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

[Johnny Thunders!]

1. Thinking of Superman in human terms vs. Super Human terms.
2. Super Strength as making sense but anything else as being out of his wheelhouse.
3. Superman sobbing, there seem to be about a decade where Superman sobbed because he cares too much and is naive.
4. Sonics as a weakness because of superhearing. He has had super smell in the past so I guess extra stinky stuff would be excruciating?
5. Special weakness to magic, kryptonite , and red sun radiation. That only makes sense to me if every other super ability is limitless.
6. Grounded, the arc and the approach.
7. Living parents, or the need to check in so often.
8. Red Sun lamps, it seems like you just need a red lightbulb to take his powers away.
9. The erasure of Superboy and the Legion. If I can believe that Bruce Wayne adopts a teenager the same week as Batman adopts a sidekick, I can believe Superboy and Clark both come from Smallville and are not the same person.
10. The elimination of total recall and superintelligence. I would be 100 percent okay with the idea that Superman was able to learn in utero.

[Kirk Brent]

Just a quick list. I'll add more when I have extra time:

- Evil Superman, Mind-Controlled Superman. Which is related to my next problem...

- Clark being portrayed as a regular human being when exposed to Kryptonite or otherwise losing his powers. Kryptonians are millions of years more advanced than humans and have a history of genetic engineering. Clark should have his GA power levels when he's exposed to kryptonite or loses his powers for any stretch of time. Also, his more advanced mind (and knowledge of Kryptonian and other extraterrestial sciences) should allow him to be almost impervious to mind-control. Brainiac could do it but only because of his advanced intelligence. Max Lord or anyone else, nope.

- Clark killing anyone or anything, ever. Superman always finds a way. He's not a real human being and is therefore not limited to "no-win scenarios" simply because a cynical and/or ignorant writer (Byrne, Goyer, Snyder, Miller) thinks it's "lame" or "impossible" that he wouldn't kill.

- Superman being less intelligent than Batman. Batman is one of the smartest humans on Earth, Clark is one of the smartest beings on Earth and in the galaxy. It makes zero sense that a Kryptonian would be less intelligent than a human being, even before growing up under the rays of a yellow sun.

- The deconstruction of the Super Family in Bendis' "Man of Tin" and later, Jon Kent's emotional, physical, and psychological torture and aging.

- Superman and Batman being anything (in core continuity) other than friends and even more so, brothers. Byrne took their differences too far.

- The removal of Clark as Superboy and his adventures with the Legion of Superheroes. I liked Johns' approach post-IC, where Clark wore the uniform but was unseen in his heroics like Byrne's Clark. I also liked that Clark found encouragement and solace in friendship with people who were like him.

- Jon Kent being the inspiration for the Legion.

- Jon Kent as "Superman."

- Jon Kent as bisexual or whatever he is. (if he's bisexual, where is evidence of his attraction to women?)

- Superman's uniform without trunks. They're iconic. I hated the Rebirth look and tolerated the Reborn look. I don't mind a story or character-driven change in uniform, but it should always be temporary.

- Superman using threatening/intimidating techniques like Batman would use: holding someone over the edge of a building, calling bad guys "scum" or some such, threatening harm or death.

- The glowing red eyes of rage. It's the hallmark of an artist or writer who doesn't particularly like Superman and thinks he only looks "cool" when he's angry or alien.

- Superman as a "godly being." He's not a god, especially in a universe where there are actual gods and demi-gods.

- New 52 Superman after Morrison's run, especially the cop-punching.

- Zack Snyder and David Goyer's deconstruction, NotSoSuperman.

- Alan Moore's overrated, dark, and tone-deaf "Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?" It was awful as the "end" of the Silver/Bronze Age Superman and would be only mildly interesting as an Elseworlds.

- All of Bendis' run.

- Writers who don't understand Superman getting the job of writing Superman.

[Mutant 77]

8. Red Sun lamps, it seems like you just need a red lightbulb to take his powers away.

Oh Jesus Christ, this is a GREAT point. Where did they find red sun radiation anyway? How could you ever reproduce or "trap" red sun radiation? This is just the stupidest thing of the last 20 years of Superman comics. Without counting Man of Steel, where they use the gimmick in such an easy way.

- Clark killing anyone or anything, ever. Superman always finds a way. He's not a real human being and is therefore not limited to "no-win scenarios" simply because a cynical and/or ignorant writer (Byrne, Goyer, Snyder, Miller) thinks it's "lame" or "impossible" that he wouldn't kill.

- Superman being less intelligent than Batman. Batman is one of the smartest humans on Earth, Clark is one of the smartest beings on Earth and in the galaxy. It makes zero sense that a Kryptonian would be less intelligent than a human being, even before growing up under the rays of a yellow sun.

- The glowing red eyes of rage. It's the hallmark of an artist or writer who doesn't particularly like Superman and thinks he only looks "cool" when he's angry or alien.

1- I don't like the super-intelligence. I don't like the concept. The Donnerverse Superman is my fave, and I don't think that he has yellow sun-based "super-intelligence". But yes, he's very smart and intelligent, his I.Q. is very high, because he's the son of one brilliant and genius-like scientist.

