Does Joe Casey ever explain why he thought Superman should be a pacifist?

[The World]

I don't think I've ever seen a single instance where he competently explains where the notion came to him that Superman was a pacifist. Like even a casual read or watch of Superman's history doesn't support this notion in the slightest but he felt strongly enough about it that he basically tried to center his run on the character around.

[Killerbee911]

Comic book tropes describe this "A Martial Pacifist will often try to solve his problems with words first, and fists a distant second, typically resorting to violence only as a last resort". Note I am saying agree with that approach for Superman but I can see why a writer would go with that approach for Superman.

[Kuwagaton]

It's actually not even half of his run, just in his last and most creatively free year. The biggest cause you can easily pinpoint is logic. At some point, outside of mainstream comics, someone so powerful and smart would evolve past violence in their approach. But if you need a cause, I dunno, maybe Ending Battle. Superman runs a Batman style gauntlet through his rogues where Lois "dies" at the end. That was just barely into where I became a regular (and I never did care enough after reading some of EB) that it was just easy to go with it.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

It's actually not even half of his run, just in his last and most creatively free year. The biggest cause you can easily pinpoint is logic. At some point, outside of mainstream comics, someone so powerful and smart would evolve past violence in their approach. But if you need a cause, I dunno, maybe Ending Battle. Superman runs a Batman style gauntlet through his rogues where Lois "dies" at the end. That was just barely into where I became a regular (and I never did care enough after reading some of EB) that it was just easy to go with it.

That's how I view it, too. Ending Battle was an epiphany for Clark, in which he realised that he'd gone as far as he could with using violence and evolved past it for a time while all the continuity-shifting shenanigans of Infinite Crisis was throwing his entire life into flux again.

[phantom1592]

Honestly, Superman isn't particularly violent... He CAN'T be. Even in the silver age he was more likely to fly fast around someone and tie them up with a steel girder then he would be to punch them or heat vision them. That would be a death sentence.

Sure there are the occasional Darkseid/Mongul/Doomsday level threats... but when I think of Superman, I see him outthinking opponents, incapacitating and disarming/melting guns while saving the really Steel shredding feats to the robots, power armors and tanks...

I'm not sure it's really a true 'pacifist' concept as much as it is wearing kid gloves around the mortals.

[dancj]

Honestly, Superman isn't particularly violent... He CAN'T be. Even in the silver age he was more likely to fly fast around someone and tie them up with a steel girder then he would be to punch them or heat vision them. That would be a death sentence.

Sure there are the occasional Darkseid/Mongul/Doomsday level threats... but when I think of Superman, I see him outthinking opponents, incapacitating and disarming/melting guns while saving the really Steel shredding feats to the robots, power armors and tanks...

I'm not sure it's really a true 'pacifist' concept as much as it is wearing kid gloves around the mortals.

Agreed.

My main introduction to American comics was 1980s pre-Crisis Superman comics, and he hardly ever used violence back then. It's just not what he was about.

[Flash Gordon]

Superman isn't a violent dude. He is not even remotely a pacifist either though.

When a conflict with Superman comes to actual blows, it must be really rough.