What stories just won't work for what characters

[manwhohaseverything]

I looked at it more as Superman’s father sacrificed himself to help keep his adopted son’s powers a secret, because he had zero faith in ppl.

My point being, that doesn’t work for Pa Kent.
He’s the one that instilled rock solid values and faith in humanity’s ability to be good in Superman from day one.

Actually, John doesn't.He asks clark to hide himself till the right time to assist humanity. Humanity shouldn't be put in that much of pedestal either. If you go by goldenage siegel and shuster origin. Clark sort of starts protecting the weak cause that's just what he is. That's more appealing to me than Superman being a product of either set of his parents. Heck! I prefer the motorcyclist origin more where clark is a genuine orphan.I want superman to be the epitome of altruistic instinct and choices. I prefer his parents to have less role.

[Will Evans]

I mean, aren’t there even romance stories with the Spectre and the Phantom Stranger?

[LordMikel]

I do wonder if length of time for the action comes into play as well. Superman II he gives up his powers, in the middle of the movie, and then gets them back. Now if he did that at the end of the movie, I think people would have had a bigger problem with it.

I personally liked the Supergirl wearing the Red ring storyline. I think DC did it right and didn't say, "This is how Supergirl will always be now." It was a simply 6 issue storyline where she had it. That worked for me.

[phonogram12]

While I don't necessarily agree with the premise (given the right writer, I think any approach to a character can work), I'm not gonna lie, I do prefer certain approaches to certain characters. For example, I do prefer the Bat books to be crime/psychological books more than just about anything else (I haven't enjoyed a straight up superhero take on the character since the old Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle days). Likewise for Superman, if they don't employ a journalism angle or crazy sci-fi, I'm just not interested. This is probably why Mark Waid's DD never caught on for me and the reason I dropped Batman when King left and Tynion took over. Their approaches just aren't what I'm looking for in those characters.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Pa Kent's moments could've worked if they approached it like how Smallville and Birthright handled it. In both stories Pa kent is reluctant to have Clark step out and be Superman or more critical than Martha was and by both stories end he supports Clark as Superman. That's an oversimplification but its something that audience might enjoy and a believable arc to reverse engineer for him.

Superman killing an opponent could work but it needs buildup and consequences that Man of Steel never dealt with nor did the films that came after. So it felt pointless outside of giving Luthor a body to experiment on.