Is Superman worth it anymore?

[Dralokonda]

After reading about the original plans zack snyder had for justice league aswell as how screwed over superman was and might still get in the upcoming snyder cut https://bleedingcool.com/movies/zack...equel-jim-lee/

Aswell as the news that jj abrahams and coates will helm solely a black superman movie with no plans for anything regarding the traditional superman, it makes me really wonder what the point is in being a fan of superman anymore. Apart from the superman and lois series, there is hardly any good portrayals for superman in the mainstream media. There is still superman is the villian schtick going on relentlessly and if zacks take on the original justice league is proof of anything, supermans sole reason for existance as far as dc and warner bros is concerned is to be used as a tool to help reinforce their love and appreciation for batman.

[Vordan]

I must admit there are times I do consider just walking away and letting DC & WB s*** on the character the way they clearly want to. It’s insane I have to sit here and hope that Superman won’t be a genocidal mass murderer or a cuckold in whatever next outside media project he’s slated to show up for.

Yet elsewhere Superman is actually in a good spot? The TV show stars a traditional take and is very positively received. I enjoyed Bendis’ Superman run and am excited for PKJ’s, especially since I enjoyed the Superman Future State titles. Red & Blue looks fantastic, Yang’s Batman/Superman sounds incredibly promising, Venditti has Superman ‘78 for those wanting a more traditional take, and there may be a BL Superman project coming down the line from Waid. Fraction put out one of my all time favorite comics with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen and Yang put out a banger with Superman Smashes The Klan.

The only things that look terrible are the Snyder Cut, Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad, and the inevitable Injustice 3. Abrams & Coates are an unknown, I wish it was the traditional Clark Kent getting a reboot, but we’ll see what they do. So for now my fandom endures because there’s enough good stuff right now to make me stick through the crap.

[manwhohaseverything]

I don't know.But,superman has taught me alot about truth and justice.Bullying,weakness,..etc.He also made me appreciate goku far more for what he stands for.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

...it makes me really wonder what the point is in being a fan of superman anymore.

The Superman or versions of it in comics or any adaptation, if you like that and still care for it, you can hold on to that even if it's not as influential or defining on the current versions that are out.

It's easy to be a fan of something when the wind is in your sails, but harder when the stock is low, and people think there's not much to the character to begin with.

Apart from the superman and lois series, there is hardly any good portrayals for superman in the mainstream media.

At the end of the day, you have more Superman content than Wonder Woman content. More Superman content than Aquaman content, more with Superman than Hal Jordan, Martian Manhunter, and many many DC characters who struggle and toil in obscurity to this day.

Superman's stock has fallen a bit, and is too bogged down but at least there will always be a Superman every decade or so. There will not always be a Flash and even then it's not a guarantee it will always be Wally or Barry or whoever. After the sequel failed, who knows what things will hold for Wonder Woman.

And that's the DC superhero, leaving aside stuff like Plastic Man, The Question, Blue Beetle, the Fourth World, The Sandman (finally coming, seemingly, on Netflix) and so on.

[Quinlan58]

Only you can choose whether he's still worth it for you or not.

Me? I like most of the plans for the dude on the comics side (with caveats, of course, chief among them the current lack of plans for Lois Lane), I liked the first 2 episodes of Superman & Lois. I'm intrigued by whatever Coates comes up in the upcoming reboot. So yeah, dude's still worth it for me.

[superduperman]

In terms of movies? No. Point blank. It's obvious TPTB at Warners don't know what to do with him and haven't for a while now. But I was just thinking about this a few minutes ago. I'm getting more of what I want from Superman now than I have in a while. A new TV show which looks pretty good. A Superman '78 series which looks pretty good. An anthology book like Batman always gets. These are all good things. Are they permanent? No. But they are what we as fans have been asking for a while now. Maybe if we want a good Superman movie we'll just have to boycott the DCEU for a while. It's the only way they'll learn. Is it perfect? No. But it's enough to tide me over for right now.

[SiegePerilous02]

He'll always be worth it. As are all the characters.

WB/DC though? Probably not, but unfortunately we're stuck with them.

[Prime]

Superman himself? Yes. WB ? No.

[Ascended]

Nobody can decide when/if to walk away but you.

For myself, my fandom is not contingent on whether the company is currently putting out quality product. If it was, I'd have stopped being a Superman fan long ago. Of course, that doesn't mean I buy whatever crap DC throws my way; I adore Superman but refuse to buy products I don't enjoy, so there have been long stretches of time where DC hasn't gotten any of my Super money. But even if I'm not reading the books or watching the shows I'm still a fan and I keep an eye out for stuff I *do* want. And before long, I always find something worth buying, whether it's a new reprint of older material, a new creative team on the main books, or whatever.

