How Would The Real World React To Superman?

[Ascended]

Well, there are some actual Lex Luthors out there. Some of them very high profile and currently trying to stay out of jail. Not all our Luthors have that Luthor level of intelligence, thank the gods, but they're just as rich, influential, and evil.

But I get what you mean. If a Superman shows up and saves the world from a Brainiac, that changes the equation. If the human race avoids total extinction from an outside force, that would earn a Superman some points. Not enough to make him a wholly accepted and trusted entity, not by any metric, but it'd help. But if it's just a Superman, with none of the Super-sized threats?

Chaos, riots, and the impotent rage of the powerful discovering they're just puny humans after all.

Personally I'd love to see it. I'd bring hot dogs and marshmallows to cook over the fire as the world burned.

But I don't think even a narrowly defeated Brainiac would earn a Superman full acceptance. No matter what he did, people would find fault with it. Politicians would try to force it into their dogma, either for or against depending on how they wanted to spin the PR, nations would ramp up defense spending to the detriment of the people (who's ready for another economic recession because we're buying too many bombs and not enough school supplies!?) and all that before we consider the depth of this Superman's actions. If the guy decides to deal with climate change or some other big issue, nobody in power would support him and they'd try to ensure none of their supporters/citizens did either.

Just look at how some folks respond to young climate activist Greta Thunberg; that's just a kid being mouthy about a topic any moron can see is a legitimate concern, and there's plenty of folks who want her in jail, if not accused of treason. Imagine if she had the power to actually do something about it? She'd be labeled public enemy #1; too many rich people would be afraid of losing money. A Superman would face the same problem; any issue they try to take on would end up taking money from some rich scumbag, who would in turn try to paint this Superman as a dire threat to civilization.

Hell, people can't agree on which side the toilet paper is supposed to roll off from (against the wall or front-facing? The debate continues!) there's no way in hell the world would happily get in line and universally support an alien trying to force their opinions on us.

And I disagree with manwhohaseverything on the religious aspect. There'd be some people who would see a Superman and think it was a divine intervention. But there's just as many who would call it the work of whatever devil they believe in. And it were known that this Superman was an alien? That throws basically every religious teaching on earth out the window. No faith would happily accept the guy who disproves them.

[manwhohaseverything]

And I disagree with manwhohaseverything on the religious aspect. There'd be some people who would see a Superman and think it was a divine intervention. But there's just as many who would call it the work of whatever devil they believe in. And it were known that this Superman was an alien? That throws basically every religious teaching on earth out the window. No faith would happily accept the guy who disproves them.

We worship cows,plants trees, elephants,lions,snakes..etc.We even worship humans like buddha and rama.An alien isn't much of stretch for me.We are gonna change his skin color though..needs more blue

Yeah!i do see that as a problem.The inability to accept the other as just that and this constant need to "fight evil" .I don't think everyone around the world even in west shares that.in general east yin cannot exist without yang.Devas and Asura both churn the ocean for greater good.

[Powerboy]

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?

You've seen "Man of Steel" and "Batman vs Superman"? Comedy movies for pre-schoolers compared to what would really happen.

[Powerboy]

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).

Governments would stop at nothing to find a way to kill him. In a world where people are afraid of Mexican immigrants, a guy who has powers greater than an Atomic bomb? And Snyder wasn't wrong that the very fact of life on other planets would set religious beliefs on their heads and there would be people who would worship him as a god which would drive other people crazy.

[Francisco]

I firmly believe there's no world leader with the pants to use nuclear weapons. Not even against a being like Superman. Deep down they all want to live and once they use them there's no way they're living. I think world governments would be cautious and expectant when dealing with someone like Superman. I'm pretty sure they will try to keep his existance a secret and would also give alternate reasons/justifications for the things he might do. If he was to intervene in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict they will pretend like they ended the fight on their own volition. It would be something like Superman sabotaging their weapons system so they can't keep bombarding civilians and then him locating and capturing Hamas operatives preventing them from counter attacking. Superman is just too fast for world's military to be able to keep up with him. If he limits his actions to saving civilian lives in conflicts by sabotaging military equipment I don't see what world leaders could actually do against him. NOt to mention if Superman were also to realese footage showing evidence of their wrong doings in the internet and other media. Or Superman willingly going to the UN general conference or the US congress to testify. More than the governments I fear more the reaction of normal regular people and their prejudices. How many racists will see on Superman's physical appearance and gender a justification for their bigotry? How many religious people would think of him as the mesiah or the antichrist?

[DABellWrites]

Man of Steel tried to explore this.

[Francisco]

Man of Steel tried to explore this.

The whole Snyderverse did. They just failed at giving us a fully realized Superman. (which I guess was their point)

[llozymandias]

It's also possible that if there were someone like superman in the real world. the world might have no reason to react to him. We would not even know that he existed. Or that he was even here.

[Francisco]

It's also possible that if there were someone like superman in the real world. the world might have no reason to react to him. We would not even know that he existed. Or that he was even here.

Superman as a Big Foot/ Loch Ness monster type of figure.

[llozymandias]

Superman as a Big Foot/ Loch Ness monster type of figure.

He is capable of invisibility. Either he vibrates into it, or he simply moves too fast to be seen. Also he is an alien who has super-intelligence, and has knowledge that is at least centuries/millennia ahead of anything currently known on earth. So he would already have (or could create) technology that could render him invisible.

[DABellWrites]

The whole Snyderverse did. They just failed at giving us a fully realized Superman. (which I guess was their point)

I was commenting so much, I done overlooked it. Anyways, I wouldn't say they failed to give us a fully realized Superman, more like Snyder had to take shortcuts to get to it. Remember he wanted to MoS2, but WB spearheaded into a BvS while pushing and setting up a shard universe. His films were Batman vs Superman (his contribution to MoS is still a mystery to me, as some source say its his idea, others that his only idea was Superman snapping Zod's neck), and his Justice League. That's only three films. Granted, he had ample enough time regardless, probably don't have Clark dead for four hours.

[Sutekh]

It's also possible that if there were someone like superman in the real world. the world might have no reason to react to him. We would not even know that he existed. Or that he was even here.

That would be another cool direction to go. Which I think the Supreme Power story explored with 'Mark Milton,' the government trying to keep him dressed in black and moving too fast to be seen as long as possible, before they had to publicly 'out' their super-person.

A version where the Superperson wasn't raised by the government, but just wanted to stay anonymous, a la, Smallville and 'the Blur' could be interesting. People in the area they are operating might have a pretty good idea that *something* not natural is blowing out those fires or wrenching open those wrecked cars and leaving hurt folk in the emergency room 'in a flash,' but outside their region, it might be considered a local legend like Bigfoot or even dismissed as a product of those backwards hicks who'll believe anything.

Superman wouldn't have 'a secret identity,' his entire existence would be a secret!