Clark Kent/Kal-El Superman Appreciation 2021

[Vordan]

2021 feels like Clark’s best year in decades.

[Immortal Hulk]

2021 feels like Clark’s best year in decades.

I do hope so!

[Vordan]

[Dralokonda]

How exactly?

[Vordan]

How exactly?

Assuming this is addressed to me so I’ll break down my thoughts.
On the comics side:
-Really enjoying PKJ Action and there’s a Superman event coming in Sept (his first in a while) which is said to blow open his world in a big way, which will hopefully mean more stuff for other Superverse characters
-Not a fan of Taylor but others love him so the reception to what he does with Jon will likely be positive
-Morrison is coming back to do more Superman that involves him and Manchester Black working together as part of a new Authority which is a great hook
-Venditti is doing a Superman ‘78 series that will scratch that single young unmarried “classic” Superman itch pretty nicely I think
-Really enjoying Red & Blue personally, last issue was great overall
-Yang’s doing a great job with Superman in Batman/Superman
-It’s been heavily hinted that Mark Waid has been talking to DC to do a comic sequel to Birthright

Animation/Live-Action
-The new shared universe on the DTV side has pretty heavily involved him and I’m excited to see this version of Clark grow, I really like Criss in the role
-New Superman cartoon, his first in over 20 years is said to star a young just starting out Superman (hopefully in a “Year 2” situation) and will hopefully start building him an audience amongst the younger generations, it’s already guaranteed two seasons which makes me happy because it means they won’t have to front load the show with everything, they can take the time to build
-There’s a Super-Pets movie coming with Krypto that he might get to feature in
-Young Justice is returning soon and I hope that Phantoms title and the Legion means Supes and Kon will be the “main” characters for this season, would be awesome if the Phantoms were the PZ prisoners like Zod and his comrades or Xa-Du
-His first show where he’s actually Superman and does Superman stuff in over 20 years has been incredibly enjoyable and great for me so far, it’s done a great job of balancing “realism” and comic book lore and showing how Superman can be relevant
-Snyder is done and hopefully his evil Superman plans are done as well. This new Abrams/Coates reboot is at worst likely to just disappoint me like Returns rather than make me foam at the mouth in rage at the very idea of Batman getting Lois pregnant and Superman raising his wannabe-murderer’s kid to be the next Batman. If Cavill still gets used he’ll probably be over in Shazam where he might get to shine, and if he doesn’t I don’t care

Video games
-The only dark spot, he will continue to suck here for the foreseeable future as NRS and Rocksteady butcher him. I guess maybe there’s still a chance that WBM’s second DC game after Gotham Knights is Superman, or that Rocksteady will make another pitch after SS, but for right now I have no hopes here and it’s the only downside

Compare that with where he was in 2016: his comics sucked aside from Pak Action, Taylor was crying crocodile tears about evil Superman as he used his evil takes everywhere he could, BvS was dogs*** with Batman displacing him as the main character in his sequel and Snyder’s “glorious” plans involving him going evil in future movies, no TV show, no cartoon, I2 getting teased with only an evil Superman to play as, and Christ it’s hard to not look at the 2020s as a major turn around.

[Prime]

How would you guys do a Superman game?

[Vordan]

How would you guys do a Superman game?

Did one massive post already, but what the hell, I’m just sitting here watching files export. Here is my creative process.

So first off, I’m giving him a health bar. Yes I know some people will b**** and no I don’t care. I don’t care what people who get their Superman knowledge from YouTube or Instagram “fact” pages think about the character, and all the other attempts such as the city health bar in the Returns game didn’t satisfy me. So right off the bat he’s getting a health bar.

Second: it’s time to start showing casuals areas of Superman lore they either don’t know about or aren’t very familiar with. The reason for that is people think they “know” Superman so we need to immediately show something they DON’T know about or HAVEN’T seen already to get them to not immediately dismiss Superman out of hand based on memes or whatever. Which leads into my third creative point.

Third: I’m not setting the first game in Metropolis. The Arkham games didn’t immediately throw you into an open world Gotham, they built up to it. The Spider-Man PS4 game started off with an open world because they were able to build upon dozens of Spider-Man games that laid the ground work for them. The first Superman game in decades needs to avoid biting off more than it can chew, and throwing Superman into an open world feels like a bad idea. So where can it be? Well there are options. There’s Warworld. There’s Apokolips. But I think the best location is one that’s intrinsically tied to Superman and his Kryptonian background, and serves as a nice counterpart to Batman starting out in Arkham Asylum: The Phantom Zone



The Asylum was a great starting point for Batman for a couple reason: 1. It’s the iconic prison where Batman leaves his Rogues, 2. It’s gothic and horror esque vibe crafts the perfect atmosphere, and 3. it’s place as a center for examining the mind makes it great for exploring Batman’s mental state.

