How did Superman benefit from Flashpoint/ New 52?

[Stanlos]

I was also surprise d that 52 was credited with fixing emoSupes as I thought it gave us weird jock/edge Lord Supes. Was he emo before Flashpoint?

[Vordan]

I was also surprise d that 52 was credited with fixing emoSupes as I thought it gave us weird jock/edge Lord Supes. Was he emo before Flashpoint?

Oh yeah, Grounded was emo Supes to the max.

[manwhohaseverything]

Superman has been an emo since for tomorrow. lots of jesus imagery and personality..

[Stanlos]

Oh yeah, Grounded was emo Supes to the max.

Hmmmmmmmm. I missed this "Grounded" thing. I will add it to the list of requisitions

[manwhohaseverything]

As for the T-shirt and jeans, it looks like my top 2 continue to suffer similar fates. Whereas WW was given Wonder Girl's origin with Flashpoint it seems Superman was given Superboy's costume. It never quite jived for me as both seemed like demotions of a sort

It wasn't Superboy's costume..this was superman.

This siegel and shuster's first attempt at the man of action..
This is the core of the champion...if this ain't superman.Then superman has'nt been superman

[Stanlos]

It wasn't Superboy's costume..this was superman.

This siegel and shuster's first attempt at the man of action..
This is the core of the champion...if this ain't superman.Then superman has'nt been superman

I would be all for an arc of so where Supes was uber primal and such word pants/shorts and no shirt. But I find it difficult to see that as the visual representation of Superman proper. It is not nearly as iconic as the S and the suit, no?

[bat39]

Prior to Flashpoint, there was this trend of making Superman out to be kind of a sad sack with a lot of self-doubt. Maybe that trend is back again now; I got some of that vibe from Bendis in the issues I read of his before I dropped the title, though I would hope that BvS' failure would discourage DC from pursuing that characterization too much.

Post-Flashpoint Superman, by contrast, was a pretty decisive and self-assured character. He usually knew what he thought the right thing to do was, and then he did it! This isn't universally true across the board - it wasn't true for the initial run on the "Superman" title for example. But it was true for almost the entire 52 issues of Action Comics. Superman's doubts tended not to keep him down and out for long in the New 52, and I really value that vibrancy.


Morrison's Superman was and is my absolute blueprint for how to make Superman work in a contemporary world, but very little of it seemed to last beyond his run, and not much of what remained lasted beyond the New 52. That's why I started with Kal's more decisive attitude - it stuck, at least throughout Rebirth, and I really appreciated that. Like I said, don't know how much his backbone weathered Bendis, or if we're back to what Morrison derisively called "that weird emo Superman," but at the very least it stuck for a while.

I also admire the down-to-Earthness of New 52 Superman's social awareness. He's not sitting there going "If I do X or Y, how does it look on an international stage? Is it right for me to be an American citizen? Is it right for me to stop a war?" etc etc. Instead he's got the Golden Age attitude of "obviously I should stop a war," but also it comes up less often because a lot of his more personal attention is on his own city. He helps with community construction, he stands with his neighborhood when they're besieged by cops, stuff like that. A lot of Superman comics treat the Man of Steel as kind of remote from his community, because he's so literally above them, and he spends a lot of time flying around the whole world - but I love the moments we get with him in his neighborhood community in the New 52, and it's very rare elsewhere.

The other thing I like, and this is a lot more fanboyish, is the sense of a return to the pre-Crisis world, reformulated to fit contemporary sensibilities. My go-to-example is the Fortress of Solitude that Kal gets from Brainiac at the end of Action Comics # 8. Later he's using his traditional arctic one, so what happened to the space fortress? Well, it was infested by Urko the Terrible in Action Comics # 261, all the way back in 1960! As with the pseudo-Golden Age standing in for the real one, it seems that Morrison allows for Superman's history to occur off-panel, in between the time jumps of their non-linear Action run. And Rao, I just absolutely love that!

Morrison did a great job showing the transition from the Golden Age ''champion of the oppressed'' Superman to the more sci-fi Silver Age version in-story. I particularly like that scene in Action Comics # 7 where Superman attends an early Justice League meeting. Though he can now fly and has his ''full'' Kryptonian suit, he's still very much thinking like the Golden Age crusader, and starts brainstorming ideas for how the League can 'fix' the world at a global scale - and the other Leaguers have to remind him that they can't just reshape the world like tyrants. Basically, Superman is still grappling with the scope and scale of his powers growing, and with that, the realization that he can't just 'fix' the world through sheer force the way he's been trying to fix Metropolis.

Pretty much what others have said. Maybe a full reboot wasn't necessary, but Morrison's Action run is still the best modern Superman run we've had in a while and has yet to be topped by what has come after. By returning the character to his roots, it showed what a joke he had become by the time Flashpoint gave him a mercy kill. It showed he could be cool and relevant, had flaws but they wouldn't keep him down. It distilled him down to a perfect fusion of the Golden and Silver/Bronze ages with an eye to the future. Of course, DC is just really bad at capitalizing on anything, so the rest of the New 52 spun its wheels despite the odd good thing here and there. I don't think it helped that the most prolific thing New 52 Superman was in aside from Morrison's run was Johns' JL where Johns continued to write him as a bland muscle head focused on the misfire that was his romance with Wonder Woman. And the Jim Lee costume totally sucked.

So the New 52 run as a whole maybe wasn't great, but I wish Morrison had been brought on board to do a run similar to their Batman run: an "everything counts" run that would allow them to make a modernized origin re-telling with several pre-Crisis elements re-worked in while the modern Superman would be married to Lois and have his broad continuity still in place while heading in a new direction. There really is nothing about T-shirt and jeans Superman that precludes him from becoming the current guy who is married to Lois and has a kid.

