We have had the Greatest now let's do The WORST Superman Stories Ever Told.

[Tra-EL]

Superman: For Earth was a story I picked up in the dollar-bins some time ago. Great cover. Don't know to this DAY how I read this cover to cover but I needed some injections of speed and oxy-cotton to get through it haha. Seriously, though Birthright is a good story, I think that ranks high on my list as one of the most overrated. I plan on re-reading it soon, haven't read it for awhile. As Miss Lane said, the Silver Age was hit and miss but I never took the Silver Age serious enough to even allow myself to really invest in the actual stories being overrated or not. I usually just read SA stories with a smile of how kooky, whacky and tacky the writing usually is. Once you realize what the purpose was, you read it for what it is.

As for all else, the art is important to me. Some stories are really good but depending on the art, some stories fall flat as vice-versa with bad stories terribly written, but able to get through it with great art carrying the book.

[marshal99]

JLA : Created equal - superman and his super sperm , the last hope for all mankind.

[The Beast]

Anything by Elliot S. Maggin.

I'd take anything by Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, or Len Wein over Maggin any day of the week.

[Ascended]

I'm pretty sure we are not meant to agree with Superman's actions in Kingdom Come and that what he does is partially influenced by the death of the entire Daily Bugle staff. In fact one could say Clark was going to far in the opposite direction and needed to be brought down to earth himself. As for 'What's So Funny...' the problem was about the Elite taking their methods too far and Clark trying to show them what it was like to be on the receiving end of such brutality

Oh, I understand perfectly well what Action 775 was trying to say. It just failed to do so. Again, Superman has a problem with their use of lethal force, but says nothing about the enslavement of a sentient creature. Im sorry, but when Superman starts putting the lives of hardened criminals over the lives of innocent people, something's gone wrong. And that's exactly what he did, because he complains about the Elite killing villains through the entire issue, but doesnt even mention the enslaved alien until the very end, when he mentions in passing that he set it free. A lot of people love that story, and good for them. For me, it misses the point of Superman entirely.

As for KC, it's a minor issue with me. I love that story. I just think that the idea of Clark going into "retirement" (also known as hiding) for a decade, over the reasons given, was weak. People in the real world lose their family members every day. They mourn, but they keep going. Superman, of all people, shouldn't be stopped by the same thing.

[Auguste Dupin]

Oh, I understand perfectly well what Action 775 was trying to say. It just failed to do so. Again, Superman has a problem with their use of lethal force, but says nothing about the enslavement of a sentient creature. Im sorry, but when Superman starts putting the lives of hardened criminals over the lives of innocent people, something's gone wrong. And that's exactly what he did, because he complains about the Elite killing villains through the entire issue, but doesnt even mention the enslaved alien until the very end, when he mentions in passing that he set it free. A lot of people love that story, and good for them. For me, it misses the point of Superman entirely.

As for KC, it's a minor issue with me. I love that story. I just think that the idea of Clark going into "retirement" (also known as hiding) for a decade, over the reasons given, was weak. People in the real world lose their family members every day. They mourn, but they keep going. Superman, of all people, shouldn't be stopped by the same thing.

Always thought that What's so Funny felt like a fanfic written by a guy butthurt that the Authority was more popular than Superman at the time, and not like the examination of trends and violence and the proper response to threats it wants to be. The writer tries so hard to make Superman right in his argument that the Elite comes accross as cartoonish caricatures and Superman as a dim self righteous jerk who couldn't make an actual argument to convince someone that killing is wrong if someone had a gun pointed at Lois. Seriously, he spends the whole comics trying to "convince" the Elite that killing is wrong , but he never uses any argument to make his case. he just repeats "killing is wrong" over and over. Yeah, real convincing, genius. You can just feel the guy who makes a living as a reporter.
Probably not the worst Superman story, but a complete failure at everything it was trying to do. A real disapointment.

[misslane]

As for KC, it's a minor issue with me. I love that story. I just think that the idea of Clark going into "retirement" (also known as hiding) for a decade, over the reasons given, was weak. People in the real world lose their family members every day. They mourn, but they keep going. Superman, of all people, shouldn't be stopped by the same thing.

Superman didn't retire because he lost Lois. He retired because Magog killed Joker and not only was he acquitted for the crime, but the public celebrated this act of vigilante justice. There was no indication Superman intended to choose a life of exile before the verdict was rendered in the Magog trial.

