was Clark/Superman's powers neutered after Pre-Crisis and if so why?

[CTTT]

I liked his powers just how crazy they were, being able to spin the world around time travel...I wish current Supe issues referenced his Pre-Crisis adventures and powers much like Grant Morrison did on Batman

[Laufeyson]

I liked his powers just how crazy they were, being able to spin the world around time travel...I wish current Supe issues referenced his Pre-Crisis adventures and powers much like Grant Morrison did on Batman

For some people, it's too hard to write him when he is as strong as that. I mean the guy can pull planets, breaking the universe by flying, and so strong he can push universes. It's hard to find him a worthy villains to have contest punch to punch fight. But, then again it's also fun and imaginative, but it's also making him too out of reach. So, people at DC at that time try to 'grounded' his ability a little to make him a bit more relatable to audiences.

[magha_regulus]

I liked his powers just how crazy they were, being able to spin the world around time travel...I wish current Supe issues referenced his Pre-Crisis adventures and powers much like Grant Morrison did on Batman

The thing is, he was arguably the most popular super hero charcter in the world when he was at his most ridiculous levels of power. I completely disagree that his power level makes it hard to write him. Nobody raises that argument for green lantern or the flash, thor, or the silver surfer. Although I completely disagree with the reasoning, that is the excuse given. I think Superman is an intimidating character for many comics authors and i think its their inability to use their imagination to really get into his head and see through is perspective that's the real issue here. For as much slack as Bendis gets, he at least understood that Superman's super hearing was key to understanding the world from the character's point of view. Some authors get it, others don't. I'm right there with you in wanting more silver age references.

[Agent Z]

The thing is, he was arguably the most popular super hero charcter in the world when he was at his most ridiculous levels of power. I completely disagree that his power level makes it hard to write him. Nobody raises that argument for green lantern or the flash, thor, or the silver surfer. Although I completely disagree with the reasoning, that is the excuse given. I think Superman is an intimidating character for many comics authors and i think its their inability to use their imagination to really get into his head and see through is perspective that's the real issue here. For as much slack as Bendis gets, he at least understood that Superman's super hearing was key to understanding the world from the character's point of view. Some authors get it, others don't. I'm right there with you in wanting more silver age references.

Yes they have. Silver Surfer in particular suffers from this given how much he struggles with maintaining an ongoing.

[LifeIsILL]

Yes they have. Silver Surfer in particular suffers from this given how much he struggles with maintaining an ongoing.

His longest ongoing was 140 something issues....so he actually doesn't have a problem holding an ongoing. They just bring in more and more powerful villains for him to deal with, which is what they do with Thor as well. It's an absurd form of storytelling because you always see Surfer or Thor pull some crazy power out of their asses in the last minute instead of defeating the villain with some sort of creative plan.

For Superman, at least he uses his brain and wits to defeat his villains or whatever he's fighting against, we've seen it many times before.

[Johnny Thunders!]

The most recent runs of Thor feature a cosmic time spanning hero. I think it’s been a high point for the character. Jason Aaron’s run has been pretty good. The Silver Surfer run by Mike Allred was big and cosmic and arguably a new classic. Silver Surfer Black was good too! They are obviously very different books but I think there is a lot of Superman in both those runs. I don’t think Superman was neutered but he was grounded.

[Kuwagaton]

Speaking if which I'd love to someday see Cates "do a Bates." Sorry, couldn't resist, but anyway I mean a cosmic level Superman. Like... really cosmic, the level above what slowly trickled into the post crisis universe.

You are right. Superman, the Unbeatable Champion, became Superman, the guy someone kicks to show how cool they are.

At some point, DC as a whole realized that it was way easier to use Superman to show how powerful, cool or skilled some character was, than doing the actual work to establish it. So when Miller wrote TDKR and needed a great ending to his love letter to Batman, he decided that having him beating Superman was a good way of showing his Bruce's ingenuity and perseverance.

To me honestly, it never seemed like he was really above the others specifically anyway. For the main heroes WW could go toe to toe with him, Flash was at least equal in speed, and Batman was good enough to be his ongoing costar. Until 2002 ish far as I noticed and remembered, Superman was just like any other book in bringing in other heroes (Superman to many book these days) to make the main character look better somehow.

[Agent Z]

was Clark/Superman's powers neutered after Pre-Crisis

No because he wasn't powered down back to his golden age level.

[manwhohaseverything]

No because he wasn't powered down back to his golden age level.

