Superman, classic enemies and who's left in the New 52

[JBatmanFan05]

Haven't been reading a lot Lex stories lately, but Lex is definitely my fave Superman rogue and what they should do is always keep him a mix of corporate & mad scientist. They should also use a lot of his characterization traits from Smallville...very secretive, very progressive, some noble tragedy to him, etc, etc.

[SJNeal]

Once upon a time, Brainiac would have been at the top of my list, but the New 52 has burned me out on him (especially that god-awful Future's End).

So I have to go with good ol' Lex.

[Ascended]

Maxima is what now?

We meet her in the last arc of Supergirl. She's a few years older than Kara, attending a cosmic-level "superhero university" and something similar to the Dean's assistant. She's basically a lot like the original Maxima in regards to personality, just smoothed out. She's proud, arrogant, powerful, intelligent, and dedicated to her people. But the twist is, she's not really thrilled at the prospect of a marriage for political gain like the original was. She, in fact, implies pretty heavily that she's gay, and attracted to Kara. The story was recently collected in a trade called (I think) Crucible Academy and is well worth checking out.

[QUOTE=superduperman;1439880]

They need to do this right fricking now!

Damn right they do. I've been reading Superman comics for over twenty years and have never seen the appeal of Parasite (great powers and visual, but thats it). In one paragraph (okay, two) I was just sold on the character. You sir, Mr. Jon Clark, are some kind of sorcerer!

[protege]

I'd say the Toyman, but i kind of like the Toymaster as a superman ally. Superman really needs his rogues gallery attended to.

[K. Jones]

This is a really interesting topic.

In my extensive studies of DC history lately I've really been interesting to learn just how many sort of one-off, or period specific enemies have been created for Superman during various runs, that never ever catch on and who you'll never really see after their fifteen minutes of fame. There's a couple A-Level types in this mold that people can probably imagine off-hand. Conduit is a huge one. But dear god, if ever there was a character who has had more creators throw ideas at the wall to see what sticks, and for 90% of them not to stick at all, it's Superman!

When all else fails, everybody - everybody goes back to Binder and Byrne. There's a few of the old classics - Luthor, Ultrahumanite, and so on. But mostly it's Otto Binder concepts (Brainiac, Zod), and then after that, several of Byrne's era stuff really stuck and we see permutations of them. There's also a handful of solid Jurgens-period creations that have stuck around like Doomsday, and then of course, though not centrally Superman, a ton of Kirby stuff is affiliated enough at this point. The only recent writer to generate a few reasonably long-lasting foes is probably Morrison, but that's a cheat, because he didn't create many of them, he just brought them into the 21st Century - guys like Xa-Du the Phantom King.

But it's a curious thing. Conduit. Thaddeus Kilgrave! And so on and so on. You can look in most Superman eras and find a ton of characters that didn't stick.

My personal favorite is Brainiac. He's so anti-Superman it's not funny, thematically. And has so many pulp influences that you can assign him to almost any kind of metaphor or allegory.

[K. Jones]

[QUOTE=superduperman;1439880]

They need to do this right fricking now!

If they're going to refresh and boost Parasite to be a worthy foe, I'd hope to see them do it with the original Parasite, and not Rudy Jones (who didn't even originate in Superman comics), or whoever the new guy is. Then again, the nice thing about Parasite - the nature of his powers - they could theoretically just glom all the different versions together!

[ngroove]

Why does everyone keeps on mentioning "Ultra Humanite"???

He was Superman's only for what, a brief peroid, 1939-1940, before Luthor basically and permanently "replaced" him???

Perhaps had a few more scraps against him, as a Justice League of America member, but for the most part, to be precise, became more the Justice Society's, Johnny Quick's, and for you more recent readers, Power Girl's.

[ngroove]

[QUOTE=K. Jones;1441557]

If they're going to refresh and boost Parasite to be a worthy foe, I'd hope to see them do it with the original Parasite, and not Rudy Jones (who didn't even originate in Superman comics), or whoever the new guy is. Then again, the nice thing about Parasite - the nature of his powers - they could theoretically just glom all the different versions together!

Maxwell Jensen, his originally given published name, was Maxwell Jensen.

[magha_regulus]

Brainiac, Luthor (Mad Scientist capitalist xenophobic ego maniac), Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Zod are my favorites in no particular order. I REEEEEEAAAAAALLLLYYYYYY like Mxyzptlk.

I want them to bring Mongul back to is Pre-crisis glory. They need to bring back a lot of the cosmic villains Imperiex and Dominus for example. Intergang needs to make a comeback. I like Sam Lane being a superman villain and I think something similar should be done with Steve Trevor (though Steve wouldn't be a villain outright, he'd be more a force of opposition to superman). Atlas and Samson would be good villains or foils. I love what they've done with the Phantom King.

[exile001]

Thaddeus Kilgrave!

THANK YOU!!! I was a little intimadated to bring him up, as the idea was clearly to update the original Supmern version of the Ulra-Humanite who was superseded by Luthor and became a JSA threat. I really liked Thaddeus.