Under the bus: Bad portrayals of Superman across all media.

[dumbduck]

The recent polemic of the potentially bad portrayal of Lois in 'Truth' got me thinking about equivalent bad representations of Superman. The most famous one was of course in TDKR. For many Superman fans that AU tale started a trend that pervaded 'normal' comics and endures to this day, going so far as having a movie that will define Superman for a whole new generation being announced with the famous 'fight phrase', all the while we were assured the story was about 'deeper themes'.

Another example I can give is 'Sacrifice', where a Superman who previously watched Diana kill monsters for a 1000 years somehow abandoned Diana for killing a human monster, sparing his life and saving the lifes of millions of innocents.

There are many other examples I could give that, IMO, are as bad as Lois outing Clark's secret ID for less than honourable reasons. Yet I somehow doubt that Superman fans rallied in his defense like they did and are doing for Lois right now.

What are your examples of bad portrayals of Superman across all media? To broaden the subject lets include not only character traits, but bad showings in feats, fights, etc, where the character should have been written as more competent and done a better job.

[MickB]

Can we say almost all of Chuck Austen's run? His treatment of Lois was particularly heinous, and his Superman not much better. Also, anytime Superman is written by Azzarello. He clearly doesn't like the character.

[manofsteel1979]

Can we say almost all of Chuck Austen's run? His treatment of Lois was particularly heinous, and his Superman not much better. Also, anytime Superman is written by Azzarello. He clearly doesn't like the character.

Ditto from me.

Of course Superstalker Re...I mean Superman Returns is another recent example.

[misslane]

The recent polemic of the potentially bad portrayal of Lois in 'Truth' got me thinking about equivalent bad representations of Superman. The most famous one was of course in TDKR. For many Superman fans that AU tale started a trend that pervaded 'normal' comics and endures to this day, going so far as having a movie that will define Superman for a whole new generation being announced with the famous 'fight phrase', all the while we were assured the story was about 'deeper themes'.

I am definitely not a fan of Miller's portrayal of Superman in TDKR.

Another example I can give is 'Sacrifice', where a Superman who previously watched Diana kill monsters for a 1000 years somehow abandoned Diana for killing a human monster, sparing his life and saving the lifes of millions of innocents.

I don't recall the story exactly, but I suspect the contradiction had more to do with Superman's perhaps naive belief that there might have been a better way. More than anything, it was the thought that someone had killed because of him, and in many ways for him, that was the real reason Superman was so conflicted.

There are many other examples I could give that, IMO, are as bad as Lois outing Clark's secret ID for less than honourable reasons. Yet I somehow doubt that Superman fans rallied in his defense like they did and are doing for Lois right now.

I think you have to consider the fact that social media gives fans a much louder voice now. Superman fans couldn't have made such vocal protests in the past because they only had a few limited outlets available to them. So, looking at more recent storylines, I do think Superman fans who dislike the idea of Superman killing were very vocal when he killed Zod in Man of Steel. The fan outrage about that particular plot point rallied a defense that absolutely outweighed anything Lois fans have said or done regarding the "Truth" arc.

What are your examples of bad portrayals of Superman across all media? To broaden the subject lets include not only character traits, but bad showings in feats, fights, etc, where the character should have been written as more competent and done a better job.

I hated Scott Lobdell's Superman, and I was very vocal about it during that time.

Can we say almost all of Chuck Austen's run? His treatment of Lois was particularly heinous, and his Superman not much better. Also, anytime Superman is written by Azzarello. He clearly doesn't like the character.

Really? I thought Lois came off rather well in a sea of bad characterizations. If I had to pick one character Austen truly dragged through the mud, it would be Lana Lang.

[Jon-El]

I just discovered Frank Cho's DK "parody" from about a year ago. I know he doesn't care for Superman but that was pretty low.

[The World]

Another example I can give is 'Sacrifice', where a Superman who previously watched Diana kill monsters for a 1000 years somehow abandoned Diana for killing a human monster, sparing his life and saving the lifes of millions of innocents.