I wouldn't call that neutered. I would love a more grounded take with guy who only jumps 1\8th a mile(at best) ,faster than a locomotive, left incredible weights, bursting shell durability... Etc.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I wouldn't call that neutered. I would love a more grounded take with guy who only jumps 1\8th a mile(at best) ,faster than a locomotive, left incredible weights, bursting shell durability... Etc.

In the Golden Age, when Superman had that powerset he fought enemies even weaker than that, so he still felt powerful and dangerous by comparison.

It isn't just Superman's powers have increased, he's also fought increasingly tougher enemies.

[Kuwagaton]

DC tends to get weaker or stronger as a whole. Like they didn't keep Flash at pre crisis speed while cutting down Superman.

Why? Because it was a mess. Not hard to write a fun story, but more difficult to create a coherent canon. There was a story where he moved the entire population of Earth. How do you factor that sort of speed into every story?

... they didn't. Stuff like that would just come and go. Very fun but when you're losing in sales to the likes of Marvel soap opera, not really a recommended direction.

They raised those questions for Thor and Silver Surfer too. I think we have to remember while Thor is now enjoying the place where he is one of the top sellers of Marvel Superheroes comic, he is in limbo for I think 10 years since the Dissasembled events and that's for the same reason as Superman is which is he is too strong, he had a very campy personality and uninteresting villain and cast. And the same can be said with Silver Surfer that struggles to maintain his title because his alien themed stories really unattrative to people.

Superman has regularly outsold and out muscled Thor, where the very powerful Surfer struggles to maintain a title.

From when I understood, whenever Superman time-traveled Pre-Crisis he became intangible and thus rendered unable to intervene unlike in the Donner movies.

He would be intangible if within his lifetime, otherwise tangible but rendered unable to alter history. If he fixes your engine, you're still late because your tire then blows, etc.

[manwhohaseverything]

In the Golden Age, when Superman had that powerset he fought enemies even weaker than that, so he still felt powerful and dangerous by comparison.

It isn't just Superman's powers have increased, he's also fought increasingly tougher enemies.

I don't care either way. Every fleischer cartoon had him struggle to pull off a feat.That's all that is needed really.Moreover,i want competent superman more than powerful one.Finaly,the character is an overdog not one punch man.He is powerful.but,ain't invincible .Goldenage atleast for starters would be great for me.

[The World]

I'm pretty sure Byrne and Wolfman said they didn't know what to do with characters that had vast powers like that on a regular basis and they were pretty much put in charge of "fixing" the character when his sales were in the toilet. In general the concept of writing characters with high power levels has become a forgotten art within western comics. At least when it comes to cape stuff. It's really more of an asian niche these days, with things like Mob Psycho and One Punch Man, DBZ, etc.

As for the Pre-Crisis stuff getting back into continuity. Even if you take a look at just his childhood, the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis are telling pretty opposite tales. Pre-Crisis he was a a full blown adventurer as a youngster, Post-Crisis he basically was ignorant of anything outside of his hometown until he was 17-18. Then you've got the matter of the Kents which imo the Post Crisis kind of drank the Batman Kool-aid about death and loss. IDK it's kind of hard to merge two timelines with some pretty fundamental differences.

[Laufeyson]

At least when it comes to cape stuff. It's really more of an asian niche these days, with things like Mob Psycho and One Punch Man, DBZ, etc.

Well, you can't blame them as cool as Mob Psycho, One Punch Man, or DBZ, they are not Silver Age Superman's level crazy. I mean as strong as Ultra Instinct Goku is Silver Age Superman is just pure bullshit power and not to mention it's not that the Asian market (South Korea and Japan) loves to write OP character, but the strange market that they please love OP character because they can just self-instert to them for how bland they are. So yeah.

[Kuwagaton]

I definitely see what you mean. He seemed to get distributed, like GL is more the hero of the space ways, Diana is the tough one, Bruce answers all the questions, etc.

But with the silver age Superman, I think most writers, many general fans, and some of us Superman fans in particular see what should be an unbeatable hero as an obstacle. I guess it's as if the idea of Superman made the story weaker. If Superman can be so smart and so powerful so quickly, how could you ever need Batman or Aquaman? He was literally able to be in more than one place at a time and just in case you thought a story niche was safe, here's his shrink ray device to get as small as the Atom. I can't imagine when an editor came up to a writer and said, "hey use Superman, too." Though never much of a JL reader, they got it right imo by the seventies where WF and DCP showed how others were able to support him.