Who is your favorite "old man" Superman?

[Ascended]

Gonna throw my vote at Superman 1 Million as well. If there is a perfect ending to the Superman story, it's 1 Million. Somewhere in the multiverse, there's an earth where Grant Morrison started writing Superman in 2001 and never stopped and never ran out of new ideas. And someday I hope to find that world!

I didn't read Future's End, but from what I know Clark retired and started putting his farming knowledge to work, trying to tackle world hunger. And there's images of him with the beard, slightly long hair, and t-shirt "costume" and while I can't speak for the details or execution of the story, the idea is pretty gods damn interesting and the visual is one of my all time favorites.

I'll also agree with those saying Kingdom Come is an awful Superman. Isn't that the whole point of the story? Clark gave up on humanity because they didn't share his opinion on lethal force, and decades after abandoning us he comes back as a quasi-tyrant forcing his views on everyone, even when that just makes things worse. He's a failed Superman. If I made a list of my favorite Supermen who failed in the biggest ways possible, then KC is at the top of the list (he's better than Injustice at least!) but as far as "proper" Supermen go, KC ranks pretty close to the bottom regardless of age.

[Buried Alien]

Pre-COIE Earth-Two Kal-L



Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[2real]

The epilogue to Thy Kingdom Come story from the JSA book showing the future of the Kingdom Come Earth. An old Clark walking down the street in Metropolis looking up and seeing the team he inspired carrying on the fight. To me that is the perfect ending for Superman. I hate the idea of an immortal Superman, and would rather seem him age slowly and enjoying his golden years.

Whoa thats awesome

[DochaDocha]

KC is kind of like TDK in that I don't feel it's right to blame a story that inspired a lot of lesser copycats. I always sensed KC was kind of overrated, but I (and most of us) were much younger when I read it and it felt kind of different for me. I'm way more forgiving of KC than that other popular Elseworld Superman that I spent way too much of my life complaining about on this board because KC at least felt like an original take whereas that other story does feel like an insipid rehash of a combination of other Elseworld Supermen. So KC is fine with me. It's not a blueprint for other Superman stories, but it's fine in its own sphere. I'm not a TDK fan, and it's easy to blame it for a lot that followed afterward, but I feel that Miller at least deserves credit for trying something different. I can't hold him responsible for the guys who aped his hot take on Batman v. Superman, no matter how much I hate its legacy. But back to KC Superman, something's nice about those panels when he's an old geezer that hits me in the feels.

I don't think Jordan Elliott is really an Old Man Superman, but I always liked that as a possible ride-off-into-the-sunset ending for Superman. And hey, it's one time I don't hate Jon! It's the best story featuring Jon Kent ever written!!!!

[2real]

Gonna throw my vote at Superman 1 Million as well. If there is a perfect ending to the Superman story, it's 1 Million. Somewhere in the multiverse, there's an earth where Grant Morrison started writing Superman in 2001 and never stopped and never ran out of new ideas. And someday I hope to find that world!

I didn't read Future's End, but from what I know Clark retired and started putting his farming knowledge to work, trying to tackle world hunger. And there's images of him with the beard, slightly long hair, and t-shirt "costume" and while I can't speak for the details or execution of the story, the idea is pretty gods damn interesting and the visual is one of my all time favorites.

I'll also agree with those saying Kingdom Come is an awful Superman. Isn't that the whole point of the story? Clark gave up on humanity because they didn't share his opinion on lethal force, and decades after abandoning us he comes back as a quasi-tyrant forcing his views on everyone, even when that just makes things worse. He's a failed Superman. If I made a list of my favorite Supermen who failed in the biggest ways possible, then KC is at the top of the list (he's better than Injustice at least!) but as far as "proper" Supermen go, KC ranks pretty close to the bottom regardless of age.

I really like your view on KC. I read through it from a list and didn't give it much thought but I'm eager to read it again after seeing this. Initially I skipped over the "given up on humanity" and just focused on his internal struggle with, being, old-fashioned? i guess. thank you

[Lightning Rider]

I still love Kingdom Come, and that includes KC Superman. Perhaps I was younger, more impressionable, and simply blown away by the art and the idea that comic books could tell stories with gravitas and social themes. But even so, I never took Kal's failings in that book as truly damning or irredeemable. He made hard choices in a hard world and in the end saw the error of his ways.

[Thor-Ul]

Even if I like the KC SUperman, I also have a taste for the older Supermfrom Batman Beyond:

[Ascended]

I really like your view on KC. I read through it from a list and didn't give it much thought but I'm eager to read it again after seeing this. Initially I skipped over the "given up on humanity" and just focused on his internal struggle with, being, old-fashioned? i guess. thank you

Thanks. But don't take my comments as condemnation of the story, or even their treatment of Clark. KC is a soft dystopia, far less excessive than most modern takes on the concept (Injustice) but just because Clark has failed his never ending battle doesn't mean he's not fun to read about, or even, really, all that far out of character. We like to believe that a "proper" Superman wouldn't just give up and walk away, especially over something as trivial as public opinion, but it's not such a crazy idea it's utterly impossible either; lots of stories have seen Clark run up against his own inability to wrest the future into the shape he wants. KC just actually explored what that failure could look like.

