Is Superman Perfect?

[The Overlord]

It seems like some people are saying Superman is incapable of making mistakes. If Superman is incapable of making mistakes, he is perfect. But is Superman perfect? Has he never made at least one mistake in any continuity? It seems like Superman being perfect really limits the amount of stories you can do you with him. You can't put him in an interesting moral dilemma if he is perfect and he is not very inspiring if he cannot make mistakes. If moral thing is always the easy thing for Superman, then is
Superman doing the right thing because its the easy thing?

Isn't more inspiring if Superman does the right thing, despite the fact that he can make mistakes? In life, the right thing to do, is not always the easy or clear thing to do, everyone in life makes mistakes, no matter how moral or intelligent. Its more inspiring to see how people deal with their mistakes, without their mistakes, they would not learn anything. Superman is too wise to assume he knows everything and there is nothing new for him to learn. Mistakes teach us things, a failure teaches us more then a success.

I think Superman is as man with great power and a good moral compass, but I don't think he is perfect and I think making him perfect limits the character.

[Francisco]

Superman is not perfect. He's awesome

[DochaDocha]

I don't think people are arguing Superman is incapable of making mistakes. I think the big thing is that they believe Superman shouldn't make specific mistakes.

[Lexrules]

I don't think people are arguing Superman is incapable of making mistakes. I think the big thing is that they believe Superman shouldn't not make specific mistakes.

Exactly....

[Flash Gordon]

Yes he is.

[The Frozen Reptile]

If Superman has a flaw, it's that he punches first and thinks second a little too often.

[The Overlord]

I don't think people are arguing Superman is incapable of making mistakes. I think the big thing is that they believe Superman shouldn't make specific mistakes.

Fair enough, I thought it was a valid question though. The follow up question would be, what kind of mistakes are okay for Superman to make and which ones are not the kind of mistakes he should be making?

People who say Superman is perfect don't like the character and don't know what they're talking about. He's made plenty of mistakes from the Golden Age on.

But see I am just asking a question, a question which I think is legitimate, especially since different people have different interpretations of what Superman is or should be about. Just because I am asking questions regarding how some people may see Superman, doesn't mean I dislike Superman.

I personally don't think Superman should be perfect, but I thought it would be an interesting question to ask, maybe start an interesting discussion.

[DochaDocha]

Fair enough, I thought it was a valid question though. The follow up question would be, what kind of mistakes are okay for Superman to make and which ones are not the kind of mistakes he should be making?

One we talked about a lot in the previous continuity when Superman was still married was that he wouldn't commit adultery.

A common mistake that happens fairly often is that Superman becomes overprotective. There are stories that do it well, and others that do it pretty poorly.

A crafty villain is going to fool him once in a while, but as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So you can fool Superman once in a while, but not repeatedly. In general, most people have an idea of how the geniuses in fiction act, and basically, that's how Superman should. He's not a moron so he doesn't make mistakes morons do. Also, if there's an obvious solution to a problem that readers/viewers are saying, e.g. why doesn't he just do this or that, then it shouldn't be a drawn out process for Superman to figure it out.

Superman would never do anything outright evil.

There are some others, but those are the ones off the top of my head.

[Cape and Cowl]

If moral thing is always the easy thing for Superman, then is Superman doing the right thing because its the easy thing?

When has always trying to do the right thing ever been easy?

[Prime]

Doing the right thing is NEVER easy and Superman makes mistakes all the time and his fans belittle him about it always. Look at MOS as an example.