How Would The Real World React To Superman?

[Amadeus Arkham]

If Superman wasn’t a comic character and actually existed in our real world then how do you imagine you and others would react to him? What would his impact on our world be?

[Kuwagaton]

Horribly.

But because that's not enough characters for a reply, let me just point out how the real world reacts to its own inanity before throwing everything we understand out of the window. Costner Kent was right.

[Sutekh]

If Superman wasn’t a comic character and actually existed in our real world then how do you imagine you and others would react to him? What would his impact on our world be?

An illegal alien who had the power to make 1000's of people's jobs irrelevant, could ignore borders with impunity, and could see through walls into your home? Oh, cable news would be all over that. If they knew about Kryptonite, there'd be scammers selling 'kryptonite bullets' (lead painted green) through mail order and saying that every red-blooded American needed boxes of them to 'protect their families from the lawless alien,' (comes with a coupon for 20% off buckets of food for storage in your underground bunker for when civilization collapses and / or the gummint comes for your guns, and graham-cracker-sized 'bricks' of metal that are *maybe* 10% gold, and sold as 'actual gold' for those they've convinced that US currency is about to become useless).

[manwhohaseverything]

I would yawn.At this point idiots with hugungous power doing humongous **** is straight up the norm even in the real world

An illegal alien who had the power to make 1000's of people's jobs irrelevant, could ignore borders with impunity, and could see through walls into your home? Oh, cable news would be all over that. If they knew about Kryptonite, there'd be scammers selling 'kryptonite bullets' (lead painted green) through mail order and saying that every red-blooded American needed boxes of them to 'protect their families from the lawless alien,' (comes with a coupon for 20% off buckets of food for storage in your underground bunker for when civilization collapses and / or the gummint comes for your guns, and graham-cracker-sized 'bricks' of metal that are *maybe* 10% gold, and sold as 'actual gold' for those they've convinced that US currency is about to become useless).

Give this man a directors chair.And make this story about tshirt and jeans superman.Except,it ain't clark but hernan as the back story and person.

[Stanlos]

If Superman wasn’t a comic character and actually existed in our real world then how do you imagine you and others would react to him? What would his impact on our world be?

Well I think the premise needs more detail. It's classic iconic Superman popping saving some citizens from a falling whatsit and we go from there?

[Frontier]

Hopefully better than the DCEU did.

[Deacon Blues]

superman is a comic book character, and most of our reactions would probably center around that. warner bros would probably try and send superman a cease and desist for copyright infringement, or put out a statement saying that, for the record, this superman's actions don't reflect the views of the good people at warner bros.

the ways superman fights evil would be vastly different. there aren't many asteroids on a collision course with earth, or supervillains rampaging through city streets. organized crime hasn't been the same since prohibition ended, at least in the states. so superman would probably choose between focusing on disaster-relief, or social justice (or both). and, if superman intervened in, say, israel's bombardment of gaza (to pick a random, topical example), would he be labelled a terrorist?

i think the reactions that would most interest me would be diehard comic fans (i'm sure we could all find a hundred different ways to argue about this real-world-superman) and academics (some great papers would certainly be written). either way, i'd have tons of new reading material

[JBatmanFan05]

Assuming Superman was not a comic book character and instead real, our world, our various leaders would not react well at first, it would be a global negative backlash unlike anything imaginable (as Peter Venkmen would say: “Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!”). Powerful humans would reject the powerful alien as a national security danger. Superman would probably have to save the world many times to gradually earn trust. It's about as simple as that. Of course, our world currently doesn't really have huge alien/human global forces directly attacking all human existence, so Superman would have to "save the world" probably in other ways (climate change, natural disasters, scarcity, crime, dictators, etc, etc, etc) and do so in such a carefully calibrated way as to not worsen the fears about him.

[Ascended]

Hopefully better than the DCEU did.

I think the real world reaction would make the DCEU seem hopeful and simplistic.

A single person, who isn't accountable to any higher power, who can do whatever he wants and can't be stopped? No matter what this person did the whole world would basically implode. If they did nothing but save cats from trees, entire economies would still collapse, military spending across the globe would spin out of control....and if this real-world Super-person actually started throwing their weight around and trying to make a real difference by tackling the root causes of all our ills? Humanity might not survive our own response to that.

[JBatmanFan05]

I think the real world reaction would make the DCEU seem hopeful and simplistic.

A single person, who isn't accountable to any higher power, who can do whatever he wants and can't be stopped? No matter what this person did the whole world would basically implode. If they did nothing but save cats from trees, entire economies would still collapse, military spending across the globe would spin out of control....and if this real-world Super-person actually started throwing their weight around and trying to make a real difference by tackling the root causes of all our ills? Humanity might not survive our own response to that.

Yeah, it absolutely would probably be like this for quite a long time. And it would be most difficult for Superman to gradually pull the world's leaders and people off this intensely negative backlash. Superman would almost certainly inevitably have to cooperate with various govts (and all govts would develop plans on killing/containing Superman and he'd know it) on things to even stand a chance at dialing down the heat just a few degrees.

[superduperman]

Every single nation on Earth, especially the dictatorships, would immediately pass laws banning his entry or even flying over their airspace. And would immediately consider his entry an act of war by the United States. Putin wants to keep him from intervening in the Ukraine invasion? Threaten nuclear war if Superman gets involved. Lawmakers would demand to know his real name and address and push for laws making him accountable to the United States government. He would be called before congress and made to answer questions about his origins and his powers and reassure everyone that he had no intention of taking over the world and even then most wouldn't believe him unless he specifically took up their particular cause. If he had a secret identity it wouldn't last long. For all intents and purposes he would be banned from actually being able to do anything useful.

[achilles]

If Superman wasn’t a comic character and actually existed in our real world then how do you imagine you and others would react to him? What would his impact on our world be?

Remember Independence Day? The first one with Slappy and the Goldblum, not the horrid sequel. How everyone reacted is how they'd react to a real Superman. Some would flee. Some would welcome him as some sort of god. Religions would be called into question. Rioting. Cats and dogs living together!

[achilles]

Assuming Superman was not a comic book character and instead real, our world, our various leaders would not react well at first, it would be a global negative backlash unlike anything imaginable (as Peter Venkmen would say: “Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!”). Powerful humans would reject the powerful alien as a national security danger. Superman would probably have to save the world many times to gradually earn trust. It's about as simple as that. Of course, our world currently doesn't really have huge alien/human global forces directly attacking all human existence, so Superman would have to "save the world" probably in other ways (climate change, natural disasters, scarcity, crime, dictators, etc, etc, etc) and do so in such a carefully calibrated way as to not worsen the fears about him.

Heh, just saw this one. I guess everyone loves that line.

[manwhohaseverything]

I think religion is the exact reason why i believe people would take it more lightly?i mean,i worship a god with elephant's head.A guy leaping across isn't much of a big deal.One more diety.one more avatar.what's the big deal? Superman's power's aren't nearly as awe inspiring as the kinda **** we follow.The real opposition would come from the atheist and rationalists crowd screaming their heads of at "this guy doesn't make any sense".winks at the camera.

[Celgress]

Important Question - Only Sups is real in this scenario, correct, not his foes such as Luthor, Brainiac, Doomsday, Darkseid, Lobo, etc.? Because if any of those guys are also real it would change the calculus.