[The Beast]

Superman didn't retire because he lost Lois. He retired because Magog killed Joker and not only was he acquitted for the crime, but the public celebrated this act of vigilante justice. There was no indication Superman intended to choose a life of exile before the verdict was rendered in the Magog trial.

Where's the 'like' button?

[Uncanny Mutie]

"For Tomorrow" tops the list for me. As a guy who has never been a huge Superman fan but who respects the character and his place in history, I am always trying to make myself get into Superman at one point or another. During one such period, I gave "For Tomorrow" a try and it was so bad that it pretty much kept me away from Supes until the New 52...

[Uncanny Mutie]

In 1995, there was an arc that featured Lori living with Lois that included Joker poisoning Lois in order to test Superman's no killing rule and ultimately led up to Lois ending her engagement to Clark. I thought that particular year was terrible.

Well, that's what happens when you try to mix Superman with the Joker. I have always hated those Superman vs. Joker stories. On the other hand, I always find it a rare treat when Batman is pitted against Lex Luthor, since both of them are so intellectual and such geniuses.

[Doctor Know]

War of the Supermen, Reign of Doomsday, Grounded.

[lancerman]

Superman 775 and Kingdom Come have the same problem. You had a writer who had an agenda to make his point be the only valid one, despite that not really being the case.

Both were strawmans of the highest level. Why was it wrong for the Elite to kill? Because the Elite were created to be villainous psychopaths who were wrong in their specific actions no matter what. So because Superman proved that Manchester Black was a nutjob any ideas on the validity of killing HAD to be wrong, because.. Manchester Black's a bad guy so anything he does is automatically wrong by default.

Ditto for Magog. Why was Magog proven wrong, because he was written to be a reckless dumbass who would rush into a situation without thinking and cause an atomic explosion. Therefore killing is wrong. Because the guy who did it was an idiot who indirectly was the reason innocent people died.

When your whole answer to the question of why shouldn't heroes kill is about creating a character to be explicitly unfavorable with tons of character flaws and using those flaws as a reasoning for why killing is wrong, it's a text book strawman. Nobody who asks "why can't heroes kill" is asking why can't psychotic, dumbed down, reckless, extremely flawed individuals kill. They are asking why Superman or Batman can't with a level head think that Luthor or the Joker are about to do something so atrocious and the most effective way to immediately stop them and guarantee that innocent lives are safe is to execute them. The same way a cop would make that decision if innocent lives were in the balance. Which is not the question that those stories answered.

[Pharozonk]

Anything by Elliot S. Maggin.

I'd take anything by Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, or Len Wein over Maggin any day of the week.

Bizarro Kurosawa is that you?

[The Beast]

Bizarro Kurosawa is that you?

We certainly are on opposite ends of the spectrum of Superman fandom.

I prefer a Superman who's smart enough to know when to use his fists. Do you know Clark once protected his secret ID by racing across the room and knocking Jimmy the **** out?

Good times.

[Ascended]

Superman didn't retire because he lost Lois. He retired because Magog killed Joker and not only was he acquitted for the crime, but the public celebrated this act of vigilante justice. There was no indication Superman intended to choose a life of exile before the verdict was rendered in the Magog trial.

Oh yeah, that's right. Man its been a while since I read that story.

So okay, Superman "retires" (i.e, ran away) because he felt that the people of Metropolis made a poor choice in their celebrating Magog's vigilante justice. "People are dumb" is not a sufficient reason for Superman to give up. And he did give up. He could have said "Screw this place" and gone to help make the Vega system a better place. He could have gone to any number of planets, times, or dimensions, depending on the resources he had at hand (we never to my knowledge know exactly what he's got access to). He could have kept living his life, perhaps with a new name in a new city. He does none of these things. He "retires" to his Fortress where he plays farmer for a decade, while the world outside circles the drain. That is in no way the Superman I know.

[Mr. Mastermind]

Superman didn't retire because he lost Lois. He retired because Magog killed Joker and not only was he acquitted for the crime, but the public celebrated this act of vigilante justice. There was no indication Superman intended to choose a life of exile before the verdict was rendered in the Magog trial.

By this logic Superman should have quit when Bin Laden got killed considering those mass celebrations of his death. If anything it's worse because it was the government behind it and not some crazy guy in a costume!

The logic that killing a mass murderer (known to break out of prison) is a bad thing has never made any sense. I'm fine with writers just ignoring it because comics are not supposed to be that serious, but saying it's immoral to kill the Joker strikes me as ridiculous. His kill count has reached triple digits for Christ's sake.