I don't really have that much of a problem with Sacrifice; I guess I always saw it as a call that it was time for change within Superman's character otherwise the character was going to break. Which he of course did break and now they're forced to put the character back together again, hopefully this time stronger than before.

For me personally, definitely Reeves Superman in Superman II where he threw his powers away to have sex with Lois Lane who then went on to get beat up by drunk truckers. It's always astound me that this is considered an amazing depiction of the character. Give me Clark snapping Zod's neck over this any day.

[manofsteel1979]

I don't really have that much of a problem with Sacrifice; I guess I always saw it as a call that it was time for change within Superman's character otherwise the character was going to break. Which he of course did break and now they're forced to put the character back together again, hopefully this time stronger than before.

For me personally, definitely Reeves Superman in Superman II where he threw his powers away to have sex with Lois Lane who then went on to get beat up by drunk truckers. It's always astound me that this is considered an amazing depiction of the character. Give me Clark snapping Zod's neck over this any day.

Yeah as much as I liked the Reeve movies, it always bothered me he basically threw away his powers and nearly doomed humanity for nookie.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Really? I thought Lois came off rather well in a sea of bad characterizations. If I had to pick one character Austen truly dragged through the mud, it would be Lana Lang.

Well, he was the one to talk about how much he disliked her and called her a gold-digger.

Anyway, some stuff that comes to mind is Superman II (search your heart, you know it to be true), Superman in the Justice League show - especially Unlimited - Superman Returns, anything by JMS, Lobdell's work, the first season of Young Justice, almost all of Geoff John's stuff with him in Justice League (plus, for that matter, his portrayal in that Justice League War movie from what I saw), maybe some of the dicer bits of MOS, and good chunks of Smallville. Byrne's whole...everything isn't high in my book either, though I don't think it's particularly repellent the way a lot of this stuff was other than in implication and long-term effect.

[misslane]

For the record, Superman has sex with Lois before depowering in the Donner cut of Superman II, and the way it's presented in both films it's not so much about sex but about refusing what was a life similar to the one the members of the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones must live:

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

Well, he was the one to talk about how much he disliked her and called her a gold-digger.

Yet, his actual run didn't portray Lois that way beyond having Lana accuse her of that while she tried to ruin the Clark/Lois marriage.

[superduperman]

Lois & Clark: I get what they were going for here but the soap opera trumped actual story telling. And the severely reduced power levels weren't exactly a selling point. It was obvious the whole thing was a tongue-in-cheek mockery of the whole concept of Superman.

Injustice: And I'm saying this as a fan of the series hoping Superman will somehow be redeemed. It's the old standby of "we don't know what else to do with him so let's turn him evil for the umpteenth time".

DCAU: I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this but go back and actually look at how anyone other than Batman was treated in that universe. They were all his bitches.

Earth 2 Superman's treatment during and after IC: Do I really need to go into any detail about why this was just plain wrong?

MOS: Another bunch of Batman groupies gets stuck with Superman and don't know what to do with him (and I'm saying this as the guy who let Returns off the hook).

Electric Superman: I'm hoping that one doesn't need any explanation either.

And, to a lesser extent...

Kingdom Come: Now, before you get mad, hear me out. I don't like the idea of Superman as a quitter. And the fact that he had to be dragged out of retirement by WW didn't help. But I'm attaching a quantifier to this one for a reason, I believe he redeemed himself. By the end, he got it. He understood that he shouldn't have walked away and that force isn't the best way to change hearts and minds. But through most of the book he really seemed unsure of himself and it was less than flattering. The bar scene was cool and so was the final fight between him and Marvel, but he had to be dragged into battle almost every step of the way.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I don't like Byrne's Superman and every depiction that follows his take.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Lois & Clark: I get what they were going for here but the soap opera trumped actual story telling. And the severely reduced power levels weren't exactly a selling point. It was obvious the whole thing was a tongue-in-cheek mockery of the whole concept of Superman.

Injustice: And I'm saying this as a fan of the series hoping Superman will somehow be redeemed. It's the old standby of "we don't know what else to do with him so let's turn him evil for the umpteenth time".

