Originally Posted by
Killerbee911
No, Superman is poster child for being "too powerful" in high profile setting. Martian Manhunter or variety of others might be in the same category but Superman is OP in the biggest stage, stories and events. Everyone remembers Superman vs Darkseid in Justice League cartoon. Barely anyone talks about Flash working over Brainiac/Luther
And look who got the moment after the moment. I think Superman fans are being a tad too sensitive about this it is gift and curse. What makes superman great is also what makes Superman get criticized. It is not a matter of him losing either he is been built up so much that most people are trained to go "bullshit" when he loses. That is where him being power down comes into play you are trained to see people with guns beat flash,It is not hard to imagine flash losing. We have Superman versus Doomsday, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, Zod ingrained in our heads. So when finally superman loses isn't wow Superman loss the fight, it is Superman shouldn't have loss that or how did he lose that it didn't make sense.
I agree with general premise of thread, Fans trick sometimes themselves into thinking that bigger is better. You can watch a strong man competition on television and people lifting Atlas stones and it is amazing, so under the context of that lifting semitrailer, Aircraft carrier or Asteroid is amazing. In visual presentation Flash moving at Mach Speed and Lightspeed is the almost same thing. The only thing upping the power level does sometimes is change what conceptually can beat you meaning simply meaning Dragonball Z has up itself into God and Planetary tier but the fights are exactly the same looking.Something like Mach speed is faster than most human can react too, So nothing really changes in presentation of the story but difference between Lightspeed and Mach speed is that we have normal missile and planes that can go that fast. Conceptually it is easier to imagine him being challenged at the slower speed. As mentioned before people are well aware of his top end abilities so they know when he is underperforming in a story to make it a seem like a challenge.
PS-Fanbase(and pop culture) and the image they put out of him plays a large for the people who don't read. Like I said Gift and the Curse ,He is probably first hero someone thinks of when they hear the word Superhero but the image of power might work too well at times. Superman fans will argue when you say he is too powerful then next thread if you say another hero is more powerful they will argue that he is more powerful than them.