Dark Horse would launch a special line of mature horror comics with British talents under a new imprint called High Anxiety Press. For HAP, Alan Moore would revive the old Hillman character, the Heap, while Neil Gaiman adapted the German stop motion cartoon, Unser Sandmännchen, as Our Little Sandman.

Being so young and raw in their talents. Siegel and Shuster wouldn't get a job with the big publishers and would have to find work at smaller independents. With his Canadian connections, Shuster would luck into freelance work at Drawn and Quarterly. The early S&S work wouldn't be overly sophisticated but would have an idiosyncatic charm and Shuster (relying on his swip file) would produce panels that resembled Seth and Daniel Clowes.

Their Clark Kent would be the kind of hapless working class drone that appeals to D+Q readers, forever harried by the overbearing Lois Lane, with whom he shares an office cublicle, yet painfully yearning for her affections. His only escape being as the science fiction cosplayer, Superman--unrecognizable to anyone despite the fact that he looks exactly like Clark (minus the nebbish glasses)--his costume inspired by Aragorn and Lando Calrissian. In the bizarro world of Metroplatz, populated by freaks and geeks, the Man of Tomorow is the typical sane man in an insane world, a stranger in a strange land.

[magha_regulus]

I could definitely see them including more Star Trek and Star Wars influences rather than the Doc Sampson and the Scarlet Pimpernel ones. I think the mental powers would be there along with all the classic 1938 physical ones. They'd likely highlight more of the Alien aspects but would probably also include some form of mysticism since that sort of thing is in vogue now; possibly kabbalistic influences. Sci-Fi and society, in general, has moved away from stories about an inspiring future and are more cautionary tales warning/reflecting dystopia. I could see Krypton being a more fascistic type of society that destroyed itself in war or environmental calamity and Superman's parents really had him flee, or maybe Krypton might actually still exist. Some elements from the Snyder movies like Superman being the 1st proof of extraterrestrial life would probably rise to the surface. I think he'd be very similar personality wise to the way he was depicted in 1938 and would probably be a little more rakish these days. He wouldn't have his first appearance in a comic book. It might be that he first appears in a video game. It would develop into a movie and the movies would likely be what "canon" would be based on. Canon would be very lose/non existant over time since movies tend to be recycled and stories augmented over and over again.

[Restingvoice]

I'm surprised with the view on news media. I read news pretty regularly from multiple sources, local and international.
What media are we talking about?

[Vordan]

I'm surprised with the view on news media. I read news pretty regularly from multiple sources, local and international.
What media are we talking about?

Are you an American? The American media is primarily the one we’re talking about when we talk about how the news industry is viewed more negatively. The 24/7 news cycle, polarization, and outright fake news has severely affected how Americans view journalists.

[Restingvoice]

Are you an American? The American media is primarily the one we’re talking about when we talk about how the news industry is viewed more negatively. The 24/7 news cycle, polarization, and outright fake news has severely affected how Americans view journalists.

No... but I'm aware of people's opinion on Fox News and CNN... I just didn't expect Americans to be distrusting of news media in general...

Fake news also happens where I'm from and it's the reason why I read more news, from multiple sources than usual. So I can make sure to find the truth. When I have the time of course.

[DrNewGod]

No... but I'm aware of people's opinion on Fox News and CNN... I just didn't expect Americans to be distrusting of news media in general...

Fake news also happens where I'm from and it's the reason why I read more news, from multiple sources than usual. So I can make sure to find the truth. When I have the time of course.

If there's one thing we Americans aren't good at, it's keeping specific bad actors separate from the whole. We're not content to deservedly get mad at a loud-mouth actor, a wacko who happens to hold a doctorate, or an unethical talking head, we have to take a blowtorch to "celebrities, "academic elitists," and "the media."

[Jim Kelly]

As a Canadian observer of American news reports since I was little kid (when Walter Cronkite was king), there used to be a sense that the anchor was above it all. Now American news anchors inject their opinions into the actual reporting of the news, so they all seem to have a dog in the fight, rather than being dispassionate observers. Canadian news reporting has gotten almost as bad, but our news reports try to divide up the broadcast between straight reporting, anaylsis and interviews, and editorial columns--without one bleeding over into the others.

[Restingvoice]

If there's one thing we Americans aren't good at, it's keeping specific bad actors separate from the whole. We're not content to deservedly get mad at a loud-mouth actor, a wacko who happens to hold a doctorate, or an unethical talking head, we have to take a blowtorch to "celebrities, "academic elitists," and "the media."

That's... really interesting... America is known by us as a very individualist country. Free speech... land owned by each people and not the country... priority for personal freedom over... say... doing what's best for the whole family...

So it's really interesting to find out how people who hold so much importance to the self... can have a hard time separating individuals from the groups when it comes to other people... or something to blame

Sweeping statement, I'm sure... there's got to be a lot of people who have no trouble with that, but it's still interesting.

[DrNewGod]

That's... really interesting... America is known by us as a very individualist country. Free speech... land owned by each people and not the country... priority for personal freedom over... say... doing what's best for the whole family...

So it's really interesting to find out how people who hold so much importance to the self... can have a hard time separating individuals from the groups when it comes to other people... or something to blame

Sweeping statement, I'm sure... there's got to be a lot of people who have no trouble with that, but it's still interesting.

It was a sweeping statement, and there are exceptions. That said, on the whole (IMO), Americans are highly individualistic, and very intense about their free speech. On the whole, we're also not so great at embracing the responsibilities that come attached to our freedoms, and have a habit of conflating "constitutional right to speak my mind" with "privilege to rant my opinion, regardless of whether I have any idea what I'm talking about or not." It has a tendency to make many of us prone to seizing on broad, shallow narratives about topics, without looking into whether the examples being touted are representative of a situation or population, or are merely extreme outlier cases.

[DrNewGod]

As a Canadian observer of American news reports since I was little kid (when Walter Cronkite was king), there used to be a sense that the anchor was above it all. Now American news anchors inject their opinions into the actual reporting of the news, so they all seem to have a dog in the fight, rather than being dispassionate observers. Canadian news reporting has gotten almost as bad, but our news reports try to divide up the broadcast between straight reporting, anaylsis and interviews, and editorial columns--without one bleeding over into the others.

My reading suggests to me that the three major network news organizations were shaped by the culture established by Edward R. Murrow at CBS of what news was supposed to be. Beginning shortly after the Murrow-McCarthy showdown, and accelerating heavily after Watergate, the network Corporations began putting pressure on news organizations to perform under the same ratings and advertising metrics that governed all other TV offerings. That began an inexorable march towards style over substance, and outrage over objectivity, and appeal over expertise.

If you want a good cinematic primer on it, in order watch Good Night and Good Luck, Network, and Broadcast News. That's not the chronological order in which those films were made, but it tracks against the historical course of events.