Johnson seems to be setting up a lot of neat stuff for the Super mythos and consulting with Morrison gives me hope that New 52 Action Comics will be quietly re-worked into being his starting point again. If nothing else, that's all from the New 52 we need to preserve.

I think Morrison, had he been given full reign, would definitely have done what you suggested. Hell, there's an issue where he pretty much reveals that he sees the Superman he's writing and the Post-Crisis Superman as the same person. There's a splash page of the Post-Crisis status quo with the Kents alive and the marriage, and then the reveal that Vyndyktv went back in time and killed the Kents, altering the course of Clark's life a bit. But I think had Morrison had his way, he could have guided his Superman to a new version of the Post-Crisis status quo, or maybe just a version of the Bronze Age status quo that was enjoyable to read!

[Soubhagya]

Thanks so much, fellow Kryptonians! It looks like the rough spot for pre Flashpoint was in the section of my collection I am still trying reacquire. It sounds like after the Infinite Crisis and the first (and lauded) 52, there was some loss of direction? I do remember being excited for New Krypton and the re-establishment of DC extra solar stage. But I cannot remember what became of it. Hopefully it fared better than the similar innovations that Rucka had initiated in WW preIC.

I am surprised to read about his origin having become a mess. I thought it had more or less been constant. But with wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much ridiculous Jesus stuff added.

As for the T-shirt and jeans, it looks like my top 2 continue to suffer similar fates. Whereas WW was given Wonder Girl's origin with Flashpoint it seems Superman was given Superboy's costume. It never quite jived for me as both seemed like demotions of a sort

The way i see it, its not a demotion. Its more like an origin. The point from where he started, since the dude has to start somewhere. And its not like everything falls in place at one point and as soon as he discovers his origin he has a super suit ready to go with it.

"Son, you are the last son of Krypton. Here's your sweet supersuit. Now go and lead humanity to the sun. You are like a super man now. A Hopeman. Man of hope!" I am imagining this in Russel Crowe's voice.

Or say like Marlon Brando. "I sent you to Earth as the last son of Krypton. Here's your sweet supersuit. Now you are the new Jesus."

Excuse, my sarcastic words, for i like both of the movies, especially Superman '78. But I really like the idea of New 52, where for Superman there is no higher destiny to fulfill. No huge purpose for his appearance on Earth. He is making his own story. The decision to fight for the weak, who can't fight for themselves was his own.

That's hinted by Jonathan, but it is more or less his choice. Nothing comes down from the sky to make him look the part of Superman, when he's doing Superman's work. The T-shirt look, is how you and me would come up with initially. Till something comes from the sky or by the way of fate or design and we look the part as well. The T-shirt and jeans look really lends the feel of a guy who is ready to bend down to do the hard work and get his hands dirty. No one is compelling him to do the work he is doing, except himself.

And i love the suit for that. He's so full of energy and is so strong-willed that he's Superman, before Superman even is a thing.

[manwhohaseverything]

I would be all for an arc of so where Supes was uber primal and such word pants/shorts and no shirt. But I find it difficult to see that as the visual representation of Superman proper. It is not nearly as iconic as the S and the suit, no?

No,i find a man of action to be superman proper.jeans and tshirt ties into the guy's origin and where he comes from.It's called "never ending battle for truth and justice on behalf of the common folks".Jeans and tshirt man of action can be more iconic.it just hasn't had any adaptation.

Moreover,Does being "Iconic" have much of a value if superman doesn't produce stories beyond certain types?And no,clark used to wear tshirt as well.This cover just happens to have none.This is where Morrison took the idea.which s are we talking about?the one in ac#1 or the one made up later.Ac#1 made superhero boom.I would say the costume isn't worth much if the guy is a wet towel.

[manwhohaseverything]

Excuse, my sarcastic words, for i like both of the movies, especially Superman '78. But I really like the idea of New 52, where for Superman there is no higher destiny to fulfill. No huge purpose for his appearance on Earth. He is making his own story. The decision to fight for the weak, who can't fight for themselves was his own.

That's hinted by Jonathan, but it is more or less his choice. Nothing comes down from the sky to make him look the part of Superman, when he's doing Superman's work. The T-shirt look, is how you and me would come up with initially. Till something comes from the sky or by the way of fate or design and we look the part as well. The T-shirt and jeans look really lends the feel of a guy who is ready to bend down to do the hard work and get his hands dirty. No one is compelling him to do the work he is doing, except himself.

This is what i am talking about...

[DABellWrites]

DC was given a new direction for Superman until they flopped with it. Now, they're doing it with Jon.

[Superfan90]

For all my gripe with new 52, it gave Superman his swagger back. His confidence, his conviction and the fact that he was a champion of the oppressed once more (At least by Morrison). And it has stuck, no more of Superman moping around asking if he is needed.

[Stanlos]

For the Jesus and destiny stuff, I seem to recall that being added way late in the characters life. I could have sworn originally the rocket to Earth was an act of desperation and love by the Els in the hopes that baby Kal would survive (though how does that explain the Supergirl thing). For some reason this tidbit and whether any other Kryptonian prior to the Zod squad knew about the yellow sun surprise is fuzzy for me

[DABellWrites]

For the Jesus and destiny stuff, I seem to recall that being added way late in the characters life. I could have sworn originally the rocket to Earth was an act of desperation and love by the Els in the hopes that baby Kal would survive (though how does that explain the Supergirl thing). For some reason this tidbit and whether any other Kryptonian prior to the Zod squad knew about the yellow sun surprise is fuzzy for me

You're right. Superman is a survivor because his father created a makeshift rocket that transported his son to a Earth. The yellow sun is a retcon. Originally his abilities was a direct result of evolution, not from the yellow sun. So, other Kryptonians knowing about it was probably up to the writer and editor.