DCAU: I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this but go back and actually look at how anyone other than Batman was treated in that universe. They were all his bitches.

Earth 2 Superman's treatment during and after IC: Do I really need to go into any detail about why this was just plain wrong?

MOS: Another bunch of Batman groupies gets stuck with Superman and don't know what to do with him (and I'm saying this as the guy who let Returns off the hook).

Electric Superman: I'm hoping that one doesn't need any explanation either.

And, to a lesser extent...

Kingdom Come: Now, before you get mad, hear me out. I don't like the idea of Superman as a quitter. And the fact that he had to be dragged out of retirement by WW didn't help. But I'm attaching a quantifier to this one for a reason, I believe he redeemed himself. By the end, he got it. He understood that he shouldn't have walked away and that force isn't the best way to change hearts and minds. But through most of the book he really seemed unsure of himself and it was less than flattering. The bar scene was cool and so was the final fight between him and Marvel, but he had to be dragged into battle almost every step of the way.

Mostly agree (though I'm less passionate about Earth-2 Superman, as I've never, ever seen him as actually being the original guy. Still a dumb way to end his story though), except for Lois & Clark. I wasn't a huge fan of that show, but I thought Dean Cain did it well; it followed the Byrne take in an interesting way, with his obvious posturing as Superman contrasted with the naturalness of Clark. It's not 'my' Superman, it's not even what I'd call a truly valid take, but I thought it did well for what it was, and earnestly. As opposed to Lois, who in the first season...I hesitate to throw around stuff like "worst possible take on the character", but she was Not Great, in spite of a perfectly good performance by Teri Hatcher.

[Kandor Rising]

Comics
Lobdell's run was terrible.
JMS saddled DC with his ill-advised Grounded idea, then bolted and left Chris Roberson contractually obligated to finish it.
Loeb was way too fond of the "Big Dumb Farmboy Clark" and it hurt his Superman stories.

TV
Timmverse. There are exceptions: Hereafter being one.
Lois and Clark Seasons 3 and 4. I hate that we got this waste instead of the 5th Reeve Superman movie.

[superduperman]

Mostly agree (though I'm less passionate about Earth-2 Superman, as I've never, ever seen him as actually being the original guy. Still a dumb way to end his story though), except for Lois & Clark. I wasn't a huge fan of that show, but I thought Dean Cain did it well; it followed the Byrne take in an interesting way, with his obvious posturing as Superman contrasted with the naturalness of Clark. It's not 'my' Superman, it's not even what I'd call a truly valid take, but I thought it did well for what it was, and earnestly. As opposed to Lois, who in the first season...I hesitate to throw around stuff like "worst possible take on the character", but she was Not Great, in spite of a perfectly good performance by Teri Hatcher.

Honestly, in terms of L&C, I think the premise just had a very limited life span. It's taking a character meant for boys and making it appealing to women. Fine. But how far can you take that? By that time in the comics they were already engaged so it's not like we didn't know where the story was headed. I thought the first season was kind of cool but went downhill after that. I bought the first season a couple years ago (for the twentieth anniversary) and when I went back and watched it, it didn't hold up as well as it did when I was a teenager. It also came off to me as sort of the same way the Batman show of the sixties did. The people involved were sort of making fun of it in a way. Deliberately campy for the sake of poking fun at the whole concept of super-heroes. That kind of treatment always bothers me. No matter how "lovingly" they think they are doing it.

Personally, I'm kind of a fan of the old school Earth 2 universe so it really irked me. Give him a happy ending and then yank it away for no reason.

[superiorcrisis]

Earth 2 Superman's treatment during and after IC:[/B] Do I really need to go into any detail about why this was just plain wrong?

No. I really did not like how the treated him. They should have just let him keep the happy ending Wolfman gave him.

Electric Superman:[/B] I'm hoping that one doesn't need any explanation either.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I didn't mind the electric blue Superman era. Of course, I had the benefit of not reading any of those stories until 2011, almost 15 years after Superman went back to normal, so I can just look at it as an interesting and different time in the Superman saga. Perhaps if I was reading them at the time they came out, with no other Superman comics being published, I might see it differently.