10 things I don't like in the Superman franchise, past and present

[Mutant 77]

As simple as that, the title is clear.

My list. Not in order.

1- Humans gaining "Kryptonian powers". It doesn't make any sense to me. See Smallville or Superman & Lois.
2- Jonathan Kent and Martha being both alive when Clark debuts as Superman. John Byrne's "Ma" and "Pa" were terrible.
3- Superboy. It doesn't make any sense. Having Superman younger and operating in Smallville. Goodybe secret identity, goodbye mystique.
4- Having Clark returning to Smallville as an adult man. Too risky and dangerous for his secret identity.
5- Kryptonian enemies. Kryptonian enemies alive, operating with full yellow sun-based powers without any training or experience. Superman must be the last son of Krypton, in my view.
6- No trunks. I miss them a lot.
7- No yellow S-Shield on the cape. I miss it. See Man of Steel (2013).
8- Superman having powers outside our galaxy. Too far-fetched. Too "powerful". I don't buy it.
9- Superman being Superman before he turns 30. I don't like that. The Donnerverse origins were 100% perfect.
10- The secret origins established by John Byrne. Not epic. Too simple. Again, Ma and Pa contributing. Nah.

[Prime]

I agree with some of these. But is this for everyone to make their own list?

[Mutant 77]

But is this for everyone to make their own list?

YES! Do it, please.

[superduperman]

1) I'm gonna dragged for this but...him having kids with Lois. She's a human. He's an alien. They aren't supposed to be able to do that. Plus, the kid would probably kill her in the womb.

2) Not having powers from day one. I will be the first to admit this is petty and shallow of me but there's a backstory here. I was born with all kinds of birth defects. I was always weaker than the other kids. So to see a character who also grew up differently than everyone else but in a good way, that actually made him easier to relate to. So when you have a Superman who was "ordinary" at one time, that actually makes him harder for me to relate to. I know that sounds strange to most people but that's how I see it.

3) Him growing up with Luthor in Smallville. Back in the SA when Smallville was just a suburb of Metropolis, this made a little bit of sense. Half the town would move to the "big city" when they grew up. But it doesn't make a lot of sense today. Smallville has been moved to the midwest. And even back then they were pushing credibility. The only version that seemed to make it halfway believable was the Smallville show and that's because Luthor was already from Metropolis.

4) The fact that the only things they seem able to do with him are having him fight the alien of the month. The GA proved you can tell good Superman stories without having him take on aliens all the time. At this point, it just makes him look like a magnet for aliens to come to Earth and cause trouble that they didn't have before he debuted. Prankster could be a credible rival to Joker. Toyman could be made formidable. TAS did it.

5) Him being a flying brick when being used with Batman. Everyone else has to be powered down or made to look dumb just to make Batman look useful. His father was a literal rocket scientist. He's not stupid. This is why I kind of like the way Titans is handling Conner. Giving him both Superman's powers and Luthor's intellect and arrogance. It makes sense he would inherit traits from both parents. (not that Titans isn't without it's own set of problems too. See #3)

6) Most of TAS.

7) The Snyder version and pretty much all of that. Which leads me to my next complaint...

8) The fact that we can't get a decent Superman movie. Can we please get someone beside Luthor and Zod?

9) The last 20 or so years in the comics. It's obvious to me that mismanagement caused this. No one could agree on what vision they wanted. Storywise, you could go back to 1999 and start from there and still have a more stable continuity than the one we've gotten over the last 20 or so years. I get that they wanted to bring back elements from the SA but they half assed it. Which kind of brings me to my final complaint...

10) Fans not being able to get on the same page about what it is that they want. The one version that I think that has done the best job of this, honestly, is Superman and Lois. They get it. You have to give everyone a little bit of everything. A little GA, a little Smallville, a little SA, a little post-Crisis, a little Donner, a little Snyder, and even a little Lois & Clark. Johns tried this with SO and it was so dull and so thrown together that no one really cared. I have my issues with the show (cough) last season (cough) and some of the things I listed above, but for the most part, it's trying to be all things to all fans and is doing a good job. It's not perfect, but it's come closer than any other attempt at genuine fan outreach and actually listening to fans.

