Fate of "Prime Earth" (New 52) Superman Speculation

[Kirby Krackle]

now they're taking him out of his own book?

Kind of like what happened to Post-Crisis Superman...

[edwardsdv]

In the solicitation for Superman #52 it says N52 Lois's life will change forever. DiDio said that Superwoman comes out of the SuperLeague arc. So I'm 99% certain that Superwoman will be N52 Lois. We are also going to get a Clark Kent, but it seems pretty likely that's not pre-FP Supes and is most likely N52 Supes. So, I'm thinking N52 Superman ends up in the old Lois Lane role as Clark Kent to her Superwoman. That would be an interesting role reversal

Augh please please no.

[Johnny Thunders!]

Man they sure merchandised poor 52. What's his last comic going to be? I hope they get Grant Morrison to show up in comic and drop him off at The Supremacy. Maybe he gets bug squashed like the High in Stormwatch.

[Atlanta96]

In the solicitation for Superman #52 it says N52 Lois's life will change forever. DiDio said that Superwoman comes out of the SuperLeague arc. So I'm 99% certain that Superwoman will be N52 Lois. We are also going to get a Clark Kent, but it seems pretty likely that's not pre-FP Supes and is most likely N52 Supes. So, I'm thinking N52 Superman ends up in the old Lois Lane role as Clark Kent to her Superwoman. That would be an interesting role reversal

Superman and Lois Lane role reversal? That's kind of cringeworthy. Before I get accused of being sexist, I wouldn't want this role reversal to happen with Superman and Jimmy Olsen either. Or any main character with a supporting character really. It's degrading.

[Sacred Knight]

The Clark Kent in Action is actually probably not the New 52 Superman. What this Clark Kent is supposed to be a twist. New 52 Clark wouldn't be a twist as that's the obvious answer. His identity will be something else, my initial guess is a returned Matrix who thinks she's Clark Kent much like her original origin as written by Byrne, given that this is supposed to be a post-Crisis based Superman.

New 52 Lois being Superwoman is highly likely on the other hand. But I think the more obvious answer as to the fate of New 52 Superman now is simple; they're just killing him off. Maybe it'll be ambiguous, but what with Didio's talk about his stupid "biggest controversial event ever in my tenure" deal, I'm guessing its a pretty concrete, gory end, similar to that they bestowed upon Kal-L.

[superduperman]

It's been a while since I've read a New 52 Superman comic (I quit when Scott Lobdell started writing) but is there anything about New 52 Supes that makes him better than the old one? Anything about his revised origin, his development, role in the DCU, that Pre-Flashpoint Superman didn't do better?
I've only read the John Byrne and Geoff Johns Superman stories, but those stories resonated with me way more than any of the recent stuff.

Fair question. For starters, his history was a lot cleaner than his predecessor. People tend to forget this but prior to the reboot, it wasn't clear what stories "counted" and what didn't. The only sure ones were the death and the marriage. At least with New 52, it was clear none of them were. They were starting from scratch. Something many of us felt he needed.

[Sacred Knight]

It was the cleaned up origin, mainly. Before Flashpoint it was indecipherable. The man had three possible origin stories working at once. Second was the easy removal of the marriage. It'd become a huge problem before the reboot just for becoming basically boring and worthless and hurting both Lois and Clark. Third, I liked that Superman was given some of his guts back and they eased up on the boyscout routine. Now obviously that third one isn't something you need a reboot to obtain, but it was a nice bonus. Also, I liked the idea of someone my age, being born so long after Superman first appeared, getting the chance to read currently published stories that followed Superman's journies pretty much from the start. I missed that, obviously, in 1938, and I was too young for the COIE reboot. I was tired of the seasoned veteran. I wanted to watch a Superman grow up. And now they're basically going back to absolutely everything I was happy to see go because I either never liked it in the first place, or just got burnt out on.