2- Enough with making Batman smarter and more powerful and more "everything" than Superman. You're right.

3- The "Rage Eyes" are 100% stupid and not Superman-ish at all.

[Jim Kelly]

5. Special weakness to magic,

What's annoying about this is they make it seem like this is a weakness specific to Superman. With Kryptonite only Kryptonians are affected by it (in most continuities)--but that's not the deal with magic. Everyone is vulnerable to magic--even other magic characters are vulnerable to magic. It's a universal weakness.

Magic is like an artistic license that lets writers do anything they want--because there's no rules. So, of course, magic can affect Superman. It would be stupid if Superman, a science based hero, was invulnerable to magic.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I do think Magic can work unpredictably but I don’t see why Superman’s super strength should be less effective than J’onn J’onzz super strength when they both fight a Minotaur or whatever. There was a Justice League Dark comic where it started raining teeth on the Justice League, only Superman starts bleeding. Now if that was a specific spell aimed at just Superman, okay that’s fair, but to make him extra vulnerable is silly. Criminals should just say abracadabra or whatever before stabbing him with a spoon to see what happens.

[Venomized-spider-man]

I do think Magic can work unpredictably but I don’t see why Superman’s super strength should be less effective than J’onn J’onzz super strength when they both fight a Minotaur or whatever. There was a Justice League Dark comic where it started raining teeth on the Justice League, only Superman starts bleeding. Now if that was a specific spell aimed at just Superman, okay that’s fair, but to make him extra vulnerable is silly. Criminals should just say abracadabra or whatever before stabbing him with a spoon to see what happens.

to be fair that issue was only superman, wonder woman & cyborg who the later started bleeding after the magic teeth hit his fleshy parts

[Stanlos]

I do think Magic can work unpredictably but I don’t see why Superman’s super strength should be less effective than J’onn J’onzz super strength when they both fight a Minotaur or whatever. There was a Justice League Dark comic where it started raining teeth on the Justice League, only Superman starts bleeding. Now if that was a specific spell aimed at just Superman, okay that’s fair, but to make him extra vulnerable is silly. Criminals should just say abracadabra or whatever before stabbing him with a spoon to see what happens.

I think because he is invulnerable it is understood that conventional items are not going to compromise his form. But eldritch ones can depending on the context. Byrne handled this really well in his Action run. The only other things that would ignore his invulnerability is Kryptonite which should be rare af

[Monari]

Honestly my only real complaint is the heteronormative aspect of the character. I think it would have been worthwhile for him to also be canonically bisexual like his son, and to have had him explore romances with other characters in more depth. I liked that they paired him up officially with Wonder Woman at one point - why not Bruce Wayne as well? That would have certainly been a way to generate sales I think!

[manwhohaseverything]

1)savior shtick
2) paternalistic dad shtick(superman as metropolis's dad ain't protagonist material even when done good)
3)stereotypical "aw!shucks" farmboy shtick
4) white knight shtick
5)rule book clinging shtick
6)lack of good action sequences and stunts
7)too much drama for unnecessary reasons.
8)too much use of blunt religious allegories with out much philosophical backing and sophisticated discourse..making the stories pretentious and stupid
9)lack of good investigative journalism based stories.
10) metropolis feels bland especially compared to gotham or astrocity or marvel's newyork or any manga world building..

[Celgress]

1.) I hate that Clark Kent is no longer a thing. The secret identity allowed Superman to interact directly with everyday people.

2.) Batman is able to own Superman with ease. I'm a Batman guy but even I think Bats constantly owning Sups is ridiculous.

3.) Multiple Kryptonians and Half-Kryptonians numbering higher and higher every day it seems.

4.) Trying to constantly replace Superman with his son or anyone else, stop, just stop.

5.) Killing him off or threatening to do so.

6.) Jonathan Kent being alive when Clark is living in Metropolis, no, just no

7.) Everyone obtaining Green (and other shades of) Kyprtonite with ease.

8.) Humans easily gaining Kryptonian powers via a serum or a type of Kryptonite is ridiculous.

[DochaDocha]

I've rattled off too many complaints over the years, so not necessarily going to add to the list. I will, however, say that magic has little to no place in Superman stories. In fact, I'd rather leave it out of the DCU/DCEU altogether since it tends to be way too random. If you do have to have magic, I'd rather the magic would be more like video game magic in which what you can do is very specific and finite. Otherwise, you spend half the story just wondering, "If you can do [this], why not just do [that]?" At least that's how I felt when watching the latest Doctor Strange.

In lieu of magic, you can also use appropriate substitutes like ki or whatever.

[DochaDocha]

I saw a lot of complaints about taking a serum to gain Superman's powers. I think it worked in All-Star Superman because they tied it to the DNA level. It's probably too hokey that even a temporary gene expression modifier could work that drastically and that quickly without any real side effects, but it at least tapped into science fantasy. Plus, I liked how the movie made it that since Luthor had access to Superman's genome, he figured out a way to clone Superman and keep his bloodline running.