For similar reason the PZ is the perfect place to start off Superman: 1. It likewise is an iconic prison for Superman Rogues 2. It’s science fiction and horror mixed together which crafts the perfect atmosphere for Superman to kick ass or be introspective, and 3. It lets Kal come face to face with his Kryptonian heritage in the nastiest way possible as he’s dumped into a place filled with prisoners his father helped exile as well as all the other monsters and criminals other races have dumped there.

So he’s going to the Zone but how does he get there and what’s the story? It would be boring if he just walked in. Here’s the pitch: It’s Year 2 of Superman’s career. He’s already established himself as a hero in Metropolis and worldwide. The public knows he claims to mean them no harm and that he only seems to do good deeds, but they know very little about his origins and are divided as to his true intentions. The problem is Clark himself doesn’t really know his origins either beyond knowing he’s an alien from another planet. His only relics from his home planet are the rocket, a tablet written in a language he can’t read, and a curious device that doesn’t seem to have any use. As a show of goodwill, and because he hasn’t made any progress understanding them himself, Clark turns the tablet and the device over to STAR Labs for study.

One day as he’s beating down some Intergang thugs, reality twists, and suddenly Clark finds himself in a place that is definitely not Metropolis. The “earth” is chalk white, the sky is a purple, green lightning flashes around as far as he can see, and where the sun should be there’s instead a black hole. Somehow Clark and the terrified Intergang thugs have ended up in the Phantom Zone with no idea of how they got there and how to get back. The thugs accuse Clark of transporting them there and attack him, with Clark suddenly realizing his powers are fading in this place with no sunlight. Luckily a stranger arrives and aids Clark in dispatching the thugs. Clark thanks him for his aid and then asks who he is.

The stranger pauses and tells Clark: “My name is Dru-Zod, a general of Krypton”. He raises a hand for Clark to shake. “I was a friend of your father, Kal-El”.

Zod tells Kal about the place he’s in, and his history with it. He tells him that other humans have been brought here as well besides the Intergang thugs, including many of Clark’s foes. Zod informs Clark that the likely culprit for their arrival to the PZ is the very first prisoner Jor-El ever banished to the Phantom Zone: Xa-Du the Phantom King, who has spent so long imprisoned that he seems to have obtained a degree of control over the Zone that gives him strange powers. Kal is told that if he does not collect the scattered humans and escape the Zone soon, he and the humans will become trapped there, as anyone who spends too long in the Zone eventually becomes unable to leave without special equipment on the other side to bring them back, thanks to the way the Zone warps the inhabitants. Kal’s mission is clear: Collect the scattered humans, defeat and pacify his foes trapped there with him so they can be brought back as well, and defeat the Phantom King before he tears a hole between the Zone and the real world that could cause catastrophe for Earth.

That’s the basic story pitch, next I’ll go into gameplay mechanics and what Rogues I’d use.

[Prime]

Did one massive post already, but what the hell, I’m just sitting here watching files export. Here is my creative process.

So first off, I’m giving him a health bar. Yes I know some people will b**** and no I don’t care. I don’t care what people who get their Superman knowledge from YouTube or Instagram “fact” pages think about the character, and all the other attempts such as the city health bar in the Returns game didn’t satisfy me. So right off the bat he’s getting a health bar.

Second: it’s time to start showing casuals areas of Superman lore they either don’t know about or aren’t very familiar with. The reason for that is people think they “know” Superman so we need to immediately show something they DON’T know about or HAVEN’T seen already to get them to not immediately dismiss Superman out of hand based on memes or whatever. Which leads into my third creative point.

Third: I’m not setting the first game in Metropolis. The Arkham games didn’t immediately throw you into an open world Gotham, they built up to it. The Spider-Man PS4 game started off with an open world because they were able to build upon dozens of Spider-Man games that laid the ground work for them. The first Superman game in decades needs to avoid biting off more than it can chew, and throwing Superman into an open world feels like a bad idea. So where can it be? Well there are options. There’s Warworld. There’s Apokolips. But I think the best location is one that’s intrinsically tied to Superman and his Kryptonian background, and serves as a nice counterpart to Batman starting out in Arkham Asylum: The Phantom Zone



The Asylum was a great starting point for Batman for a couple reason: 1. It’s the iconic prison where Batman leaves his Rogues, 2. It’s gothic and horror esque vibe crafts the perfect atmosphere, and 3. it’s place as a center for examining the mind makes it great for exploring Batman’s mental state.