[Tayswift]

Superman and Lois Lane role reversal? That's kind of cringeworthy. Before I get accused of being sexist, I wouldn't want this role reversal to happen with Superman and Jimmy Olsen either. Or any main character with a supporting character really. It's degrading.

I don't know how this is degrading, since main superman is clark kent too

[The Shredder]

Cleaner history, sure, but that comes with any sort of hard reboot. As Byrne's Superman reboot in 1986, as a consequence, resulted in Superman's continuity being much cleaner than it was prior to COIE. The problem with Nu52Supes, and Pre-FlashpointSupes, was that they were disserviced by DC's editorial. Just with Nu52's case, it happened a whole lot quicker. Now Pre-FlashpointSupes is being brought back to pull the nose up on the plane, along with implementing a "Super Family" and who knows how that's going to work out, but as far as business goes, anything is better than sticking with the current Nu52 direction and hoping for the best.

[Sacred Knight]

I think as far as business goes, the wisest move would have just been taking Superman back to where he was before Truth, then craft your "Rebirth" building blocks from there. That was working. DCYou/Truth is what buried him. That doesn't mean every story before then was gold. It wasn't. But he was still sellng fairly steady if not incredibly. But lets face it, Superman isn't going to sell incredibly for some time, regardless In general he is just not "it" these days. So I can't particularly agree to the mindset that something major had to be done this time around. The pinpoint moment where things went to hell was pretty clear. And the means for every reset necessary within that hellish storyline was in place as well. So you just reset back to before that happened. Far more simple than what they're about to do.

[edwardsdv]

I mean I am pretty easy to please with superman - I even liked truth and H'El on Earth for instance. The only thing I didnt want was for the character to end up with Lois Lane and be a father because I think those are both really boring options for the character.

I mean I guess I will read any out of continuity stuff put out by people like Max Landis and Neal Adams and JMS but otherwise I'm done with Clark while this is in place.

[The Shredder]

I really have a difficult time believing one story arc caused people to leave Superman and essentially be done with him. I've heard that analogy with Convergence, but to me, if the New52 was such a great thing, just prior to Convergence, why wouldn't those same readers who decided to jump off the ship, simply just return following the 2-month hiatus? To me, it speaks volumes about the quality/reception DC's books were having on their readers. No, we just won't come back two months later, like anybody else who is enjoying stories in that universe, rather, we'll just call it a day. THAT'S A RED FLAG.

[Tayswift]

I mean I am pretty easy to please with superman - I even liked truth and H'El on Earth for instance. The only thing I didnt want was for the character to end up with Lois Lane and be a father because I think those are both really boring options for the character.

I mean I guess I will read any out of continuity stuff put out by people like Max Landis and Neal Adams and JMS but otherwise I'm done with Clark while this is in place.

funny that landis superman ends with lois and neal superman also dates Lois

I really have a difficult time believing one story arc caused people to leave Superman and essentially be done with him. I've heard that analogy with Convergence, but to me, if the New52 was such a great thing, just prior to Convergence, why wouldn't those same readers who decided to jump off the ship, simply just return following the 2-month hiatus? To me, it speaks volumes about the quality/reception DC's books were having on their readers. No, we just won't come back two months later, like anybody else who is enjoying stories in that universe, rather, we'll just call it a day. THAT'S A RED FLAG.

this is what I think too, many people jumped off because new 52 stopped being interesting

[edwardsdv]

Yeah all this conversation is convincing me of is that I never actually like Superman at all I guess, you win Tayswift.

[DieHard200904]

I mean I am pretty easy to please with superman - I even liked truth and H'El on Earth for instance. The only thing I didnt want was for the character to end up with Lois Lane and be a father because I think those are both really boring options for the character.

I mean I guess I will read any out of continuity stuff put out by people like Max Landis and Neal Adams and JMS but otherwise I'm done with Clark while this is in place.

That's a sad day though when those limited non canon stories are better, TBH.