Same goes for Bruce and Diana too. They all give in to their lowest impulses....but it's done in a way that is honest, rather than scandalous yknow? All I'm saying is that KC is a fantastic story....but one that does not feature a "true and proper" Superman as we like to envision him.

[Lightning Rider]

Thanks. But don't take my comments as condemnation of the story, or even their treatment of Clark. KC is a soft dystopia, far less excessive than most modern takes on the concept (Injustice) but just because Clark has failed his never ending battle doesn't mean he's not fun to read about, or even, really, all that far out of character. We like to believe that a "proper" Superman wouldn't just give up and walk away, especially over something as trivial as public opinion, but it's not such a crazy idea it's utterly impossible either; lots of stories have seen Clark run up against his own inability to wrest the future into the shape he wants. KC just actually explored what that failure could look like.

Same goes for Bruce and Diana too. They all give in to their lowest impulses....but it's done in a way that is honest, rather than scandalous yknow? All I'm saying is that KC is a fantastic story....but one that does not feature a "true and proper" Superman as we like to envision him.

I think if he lost Lois and the public turned against him, taking an extended time-out wouldn't be much out of character for a proper Superman.

[Ascended]

I think if he lost Lois and the public turned against him, taking an extended time-out wouldn't be much out of character for a proper Superman.

Given the way DC often treats the guy, you could argue that losing Lois all by itself is enough to drive him into tyrannical fits of world-breaking insanity and it'd be in character.

And if DC says it long enough, eventually it stops being bad writing and becomes legitimate characterization, so.....

For myself, a "true and proper" Superman doesn't quit. Too damn stubborn. Too determined to see things through to the end. Anything else he'd consider spitting in the memory of those he cares for and those who care for him.

But if he lost those things on a really bad day? I agree it's not so outside the box to be utterly impossible. And that's what made KC work (for me); it was an awful future and the Trinity had fallen hard...but it was believable, the characters have those flaws as part of their normal composition and KC was just a story where those flaws won. And we all have days where our flaws win. KC just did it on a bigger scale.

[phantom1592]

Another Vote for Kal -L. I definitely prefer a Superman who got weaker and has the grey temples going on. The idea of an 'immortal Superman' just bugs me.

[The Frog Bros]

Does the Authority version qualify as “old man Superman?” He’s got the grey hair, different suit, weakening powers, and wiser in the ways of the world largely because he can fully acknowledge his failures (and those of the JL). After all that he still has the “I want to make things better” attitude with learning from years of past mistakes and completely veers from the norm with a different team and methods as a result.

Dunno if this version is my fave per se, and he’s certainly not the oldest version, but he’d be up there for me. Or maybe it's just recency bias.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm less in love with "Kal-L" (Earth-Two version) than I used to be--mainly because of how writers and fans use him, to the point of leaving the concept deflated of any meaning.

I didn't know that this Superman was supposed to be weaker with age. I seem to recall stories where it was the opposite and his superior qualities came from having been around for so long.

You also have lots of stories that go their own way with the character. Are his powers explained the same way as Earth-One? Do they look alike? How much does he follow the continuity of 1938? 1939? 1943? 1948?

It's pretty clear that this guy did get a lot more powerful compared with the Superman in ACTION COMICS 1 (June 1938).

The Superman in "There'll Always Be a Superman," ACTION COMICS 62 (July 1943) is living in 2143--and just as young as always. So that seems to say the character doesn't age very fast. But that story doesn't need to apply to the Earth-Two creation, given so little from the 1940s applies to that guy. Nor does it have to apply to the original Siegel and Shuster Superman (Don Cameron wrote the story).

I remember the suggestion--probably apocryphal--that Kal-L would be the Superman to survive Crisis, giving him a future a lot like the Cameron Man of Tomorrow--who takes off his old man guise to reveal the younger man.

Once you have solar radiation as the explanation (circa 1960), the chances of Superman getting more and more powerful increase. And with the 1986 Superman that makes it a feature of the character--he just gains more and more power from the Sun.

I prefer the "Immortal Superman" (1970) because he gets his immortality and increased powers against his will. He's not happy about it. And the story both exists and doesn't exist on account of the ending. I like to think every Superman lives through this same experience, then forgets it happened when he cycles back to begin again.

[RobinGA]

I think the larger question becomes does Superman age in ways that we mortals would understand.
I think that he does. I think that as well that he does in fact die. There will be members of his family
who will have their own careers. I think this is mainly a theoretical exercise. Because well it has been
more than 80 years, Clark Kent is still running around as the Superman. I see no reason that will
change anytime soon, regardless of the Supersons. Just as there will be a Batman, a Wonder Woman.

The problem of immortality is that it separates Superman from the lived experience of people here on earth.
Is that really what we want of Superman? I think some do. It is rather sad though. To imagine a Superman
where Lois must age, then die, with Clark having to witness it, then have to continue living. I would rather
imagine that he has a life span a little more than other humans, but not one where he has to live without Lois for hundreds,
thousands of years.

Like I said, more a theoretical exercise.

[Jim Kelly]

Superman's future is Schrödinger's Cat.