Overall I think things are looking good right now; there's a lot of stuff on the comic side that seems appealing; Red/Blue, the new creative team, that digital anthology that just wrapped up a Superman story that looks downright excellent. Smashes the Klan wasn't that long ago either. Maybe none of that will appeal to you (and I might not end up liking any of it either) but it's more than we've often had in recent years.

I'm not interested in the CW, nor am I interested in any DC film since the vast majority of them are pretty bad. But not too long ago we were all wishing Clark had a tv show again, or was getting a movie from some big name with a solid track record. Maybe what we're actually getting isn't to my taste, but it's better than the great big *nothing* we were getting a year ago, and those projects will find fans, and if they're successful that'll increase the odds of WB/DC making something I'll enjoy. And in the meantime I still have larger media Super stuff to re-watch.

I will say, though, that I hate the "But Clark gets more than X,Y, Z characters!" Yeah. He does. And? He's Superman, the fact that he gets more exposure than other IP's is a given. Other characters need tons more attention than they get...but that applies to everyone not named Batman or Harley, and the fact that the most well known superhero on earth gets one or two more crumbs than lesser known IP's is scant consolation. Nor does this negate the fact that most of the exposure Clark gets is bad, poorly conceived, and not worth the time or money it takes to consume it. What good is a Superman film when it's not worth watching?

But overall, I'm feeling vaguely, cautiously optimistic at the moment. New people are in charge across the board; let's see if they handle things better than their predecessors.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

The Superman or versions of it in comics or any adaptation, if you like that and still care for it, you can hold on to that even if it's not as influential or defining on the current versions that are out.

It's easy to be a fan of something when the wind is in your sails, but harder when the stock is low, and people think there's not much to the character to begin with.



At the end of the day, you have more Superman content than Wonder Woman content. More Superman content than Aquaman content, more with Superman than Hal Jordan, Martian Manhunter, and many many DC characters who struggle and toil in obscurity to this day.

Superman's stock has fallen a bit, and is too bogged down but at least there will always be a Superman every decade or so. There will not always be a Flash and even then it's not a guarantee it will always be Wally or Barry or whoever. After the sequel failed, who knows what things will hold for Wonder Woman.

And that's the DC superhero, leaving aside stuff like Plastic Man, The Question, Blue Beetle, the Fourth World, The Sandman (finally coming, seemingly, on Netflix) and so on.

yup this, if i can still consider myself a green lantern fan, I have no problem being a Superman fan. Frankly besides video games (that i still don't think would be a good fit for Superman anyway) most Batman and Spiderman movies haven't been anything to be proud of since 2008. Superman is at least doing alright in tv and animation. Comics have sucked for Batman and Superman since Tom King and Brian Bendis showed up respectively.....And Spiderman comics just suck in general in my experience. Take the good with bad, it really isn't a bad time to be a Superman fan at all.

[Doctor Know]

I'm always surprised that so many fans in the Superman fandom are miffed with how the character is treated. The only people with a bigger complex are Spider-Man and X-Men fans.

With the comics we have, but not limited to: Superman, Action Comics, The Man of Steel, Supergirl, Super Sons, Adventures of the Super Sons, Legion of Superheroes (with Jon), Lois Lane: Enemy of the People, Connor on YJ, Superman Smashes The Klan, Frank Miller's Superman Year One, Scott Snyder's Justice League with Kal, etc.

For animation where Supes has a lead role.
2020 - Superman Man of Tomorrow, Justice League Dark Apokolips War
2019 - Superman Red Son, Reign of the Supermen + Death and Return of Superman
2018 - Death of Superman

For TV:
Supergirl is coming to an end after 6 seasons.
Superman and Lois his scoring high with ratings in it's first season.

Games:
Injustice and Injustice 2 - The latter of which saw two of Supes' rogues (Darkseid and Brainaic) take center stage and met with positive response for the exposure.
Suicide Squad Kills the JL - More to build up SS, but Supes is an obstacle for the squad to overcome.

For movies:
Zack Snyder's JL wrapping up the arc started with MOS and Cavil Supes.
JJ Abrams' produced Superman film, with a black Superman.


We as Superman fans have more than most fans could ask for. Why people feel Supes is getting a raw deal and no exposure is mind-boggling.

