How Is Superman Written Differently From Writer To Writer?

[Timothy Hunter]

Would you say that Superman's characterization has been consistent throughout the years?

[Adekis]

The biggest shift that immediately jumps out to me is that during the jump from the Golden to the Silver Age, Superman gained a lot more alienation, and more capacity for introspection, sort of a mournful relationship with his heritage and Krypton's memory. How could he not? Reminders of his dead homeworld were coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden!

Now to be fair, in the Golden Age, he was still alienated a little. There's a few memorable moments when he seems to regard "mankind" at a distance, almost like an embedded anthropologist. But by and large, he didn't brood very much. He's got a reputation as more of a laughing daredevil in the Golden Age, and for the majority of the time, that's right! He didn't even know he was from Krypton, if I recall correctly!

Once the Silver Age was underway, it was commonplace for him to remember his childhood on Krypton firsthand, and to occasionally just sit in somber thought over all that was lost. This trait also persisted into the Bronze Age, in some cases even more emphasized than it had been earlier.

Of course, once Byrne's reboot was underway, he definitely lost that connection to Krypton, as it had become a much less hospitable place, and rather than leaving Krypton as a toddler as in the Silver Age or even a newborn infant as in the Golden Age, he was a fetus, so of course he had no personal memories either.

But I do want to say this isn't necessarily a change from writer to writer. I'm sure those happen too, but these specific changes are really more about a broader sense of the character over time. Jerry Siegel wrote the laughing daredevil and the introspective Supermen both, and in either case he was one of the best writers for it.

[Superfly Frankenstein]

In more modern times, Superman was written fairly consistently from 86-2003. The big shift in his characterization in the post Crisis setting occurred with Johns’s love letter to Richard Donner between Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. It was there that Superman shifted back to a pseudo Silver Age persona that became bastardized during the New 52. In Rebirth it became a more Byrne-esque style with a dash of “wtf, I can’t follow this” after Bendis took over.

[manwhohaseverything]

The biggest shift that immediately jumps out to me is that during the jump from the Golden to the Silver Age, Superman gained a lot more alienation, and more capacity for introspection, sort of a mournful relationship with his heritage and Krypton's memory. How could he not? Reminders of his dead homeworld were coming out of the woodwork all of a sudden!

Now to be fair, in the Golden Age, he was still alienated a little. There's a few memorable moments when he seems to regard "mankind" at a distance, almost like an embedded anthropologist. But by and large, he didn't brood very much. He's got a reputation as more of a laughing daredevil in the Golden Age, and for the majority of the time, that's right! He didn't even know he was from Krypton, if I recall correctly!

Once the Silver Age was underway, it was commonplace for him to remember his childhood on Krypton firsthand, and to occasionally just sit in somber thought over all that was lost. This trait also persisted into the Bronze Age, in some cases even more emphasized than it had been earlier.

A certain lawfulness as well.He went from harry potter to Hermione.. goldenage to silverage

[Timothy Hunter]

In more modern times, Superman was written fairly consistently from 86-2003. The big shift in his characterization in the post Crisis setting occurred with Johns’s love letter to Richard Donner between Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. It was there that Superman shifted back to a pseudo Silver Age persona that became bastardized during the New 52. In Rebirth it became a more Byrne-esque style with a dash of “wtf, I can’t follow this” after Bendis took over.

I remember Bendis writing Superman as too passive in the first half dozen issues of his run. Didn't stick around for much longer.

[Jon Clark]

In the golden age and the silver age there were two variations on a tale where Clark Kent was believed dead. In the bronze age there was a story where Superman was tricked into thinking he needed to either be Superman or Clark fulltime. And Pat-Crisis there was "The Death of Clark Kent" (plus the need to revive Clark after the whole Doomsday bit). The throughline- Superman needs a civilian ID, There is a definite benefit to having a life outside of the public eye. Superman runs into issues almost as soon as he loses the ability to have time as Clark.

Bendis and PKJ, so far, have made being anything but Superman 24/7 something the character sees no need for. No one bothers him as Clark. No paparazzi following him or Lois around when they go grocery shopping. No tons of letters asking for assistance suddenly clogging his inbox at work. No neighbors trying to get the Kents evicted because Superman is a threat to property values.

JMS' Earth-One Superman, Snyder's Man of Steel and Smallville gave us a Clark that really doesn't want to be a hero- not that he is willing to let bad things happen, just that he wants to stay anonymous. Smallville's Clark even spent much of the series wanting to just be a regular guy with no powers. Pre-Crisis gave us someone who made his heroic debut at age 8 and under most writers never really wanted to be anything other than Superboy/man.

Byrne had Clark as who the character really is at his core. Alan Moore seemed to think it was the "kid from Krypton" who was real. And Elliot S! Maggin believed Superman used Clark as some method acting hobby- adding traits on that identity to flesh him out.

[Vordan]

No he hasn’t been consistent, but then what character who has been written by multiple writers really is? Pre-Crisis Superman was basically a kid in an adult’s body until the Bronze Age. After that they started slowly making him more mature and serious. But just to take Post-Crisis as an example: Byrne wrote Clark as rejecting his Kryptonian heritage in favor of being fully human/American. After Byrne the Triangle Era writers started slowly to make Clark more appreciative of his alien heritage.