For similar reason the PZ is the perfect place to start off Superman: 1. It likewise is an iconic prison for Superman Rogues 2. It’s science fiction and horror mixed together which crafts the perfect atmosphere for Superman to kick ass or be introspective, and 3. It lets Kal come face to face with his Kryptonian heritage in the nastiest way possible as he’s dumped into a place filled with prisoners his father helped exile as well as all the other monsters and criminals other races have dumped there.

So he’s going to the Zone but how does he get there and what’s the story? It would be boring if he just walked in. Here’s the pitch: It’s Year 2 of Superman’s career. He’s already established himself as a hero in Metropolis and worldwide. The public knows he claims to mean them no harm and that he only seems to do good deeds, but they know very little about his origins and are divided as to his true intentions. The problem is Clark himself doesn’t really know his origins either beyond knowing he’s an alien from another planet. His only relics from his home planet are the rocket, a tablet written in a language he can’t read, and a curious device that doesn’t seem to have any use. As a show of goodwill, and because he hasn’t made any progress understanding them himself, Clark turns the tablet and the device over to STAR Labs for study.

One day as he’s beating down some Intergang thugs, reality twists, and suddenly Clark finds himself in a place that is definitely not Metropolis. The “earth” is chalk white, the sky is a purple, green lightning flashes around as far as he can see, and where the sun should be there’s instead a black hole. Somehow Clark and the terrified Intergang thugs have ended up in the Phantom Zone with no idea of how they got there and how to get back. The thugs accuse Clark of transporting them there and attack him, with Clark suddenly realizing his powers are fading in this place with no sunlight. Luckily a stranger arrives and aids Clark in dispatching the thugs. Clark thanks him for his aid and then asks who he is.

The stranger pauses and tells Clark: “My name is Dru-Zod, a general of Krypton”. He raises a hand for Clark to shake. “I was a friend of your father, Kal-El”.

Zod tells Kal about the place he’s in, and his history with it. He tells him that other humans have been brought here as well besides the Intergang thugs, including many of Clark’s foes. Zod informs Clark that the likely culprit for their arrival to the PZ is the very first prisoner Jor-El ever banished to the Phantom Zone: Xa-Du the Phantom King, who has spent so long imprisoned that he seems to have obtained a degree of control over the Zone that gives him strange powers. Kal is told that if he does not collect the scattered humans and escape the Zone soon, he and the humans will become trapped there, as anyone who spends too long in the Zone eventually becomes unable to leave without special equipment on the other side to bring them back, thanks to the way the Zone warps the inhabitants. Kal’s mission is clear: Collect the scattered humans, defeat and pacify his foes trapped there with him so they can be brought back as well, and defeat the Phantom King before he tears a hole between the Zone and the real world that could cause catastrophe for Earth.

That’s the basic story pitch, next I’ll go into gameplay mechanics and what Rogues I’d use.

I like it. I always figured that the PZ is a perfect place to start of a Superman game franchise. Maybe get a bit of Metropolis sucked in there too

[Vordan]

Next up gameplay mechanics.

Clark starts the game having been de powered back to “Golden Age” power levels due to there being no sun in the PZ. Zod teaches him about Sunstones that grow naturally in the PZ, which will allow him to slowly re-empower himself. The Sunstones ward off the PZ’s influence and basically act as perk points for Clark to unlock and upgrade his powers. At the start he can’t fly, he can only run and leap.

Zod acts as Kal’s mentor throughout the game, teaching him about Kryptonian history and how to read the language. He also tutors him in the dangers of the Phantom Zone as well as training him to hone his powers. Kal gets the feeling there’s more to Zod than he’s letting on though, and some of his comments raise Kal’s suspicions.

The base of the game is the Fortress of Solitude.



It’s backstory is that when Jor-El first discovered the PZ, he built the FoS as a research outpost to study the place. It’s packed full of Kryptonian tech and it has the ability to shift back into the natural world. Zod couldn’t use it because it’s caretaker Kelex only responds to House El members. However it won’t shift back until it judges its user “sterilized” in order to avoid contaminating the natural world with the Zone’s influence. Because Kal was brought over so suddenly and without the proper tech, he has to use Sunstones to purge the Zone from his body before the Fortress will respond to his commands. This is a nice way of tying the gameplay and story together. Kal needs the stones to save the civilians and to go home, which helps explain why he might do side quests rather than stick with just the main questline.

Civilians Superman has to rescue in the Zone: Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Dr. Veritas, Ron Troupe, Dr. John Henry Irons, Dr. Hamilton, Bibbo, Dr. Hank Henshaw and his family, Commissioner Henderson, Captain Maggie Sawyer, Detective Turpin, members of the Newskids Legion, Morgan Edge, and other OCs or nameless civilians.