[manduck37]

I'd say Superman is still worth it. I say that as a guy who's consuming a lot less Superman these days and as a life long fan. Supes is my favorite and always will be. Though I've stopped reading the comics for the first time in 30 years. I have no interest in Superman in the movies, after the Snyder films. I do really enjoy Superman and Lois though. I still watch the old Superman cartoons with my son. If I hear good things, I may jump back into the comics down the line. If I don't pick up the comics ever again, I'll have plenty of Superman to keep me happy.

By the way, if you can track it down and have something to play it on, the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips is a great Superman game. It's based on the animated series and has more than a full episode of animated story. It's a blast, even though it's pretty old.

[Powerboy]

After reading about the original plans zack snyder had for justice league aswell as how screwed over superman was and might still get in the upcoming snyder cut https://bleedingcool.com/movies/zack...equel-jim-lee/

Aswell as the news that jj abrahams and coates will helm solely a black superman movie with no plans for anything regarding the traditional superman, it makes me really wonder what the point is in being a fan of superman anymore. Apart from the superman and lois series, there is hardly any good portrayals for superman in the mainstream media. There is still superman is the villian schtick going on relentlessly and if zacks take on the original justice league is proof of anything, supermans sole reason for existance as far as dc and warner bros is concerned is to be used as a tool to help reinforce their love and appreciation for batman.

I will acknowledge that, just because something is not a traditional take does not make it bad. A black take on Superman could be quite good and recapture the whole "ultimate immigrant" concept. I'm far more interested in that than an evil Superman version.

When "Brightburn" came out, some people said they would prefer that it be literally an alternate reality Superman. That would be fine but I would prefer that something like that not be done until we first get a Superman movie. And, yes, I'm implying that MoS and B v S, for all of their good points, do not feature a character that a huge portion of the audience accepts as Superman. Or maybe it's not Superman himself but everything surrounding him that they don't accept. I did admire Superman's ability, in those movies, to be as true as possible to his ideals in a world that certainly does not make it easy.

I would agree that the CW Superman is the closest we have right now to a character that a large section of the audience accepts as being Superman.

In some ways, I have this image of a guy spinning in a circle, with a telescope, trying to see some way to make Superman relevant and acceptable again. Superman is standing behind him. But his spin always causes him to have his back to Superman so he never sees what he's looking for, never gets that the way to make Superman relevant and acceptable is to embrace what Superman is and stop thinking you have to "spruce him up" or modify him or justify him if he is the traditional Superman. You just need a creative team that gets that and doesn't think you need to change him or parody him for it to work.

[Powerboy]

Some good points made.

Some things that I may consider a low point is something someone else thinks was a high point and vice versa.

There have been high points recently. The CW Superman I consider a high point. Some aspects of the movies, I consider high points. "Superman Smashes the Klan" was a high point. Frank Miller's take on Superman's origin wasn't quite as great as I hoped. It certainly didn't do for Superman what DKR did for Batman. But it was very respectful. Then there's the upcoming Superman '78. Based on how well they did Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77, I think it will be nicely done.

[Robotman]

It’s funny that this thread popped up because I’ve been feeling similarly as of late. I’ll always love Superman but it’s gotten to the point where I’ve pretty much given up on the character being used properly by WB and therefore regaining prominence/significance in pop culture. For years I held out hope that maybe we’d get a great Superman movie or video game that could rejuvenate the character and put him back in his rightful place next to Batman and Spider-Man. But can only take so many gut punches before you have to take a knee and eventually give up.

On the video game front, Injustice has done huge damage to the character. Then we heard that an open world game set in Metropolis with Brainiac as the villain was in the works. We were finally going to get the great Superman game that was rumored for years! Nope. It’s a Suicide Squad game with Kal as a villain.

Some of the recent comic stories have been enjoyable but I seriously can’t stand older Jon Kent as “new and improved Superman”. If he’s going to stick around, make him a kid again and give him his own area to play in. Don’t just make him a more angsty Superman stealing page time from Clark.

WB has never understood Superman as a character. So many failed movies and now a planned reboot that will probably be a think piece that will once again try to tell us what Superman means.

It blows my mind that people don’t think Superman is relevant anymore. The immigrant’s story is always relevant. His arch nemesis is an egomaniacal billionaire industrialist with occasional political aspirations. Clark is a journalist trying to fight for truth against misinformation. His planet was destroyed because its leaders wouldn’t listen to the scientists’ warnings. This is all practically ripped from the headlines.