[Ra-El]

Here's mine:

1 - Making him evil, I consider as evil Superman any time he is used as an adversary, be it because he is psycopath, because he is mind controlled, body swaped, brainwashed or whatever. In the end is the same thing, the writers wanting to use Superman to prop other characters.

2 - Dumbing down Superman, even without his powers Superman should be smarter, stronger and better! He is the real hero

3 - When they make Clark super naive, as someone uncapable or seeing the bad side of people and things. He is a reporter, on the Daily Planet alone he most hear about things people are capable of that would make anyone feel sick, and on top of that, he have superhearing. It makes no sense to have him surprised everytime someone is a shitty person.

4 - Yes, human gaining Kryptonian powers makes not f*cking sense, I remember some episodes of Smallville and Lois & Clark, where all it took was Superman and a human to be stroke by lightning. It's a bad concept, imo, Kryptonian powers should come from their celular capacity of absorting and processing solar energy, if that energy was passed to a human, they should get at most temporary powers and it should destroy their cells like radiation does.
I like how they did with Kenan Kong, because they actually got Superman's DNA and used it to alter Kenan's making possible for him to keep the powers.

5 - Clark and Lex growing up together in Smallville. I just don't like it.

6 - The fact that almost every run of Superman for the past decade have Batman showing up, usually in the first arc or so. Superman doesn't need Batman to help him investigate a case, he is a investigative reporter he can do that on his own, if he needs help he can ask for Lois, or Maggie or Jimmy. He also doesn't need Batman to help him with science, specially Kryptonian science, Clark is smart, and if he needs help he can ask for Kelex, or Henry Irons, or Natasha Irons or Shay Veritas if she is still around.

7 - His villains getting promoted to JL villains and barely getting used in the Superman books. When was the last time we had a epic Brainiac story that didn't involved the Justice League?
And it's spreading to other medias too, everytime someone suggests on the internet Brainiac as the villain to a Superman movie, someone comments that he should be saved to be used in a Justice League movie.

8 - Superman overly connected to the Fourth World, mostly because the New Gods works so well on their own, but all they are now is jobbers Darkseid defeats before the Justice League saves the say.

9 - Killing him, or foreshadowing his death, or any callbacks to Death of Superman.

10 - The constant reteling of his origin story, the majority of Superman minis or maxi series are some form of origin story.

[Jeffrey2]

It all comes down to WB/DC controlling the franchise. Until the IP goes public in a few years nothing will change. WB/DC believe Superman is hard to write yet that is not an issue with any other superhero. WB/DC believe that a Superman film can't be a financial success yet virtually every other superhero film in the past 20 years - the golden age of superhero movies - has been a financial success. WB/DC has imbibed this belief to the point it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy which is how we got to a woke Jon Kent replacing Clark/Superman in the books and Supergirl replacing Superman on film. Nothing will change until the IP is public and Marvel starts doing Superman.

[9th.]

2) Not having powers from day one. I will be the first to admit this is petty and shallow of me but there's a backstory here. I was born with all kinds of birth defects. I was always weaker than the other kids. So to see a character who also grew up differently than everyone else but in a good way, that actually made him easier to relate to. So when you have a Superman who was "ordinary" at one time, that actually makes him harder for me to relate to. I know that sounds strange to most people but that's how I see it.

A super strong/fast toddler sounds like nightmare, can you imagine the tantrums???

[superduperman]

A super strong/fast toddler sounds like nightmare, can you imagine the tantrums???

The irony is, most versions don't have a problem with it. The Donner movie, Smallville, the Superboy TV show, even S&L. The DCEU version at least implies it in the novelization. I get the opposition and understand it. I'm just saying it helped me relate to the character in a way that I don't to other characters who got powers later.

[Francisco]

A super strong/fast toddler sounds like nightmare, can you imagine the tantrums???

Not if the toddler is also super smart