Kal also meets Krypto, who was transported into the Zone by Jor-El in order to watch over the Fortress as its guard, in order to keep it safe so that Kal might one day reclaim it.

Rogues: Some of Superman’s Rogues have been teleported to the PZ as well, and unfortunately they have their own plans for escaping the Zone, even if it means they have to kill Superman to do it.

Metallo: John Corbyn is a cyborg soldier that served in the US Army under Sam Lane and was created as the government’s Anti-Superman deterrent. After a fight with Superman in his early career left him crippled, he was bonded to a nanosuit that equips him with various weaponry capable of killing Superman. He believes Superman transported everyone there as part of a first strike against humanity.

Parasite: A Lexcorp lab experiment gone horribly wrong, Rudy Jones is a science fiction vampire who needs to kill to sustain himself. He absorbs the memories and skills of whoever he kills, and he is able to transform his body into various weapons (think Alex Mercer from [PROTOTYPE] to know what I mean). He’s hunting the civilians to feed on and has his eye on Superman as well.

Livewire: Leslie was a vlogger with a far looser code of ethics than Clark. Her “reporting” eventually angered the wrong people who attempted to have her assassinated. Instead Leslie ended up with powers over electromagnetism, and a grudge against Morgan Edge who she believes was behind the Intergang hit on her. Edge is her target but she doesn’t mind stepping over Superman’s corpse if she has to.

The Terran (Terra-Man): Krypton wasn’t the only planet to discover the Phantom Zone. One alien race banished the immortal hunter known as the Terran, whose human name was Tobias before he was abducted by aliens who were interested in the potential of the human meta gene and wanted to experiment on him. Their experiment was a success and Tobias broke free, using their own weaponry to hunt them down and carve a bloody path across the stars. Eventually he was transported to the PZ and is now desperate to escape.

Mr. Mxy: Who is this creature? Neither a human nor seemingly an alien prisoner of the PZ, Mxy engages Clark in a series of puzzles that reveal secrets about the PZ... and foretell of threats to come.

Red Cloud: An enforcer for the Invisible Mafia, her only loyalty is to her boss Leone. Her identity is a secret from Clark for now and she intends for it to remain that way.

Silver Banshee: Not every human teleported to the PZ was unchanged. Some reacted much more strongly to the Zone’s influence. One former human has now been twisted into the sinister Silver Banshee, driven insane by the whispers in the Zone and the alterations to her body. She poses a formidable threat to Clark in her current state.

Xa-Du: The Phantom King and first prisoner of the Phantom Zone sent from Krypton. Zod claims he was insane even before he was sent here but his incarceration has done nothing to improve his health if so. Gleefully plotting his return to the real world, Xa’s only desire is to raise an army of super zombies with himself as their Necrogod ruler. His time in the Zone has given him control over the degraded Phantoms, and he can channel the energies permeating the Zone into a variety of attacks (basically he’s a space necromancer). His aim is to corrupt Kal-El and the Fortress and use both to travel to Earth and he will never stop hunting Kal.

Non boss mooks for Clark to fight:

Phantoms - Some of the inhabitants of the Zone have degenerated into the ghostly Phantoms, their only desire to spread their suffering to others. They have been so warped by the Zone they’ve become a part of it and are thus incapable of permanently dying.

Shades - Much more powerful Phantoms, Shades retain some memory of their former lives and posses some of their former skills. They serve as the elite of Xa-DU’s forces.

Shadowbreed - Native creatures of the PZ, these beings feed on the light of the SunStones and thus see Clark as a meal as well. They possess various animals of the PZ to attack and feed on him.

Eradicators - Once these machines served House El in their study of this place acting as defenders. But time has eroded their programming and they now seek to destroy even the Last Son of their old House.

[Prime]

How did the f*ck did you just come up with a compelling Superman game on the go and a multi billion dollar company could not?

[Celgress]

How did the f*ck did you just come up with a compelling Superman game on the go and a multi billion dollar company could not?

It's DC/Warner that's why....

The long answer is when you actually care about an IP and believe in the central character it makes a huge difference. *sigh*

[Vordan]

It's DC/Warner that's why....

The long answer is when you actually care about an IP and believe in the central character it makes a huge difference. *sigh*

Nailed it. It’s easy, I can just spout ideas all day because I’m a huge fanboy who spends a lot of time thinking about Superman, how he works and what not. I also play a lot of video games so I have some ideas on how to make him work in that format. The guys running the video game division only give a **** about Batman. Even if I bought the argument that Superman is “too difficult” what about Wonder Woman? How the hell hasn’t she gotten a game with Kratos and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey showing how it could be done? Because WB doesn’t give a damn if Batman isn’t involved. They already rejected Superman pitches from WBM and Rocksteady, they clearly just don’t believe in anything that doesn’t have the Bat logo stapled on it.

