Wasted opportunities

[Ascended]

Prankster showed up in Nightwing back before Forever Evil. I forget the details but it was a pretty vivid departure from the norm. Still, I recall thinking it was a decent enough take. But I never cared for Prankster to begin with, especially as a Superman foe, so my judgement is clouded by that.

Maxima showed up in Supergirl as a senior student at the Crucible Academy. She wasn't the same but I really liked her, and I always suspected her mother would be exactly like the Maxima we remember. But the book was cancelled before Maxima got developed much.

Terra Man, I want to say, showed up in Morrison's run as a member of the Superman Revenge Squad, but I dont believe he's been seen since. For some reason I want to say he was around during Forever Evil as a background cameo.....

Toyman is Hiro, the young game designer who has become a friend of Clark's (based on the Loeb creation of post-Crisis). If the old Toyman has shown up I either forgot about it or missed it.

But Lex, Metallo, Parasite, Darkseid, Myx, Doomsday and Intergang are all around.

I dont think the "new direction" is the problem so much as I think the problem is there's no direction at all.

[Prime]

Anyone seen anything with Baka in it? I feel like he was a great addition to Superman's supporting cast outside of the Planet. Jesus, I just wish they would let Pak do what he wants with Superman.

[Starchild]

Shay Veritas, Ghost Soldier, Machinist & Wraith were good additions to the Superman mythos imo. Why is it that Batman is the only one allowed to have a huge cast of characters in his universe?


I think the biggest wasted opportunities were 1) Not developing his villains, not telling us why we should view these guys as a threat to him. 2) Not expanding his world. Batman is pretty much in his own universe.

[HsssH]

I think its hard to list these things (some of you really did good job), but I feel like core problem here is that all Superman titles are free to do what they want... until they aren't and are forced into crossover.
This creates situation where each creative team is trying to do their own thing, then have to drop it and do something about this big crossover thats happening. As a result we get bunch of ideas that were tossed out, but never had enough time to be fully developed till another creative team comes and brings their own cool ideas that again get sidelined by another crossover.
Another problem is that with each title doing their own thing they get isolated. One title is focusing on certain characters and other titles ignore them as not to screw something up. As a result characters and concepts aren't shared around and even fully developed ideas are quickly forgotten because nobody else played around with these things.

At times it looks like Superman office is pushing some kinda hybrid approach between Triangle Era and standalone ongoings. It doesn't look like its working.

[Prime]

Shame that this has been going on for almost 2 decades.

[Stanlos]

So I was thinking that the New 52 could have brought a lot of new interesting things for Superman and for a little while it did, but then we got back to the lame status quo that has left Superman stagnated for the last couple of month or even years. Here we talk about the wasted opportunities for Superman.

For example Clark finally moving out of the Daily Planet to start his own thing, only for John to f*#k it all up by bringing him back to the Planet...*Sigh*

In a lot of ways, I think 52 damaged everyone except Aquaman (powered wtf up; profile raised to marquee level; major crossovers dedicated to his franchise; etc). In Superman's case, he has been powered way down and some of the staples of his mythology just dropped out (Lois!).

I thought they were returning Super Intelligence after FOR TOMORROW but alas it just left the building. And then there is the oddity of adding a 'new' Superpower whilst completely ignoring so many of his previous ones. I don't that is a thing or if it is just people not writing him as intelligently (oooooooo that sounds wrong or insulting but I can't think of a better word soooooooooo sorry!). People on the boards routinely write that Supes was 'weaker' after he got Byrned but I don't recall that being the case (I will get to see for sure when the lot of Superman, Action, and Adventures from that era--will it be accurate or just nostalgia fogging things up?). I recall Superman being his usual uberpowerful self but also being exceptionally smart and journalist-y. I got to see him use his infrared vision, microscopic vision, heat vision (in very creative and intelligent ways like--I think--disabling a villain's teleport capabilities) and use his powers to overcome mystical/magical threats as well as Kryptonite. By that I don't mean the incredibly lazy writing like what we saw in say Infinite Crisis. Unless memory failing me, the stories had Supes intelligently use his powers and his brain to win DESPITE the villain using those. And I don't mean just pretending the K or magic doesn't have their respective properties (which is what I mean by lazy).

But mainly I was just really frickin' irritated seeing a whole crop of issues of Superman in a T-shirt and jeans and no powers. I don't like that. That slot is already taken by literally dozens of other street levelers already. It's like whatever was effecting the DC Creative Direction where WW was concerned bled over into Superman and they wanted to make him more generic and less interesting too. It's odd.