Good stuff. Maybe the take home for me is that sometimes even ideas we don't like can work out OK once in a while, and ideas we do like can be executed poorly.

[The Frog Bros]

1.) Reboot after reboot after reboot [Troy McClure Simpsons voice]
2.) Lex knowing Clark in Smallville
3.) S symbol as literal translation of hope. (I’m ok with it being a metaphor that people make because of his actions, but I prefer it as a family crest. Also prefer S on the cape.)
4.) Kryptonite is sometimes too abundant.
5.) Prefer Ma and Pa to be dead.
6.) I don’t mind the marriage but I prefer no kid (if there has to be a Jon, think I prefer kid Jon; if there has to be a teen Jon, I prefer no cape).
7.) Lack of identity and/or uniqueness for Metropolis. (See 8)
8.) Superfamily and supporting cast need more page time (see 7)
9.) Superman turning evil.
10.) Clark as jock in high school.

[Zero Hunter]

The only time I think Superboy works at all in modern terms is if he was ONLY Superboy when he goes to the future with the Legion. In fact I say go one step farther and have Saturn Girl put a mental block in his head to steer him away from using his powers as kid around Smallville.

Luthor should not know Superman before Supes first shows up in Metropolis. He should never have spent time in Smallville or even met Clark Kent.

Phantom Zone villains should not just be carbon copies of Superman. They should establish that being in the PZ too long starts to effect Kryptonians on a cellular level. When they do get out of the PZ they should not have all Supermans powers or even be at his level but they have mutations that give them other powers. The longer you have been in there the more different from Superman they are.

Bring back Clark.

[TaliaJoy]

Lots of great posts, I share a lot of common ground with many of them.

1. Getting rid of Superman's secret identity is a huge mistake, but even just under-utilizing his Clark Kent identity in general is annoying to me. It's one of my favorite parts of Superman - it provides an interesting contrast to his Superman side, makes the character more complex, and enables him to be in a lot of different situations he couldn't be in otherwise, and it's just appealing and fun in general. Without Clark Kent, I would never have gotten into Superman.

2. Kryptonian biology being overly human-like, which covers a lot of complaints people have already given. I think it's dumb that under some circumstances, such as a red sun or "red sun radiation", Kryptonians are just like humans. Kryptonians in their native environment should have powers to some extent, IMO. It's too unbelievable that this can change them from being on our level to having such insane powers.

3. Focusing too much on Superman's past rather than his present, which includes both excessive focus on Krypton and Kryptonian stuff and excessive focus on Smallville.

4. I don't really like him being a father as the main status quo. There are multiple reasons for this, which include #2 (him and Lois being able to reproduce together doesn't make sense, though to be fair this sort of thing happens a LOT in sci-fi, especially the ultra-soft stuff like the DC universe) and the sense that I don't want Superman's life to be too "picture-esque" and stereotypically perfect, but to be honest I think the biggest reason is that it's just too big a change. I know it's stereotyped as being a bad thing to be afraid of change or whatever, but having children drastically changes a person's life and identity. When people have children, they become their priority in life. I don't think Superman needs yet another huge responsibility. He already has the well-being of the entire world (and often beyond that) as his main responsibility, as well as having a wife and full-time job. That's more than enough to keep him busy both in an in-universe sense and in a sense of different kind of stories to tell. I guess that's the point of the age-up, to make Jon an adult and independent so Superman doesn't have to take care of him, but it was handled in a VERY bad way (and I don't like the aging up trope in general, tbh).

5. Superman being naive. It is very unrealistic to have him be naive considering his dual career of journalist and superhero, since both force him to confront a lot of ugly truths and horrible people. The only way this makes sense is if you're overly fixated on his childhood as being wholesome and think this defines his whole life.

6. Superboy just doesn't make sense to me on a number of levels. I especially don't get why his parents would let him (much less encourage him) to do it and why it doesn't threaten his secret identity more than it does. Some of these problems are alleviated by having him only be Superboy in the future with the Legion of Superheroes, but that introduces its own issues. The idea of Superman knowing that it's his destiny to change the world, or being introduced to other heroes so young, seems wrong to me, and like it's making things easier for him than it needs to be. (As a side note, though, I do think the Legion of Superheroes are VERY interesting as a concept, I just think it's hard to implement them without making Superman's backstory too weird.)

7. Superman should never, ever be depicted with average or lower intelligence, or even just slightly above average intelligence. I have mixed feelings about super intelligence, but he should certainly at least be very smart. It's just a part of his character and it makes no sense to get rid of it, except to make Batman look better or something.

8. Superman lacking self-motivation, e.g. being overly dependent on his parents (adopted or birth parents via holograms or whatever) to guide him, or turning bad if Lois gets killed. And I guess just anything in general that makes Superman seem to have poor or underdeveloped mental and emotional strength.

9. Superman being cartoonishly "goody-goody" and treated more like an outlet for positivity and over-simplified morality than like a character.

10. ...OK, this is very minor compared to all of the above, but I really hate Bizarro's (and related characters') "opposite" speech. It is annoying, a chore to read, and virtually impossible to take seriously.