That said making a game is hard as hell, even when you have a foundation to work on and you love the concept you’re making. Rocksteady loved Batman but the Batmobile in AK still sucked imo. WBM loved Batman too and were just building off of Rocksteady, but Origins was a mess of a game in terms of glitches. It’s hard, but so is what they’re doing already with this live service bs in Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad. So many games have tried to be Destiny clones and failed, I can’t help being bitter that WB chose to chase that micro transaction $$$ instead of giving any other hero a solo game.

[Gaius]

Nailed it. It’s easy, I can just spout ideas all day because I’m a huge fanboy who spends a lot of time thinking about Superman, how he works and what not. I also play a lot of video games so I have some ideas on how to make him work in that format. The guys running the video game division only give a **** about Batman. Even if I bought the argument that Superman is “too difficult” what about Wonder Woman? How the hell hasn’t she gotten a game with Kratos and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey showing how it could be done? Because WB doesn’t give a damn if Batman isn’t involved. They already rejected Superman pitches from WBM and Rocksteady, they clearly just don’t believe in anything that doesn’t have the Bat logo stapled on it.

That said making a game is hard as hell, even when you have a foundation to work on and you love the concept you’re making. Rocksteady loved Batman but the Batmobile in AK still sucked imo. WBM loved Batman too and were just building off of Rocksteady, but Origins was a mess of a game in terms of glitches. It’s hard, but so is what they’re doing already with this live service bs in Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad. So many games have tried to be Destiny clones and failed, I can’t help being bitter that WB chose to chase that micro transaction $$$ instead of giving any other hero a solo game.

Just do what I do and cross your fingers and hope it's a disaster at launch like most live service games.

[Prime]

Nailed it. It’s easy, I can just spout ideas all day because I’m a huge fanboy who spends a lot of time thinking about Superman, how he works and what not. I also play a lot of video games so I have some ideas on how to make him work in that format. The guys running the video game division only give a **** about Batman. Even if I bought the argument that Superman is “too difficult” what about Wonder Woman? How the hell hasn’t she gotten a game with Kratos and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey showing how it could be done? Because WB doesn’t give a damn if Batman isn’t involved. They already rejected Superman pitches from WBM and Rocksteady, they clearly just don’t believe in anything that doesn’t have the Bat logo stapled on it.

That said making a game is hard as hell, even when you have a foundation to work on and you love the concept you’re making. Rocksteady loved Batman but the Batmobile in AK still sucked imo. WBM loved Batman too and were just building off of Rocksteady, but Origins was a mess of a game in terms of glitches. It’s hard, but so is what they’re doing already with this live service bs in Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad. So many games have tried to be Destiny clones and failed, I can’t help being bitter that WB chose to chase that micro transaction $$$ instead of giving any other hero a solo game.

f*ck, even a Wonder Woman game shouldn't be hard when you have God Of War and Devil May Cry as examples

[Celgress]

Nailed it. It’s easy, I can just spout ideas all day because I’m a huge fanboy who spends a lot of time thinking about Superman, how he works and what not. I also play a lot of video games so I have some ideas on how to make him work in that format. The guys running the video game division only give a **** about Batman. Even if I bought the argument that Superman is “too difficult” what about Wonder Woman? How the hell hasn’t she gotten a game with Kratos and Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey showing how it could be done? Because WB doesn’t give a damn if Batman isn’t involved. They already rejected Superman pitches from WBM and Rocksteady, they clearly just don’t believe in anything that doesn’t have the Bat logo stapled on it.

That said making a game is hard as hell, even when you have a foundation to work on and you love the concept you’re making. Rocksteady loved Batman but the Batmobile in AK still sucked imo. WBM loved Batman too and were just building off of Rocksteady, but Origins was a mess of a game in terms of glitches. It’s hard, but so is what they’re doing already with this live service bs in Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad. So many games have tried to be Destiny clones and failed, I can’t help being bitter that WB chose to chase that micro transaction $$$ instead of giving any other hero a solo game.

Indeed, at least Warner finally seems to have woken up. We are getting expanded universe material (multi-media projects) now. Sadly, I think it might prove too little too late.

I get so angry when I see the huge success of Dragon Ball, One Punch Man, The Boys, Invincible, etc DC has the original template yet for years & years have done practically nothing with him. DC/Warner's decades-long treatment of Superman borders on the criminal and is certainly incompetent.