Hmmm. My post reads more like bitter griping now so I am oush.
/20

Oh yeah I forgot about the schlocky crossovers. Future's End or something. But I didn't have high hopes for that one but I had huge hopes for Doomsday's appearance. Wow, how disappointing!

[Sacred Knight]

The powered down thing was always just temporary though for a single story. A story that's slogged on wayyy too long and abandoned any of the concepts that made it remotely interesting in the first place yes, but still just a storyline. In the general terms of the status quo, the current Superman was powered up compared to his post-Crisis to pre-Flashpoint incarnations.

[Flash Gordon]

The New 52 after Morrison left had Lobdell at least follow up on those ideas and create some interesting character dynamics (a bit poorly written but still). You had Shay, Cat, Morgan Edge, Oracle, etc. Since than it has all been a big missed opportunity. From DOOMED forward.

Pak had good ideas but they just got lost when he went into crossover mode.

I also think the Clark/Diana relationship (while I'm not a fan) was a huge missed opportunity to tell some really fascinating and fun stories.

[Sacred Knight]

I think the Superman/Wonder Woman thing can be kept out of the missed opportunities section for now because they're not done with it yet. If the title were to go away tomorrow then yeah, one big missed opportunity. But its still going so I cling to hope for a better direction and storytelling.

Same thing for some currently MIA characters like Shay. She's been wasted this past year but she's not a complete wasted opportunity because its child's play to bring her back, someone just has to get off their butt and do it. I consider missed opportunities the type of things that are done and over with that can't be gone back and redone.

[Tra-EL]

I think its hard to list these things (some of you really did good job), but I feel like core problem here is that all Superman titles are free to do what they want... until they aren't and are forced into crossover.
This creates situation where each creative team is trying to do their own thing, then have to drop it and do something about this big crossover thats happening. As a result we get bunch of ideas that were tossed out, but never had enough time to be fully developed till another creative team comes and brings their own cool ideas that again get sidelined by another crossover.
Another problem is that with each title doing their own thing they get isolated. One title is focusing on certain characters and other titles ignore them as not to screw something up. As a result characters and concepts aren't shared around and even fully developed ideas are quickly forgotten because nobody else played around with these things.

At times it looks like Superman office is pushing some kinda hybrid approach between Triangle Era and standalone ongoings. It doesn't look like its working.

I agree with this. It's the constant crossovers that are derailing the need of good and isolated story telling. These crossovers haven't benefited Superman for a long time, yet, once they get things going with creative ideas, they go ahead and schedule a crossover event that does nothing but mess with ongoing chemistry with the books and press ' s the creative team into working together on something that they won't follow through anyway. I think it's a mixture of just bad storytelling and the lack of direction. ..to what someone said above, seems to be none.

I'm at the point to where I don't even care anymore if they can come up with something insanely creative. I just want good story telling. We haven't had that for a long time.

[Prime]

I agree with this. It's the constant crossovers that are derailing the need of good and isolated story telling. These crossovers haven't benefited Superman for a long time, yet, once they get things going with creative ideas, they go ahead and schedule a crossover event that does nothing but mess with ongoing chemistry with the books and press ' s the creative team into working together on something that they won't follow through anyway. I think it's a mixture of just bad storytelling and the lack of direction. ..to what someone said above, seems to be none.

I'm at the point to where I don't even care anymore if they can come up with something insanely creative. I just want good story telling. We haven't had that for a long time.

Pak was doing it for a while until he got bombarded by crossovers.

[Tra-EL]

Pak was doing it for a while until he got bombarded by crossovers.

Yeah, Pak's start was as solid as possible, but it didn't take long for that to get ripped to shreds by editorial. Pak's run wasn't that long ago, but it feels it. That's never a good sign.

[KingDragonlord]

He was wasted the moment he told Batman to speak while dangling him by the neck. He's a thug and a bully. Its no wonder his power loss has driven him to such despair. He needs it to get his way. He can't function as anything other than the super alpha male.

[Sacred Knight]

Yeah, that's complete nonsense. Superman had every right to react the way he did. HE was the one being bullied. He was attacked completely unprovoked and unwarranted, albeit it was mostly Hal's doing but from Superman's POV they were obviously together, which was an accurate assumption.

[Tayswift]

Yeah, that's complete nonsense. Superman had every right to react the way he did. HE was the one being bullied. He was attacked completely unprovoked and unwarranted, albeit it was mostly Hal's doing but from Superman's POV they were obviously together, which was an accurate assumption.

No, superman was totally wrong.