Is Superman broken beyond repair?

[Batavenger]

Superman books are slipping in sales, nowhere near Batman's. On one hand he can bench press planets but Batman easily defeats him. He has no identity. No one seems to know how to write him.What's up! He kinda reminds me of the Superman in the early justice league cartoons.No substance.

[Kid A]

Unless you broke the time space continuum and are posting from 2010-2011, no.

[MykeHavoc]

Huh? I haven't looked at sales figures, but literally every book with Supes is solid right now for the first time since the Johns/Busiek era. Johns and Pak do just fine, and although only one issue in, I'm confident Tomasi will join them.

[Sacred Knight]

No. He's not even broken, so definitely not broken beyond repair. That Batman is still the bigger draw doesn't mean Superman is broken. There are lots of factors that go into that.

[md62]

No. It would take the right creative team doing a lengthy run to "restore" the character. I also think they should stop humanizing the character & making him "realistic." Look at All Star Superman. It emphasized the over-the-top concepts that only Superman could pull off (same with the FF at Marvel).

[Venomous Mask]

He's been around since 1938 so I think it's pretty safe to say that he has staying power.

[Flash Gordon]

Unless you broke the time space continuum and are posting from 2010-2011, no.

Haha, what he said.

Superman is doing pretty damn well for himself right now.

[Lord of Narrative]

NO, the best thing to do is get as far away from the Silver Age.

[DochaDocha]

Superman books are slipping in sales, nowhere near Batman's. On one hand he can bench press planets but Batman easily defeats him. He has no identity. No one seems to know how to write him.What's up! He kinda reminds me of the Superman in the early justice league cartoons.No substance.

Superman's sales slipped a long time ago, but right now they're pretty steady.

Batman doesn't easily defeat him in fights.

I would agree, though, that Superman in the early Justice League cartoon seasons had no substance, and a lot of writers struggle with the characters.

I guess if you could actually point out specific bad Superman stories, it would be a little easier to commiserate with some of these complaints.

[Eyeswithoutaface]

Slipping Sales =/= Broken Character

If sales were the benchmark for whether or not a character was broken, then I guess we should just hand the keys of Superman and even Batman over to Michael Bay.

[DochaDocha]

That would be one heck of a sordid experiment, letting Michael Bay make a Batman movie. It could be as much fun as watching arrogant guys with expensive cars crash for driving recklessly.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Slipping Sales =/= Broken Character

If sales were the benchmark for whether or not a character was broken, then I guess we should just hand the keys of Superman and even Batman over to Michael Bay.

I realize I'm supposed to be disgusted, but I'm not even going to pretend I wouldn't watch the hell out of that.

But yeah, hell no he's not, Superman's the shit.

[Nite-Wing]

A little broken sure
DC isn't considering him top dog anymore or a priority. Doesn't seem to be the center of the DCU like he was before and post crisis. The biggest tell for me is that outside of Superman unchained all his comics are basically back around the pre boot numbers which is the reason DC reinvented him again for the new 52.
Take all you have a stumbling character.
The upcoming movie is sure to increase the Batman vs Superman aspect that made Superman second banana too

[Blacksun]

A little broken sure
DC isn't considering him top dog anymore or a priority. Doesn't seem to be the center of the DCU like he was before and post crisis. The biggest tell for me is that outside of Superman unchained all his comics are basically back around the pre boot numbers which is the reason DC reinvented him again for the new 52.
Take all you have a stumbling character.
The upcoming movie is sure to increase the Batman vs Superman aspect that made Superman second banana too

I think that writers want to sell a superman most people just don't care, that explain unchained success a lot.

yeah sales are the same pre-reboot, johns and jr jr should be doing much better. Character is losing gas. and it had a major crossover to help, before it the xover superman and action was doing around 35k each.

I think they need to recover the joy of superman being superman. both in movies and comics

[Ascended]

The character isnt broken. Granted, he's had some hiccups since the reboot, (Diggle bailing out before his first issue shipped) and some less than enviable creative teams (Lobdell) but as a whole, Superman is in a better place than he had been since the early-mid 90's, at least.

No, the issue with sales is that for anywhere between ten and twenty years (depending on where you draw the line) Superman's books were absolutely terrible. Over the course of the 2000's he went from four books to two; the crash of quality is clear. And a decade or two is a long time, readers have become accustomed to the idea that Superman's books are not worth reading. A lot of damage was done to the franchise's selling power and its going to take more than a couple years of quality titles and a short run or two by big name creators to get over that.

The best way to build Superman up again is to put consistent creative teams on the books who can and will commit to long-term runs, at least three or more years. Allow these creative teams to rebuild the brand and find a solid direction and voice for the character. There is no short term, magic solution to this. Decades of crap books, confusing and contradictory origins running simultaneously, and a listless, non-direction enforced by management are not things that can be fixed with a nine-issue run by a high seller writer. The solution is long term, consistent and quality work. Putting Superman front and center, in a positive way, in a big Event wouldnt hurt, but its not going to help a whole lot either. Superman is almost always involved in big Events and readers expect that. And even if they love him in that Event, its proven to not be enough to make them check out the solo titles, which have garnered a reputation for being terrible.

Also bear in mind that despite all this, despite twenty-ish years of bad books, despite a movie that was a flop and another movie that was polarizing, despite all that, Superman is still one of the biggest marketing forces in the industry and the second most recognized fictional character around the globe (second only to Mickey Mouse). I know that Spider-Man and Batman are selling more merchandise right now, but they're both doing that with the help of popular cartoons and several movies, while Superman hasn't (other than Man of Steel). The fact that he sells as much as he does despite not having as big a push in larger media says that the character is not broken in the least, and the smallest amount of success will elevate him again.

The comics are going to be the hardest thing to fix honestly, thanks to the bad reputation the books earned in the 00's.