Should We New52 Superman Fans Resign Ourselves to SuperDad, and, if so, How?

[SuperCrab]

I'm done. They packaged a product with the new 52. Encouraged me to buy it and now instead they at least try to give new 52 Superman a happy ending and reboot if they really believed in the old one...they basically kill him...possibly saying he wasn't who he was etc. Least pre new 52 fans got a happy ending some sense of Hope when they closed that verse. The readers who got on board in 2011 gets something like a slap. DC does not deserve my money. Well to be honest they clear whose business they want. It's a certain demographic and type of reader. I don't fall into that category. Problem is still the way the books were managed and some of the story telling. Poor storylines and too many crossovers , sabotaging the focus of books etc...they really think bringing back "classic" is going to solve that? It's a managerial one. Two years down the line some gimmick will have to be employed again.

DC delivers a product. I am not interested in their product right now and the way they managed it...well like anything else...I don't keep buying from a company that hasn't really done what they said they would do. That is how I look at it.

Yeah. I think those are all very good points. I think they apply most strongly to the Superman franchise, where the old guy is just dropped in place with a kid in tow and our Superman is actually killed off. At least if you are a new52 fan of Batman, Wonder Woman, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, or most of the others, it's still "your guy", the new52 character, with added memories and feelings surfacing from before. They will still remember the adventures and the personal moments from the last five years. SuperDad spent the last ten years hanging in a small house in California while Lois played soccer mom and they raised their kid together. He has none of new52 Superman's memories or feelings, he is a significantly older character with a different life situation, he acts differently, etc.. It's worse than with some of the other lines where a character might "remember" an old friend or a romantic partnership from a previous incarnation (pre-Flashpoint), but is still the same character- Superman is actually a totally different guy.

It seems like we got the short end of the stick. Based on the spoilers from the standalone Rebirth comic for the whole line, I think I could deal with what they did to 95% of the other characters if I were a big fan of their new52 incarnations. They are going way further with Superman.

[Tayswift]

Sure.. Superman never was for young people.. DC try and lost many of his old fans apparently..

It was a golden era (not truth) for young people with superman .. but that's over... Now even with family Superman is for older people(30-40 years and more older people) and children...

I'm not 30, not married or with kids, and I like superdad. I don't get that character that are older or have family can't be for younger people

[adrikito]

I'm not 30, not married or with kids, and I like superdad. I don't get that character that are older or have family can't be for younger people

Since rebirth, Everything I heard was worse with Superman.. Today it is possible that they have passed. My biggest reason To hate him is sacrifice a superman to give way to him...

I gave him a chance, his comic did not seem so bad, I had continued in his next comics... But now is everywhere, Where is my superman? Now All I see with Superman is fake for Superdad? Now I do not like the character.. DC may have gone too far..

Superman will now be a familiar comic .. Lois, lois, john, john .. I pass of this. I like to have a free superman without strings..

Continue? for what? I no longer respect superdad.. to hear how still making fun This olds fans? they are already doing it in Last days of SM.. They are enjoying it.

You are fan of Superdad... You continue... the rest will do whatever we want... For this I change my avatar... Batman is the best, he will not experience any change as crazy as this.

Superman wants to return to the same pre-flashpoint.. He will fail again.

[DragonPiece]

I think at the very least you should pick up Superman rebirth #1, if you don't like it, then vote with your wallet.

[Sacred Knight]

I'm resigned to the strong likelihood that at best we're going to get a merger scenario where Superdad and New 52 Superman are both two parts of a whole. spoilers:

Mr. Oz showing up again and telling Superdad he's not who he thinks is a strong indicator that Johns is contriving a way to make him and the family proper originals of this Earth and not alternates

end of spoilers But in the end I would still expect the post-Crisis elements to be dominant. Origin (even though pre-FP he didn't even have one that was coherent), powers, attitude, all that. And he'll still be married with a kid. It will essentially wipe out the New 52 trappings while disingenuously trying to pretend that they didn't get rid of him.

In that event, I don't see a "how" in regards to how I can resign myself to the facts and keep being a reader. My wild moving back and forth toward one side of the fence or the other the past month or so will probably end up leaving me on the outside looking in. It won't make me happy by any means, but I think my time to leave DC altogether is at hand.

[Myskin]

At this point, even if I would have never expected it, I think that New52 Supes is no more.

[Sacred Knight]

I still think he might come back, but that'd only be in the event of the merger scenario and he returns because he's part of the real deal and needs to join back up. In those respects maybe that's the reason for the blue boots. I was convinced it was because he and New 52 Superman would eventually co-exist indefinitely, but now I'm thinking its a nod to the fact he's not quite complete. But even then it wouldn't be anything where its equal parts the old guy and the new, it'll be for all intents and purposes an absorption, to get rid of him but not have to admit you got rid of him.

[Prime]

No merger please. If that's the case, let Superman rest in peace.

[The Shredder]

You know, with all the super-titles coming down the pike post-REBIRTH (Super Sons, Superwoman, New Super-Man or whatever it's called), I don't see how it would be a problem if DC included Nuperman into that equation. I mean, if DC, and this has been the case, wants to be more friendly with the concept of alternate earths, and the multiverse in general than they were for years following COIE, then naturally Nuperman returning and getting a title shouldn't be much of a problem. It's too bad that the "New Superman" name has now been taken cause that would have effectively worked.

"New Superman? Who's he?"

"He's the Superman that started in the New52."

Done and done. It shouldnt be anymore complicated than that to a newer reader. Ironing all that out would be the tricky part, but I suppose it wouldn't be impossible to initiate if DC so desired. I mean, if you can have Peter Parker Spider-Man, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, and Kaine as Scarlet-Spider, then I mean ... come on.

Personally I'm interested in REBIRTH, but can't say I'm exactly jumping up and down about it. DC has literally made me care less and less over the years, and I can appreciate the effort of what they are trying to do with REBIRTH, but unfortunately my jadedness still holds strong due to the never-ending mediocrity of the Superman books, and I don't have a ton of faith that it's going to change, but of course I want to believe...

If the books continue to suck, I'm out. I'll wait and see of course, since I don't mind Pre-Flashpoint Superman, but we'll see.

[DragonPiece]

I'm resigned to the strong likelihood that at best we're going to get a merger scenario where Superdad and New 52 Superman are both two parts of a whole. spoilers:

Mr. Oz showing up again and telling Superdad he's not who he thinks is a strong indicator that Johns is contriving a way to make him and the family proper originals of this Earth and not alternates

end of spoilers But in the end I would still expect the post-Crisis elements to be dominant. Origin (even though pre-FP he didn't even have one that was coherent), powers, attitude, all that. And he'll still be married with a kid. It will essentially wipe out the New 52 trappings while disingenuously trying to pretend that they didn't get rid of him.

In that event, I don't see a "how" in regards to how I can resign myself to the facts and keep being a reader. My wild moving back and forth toward one side of the fence or the other the past month or so will probably end up leaving me on the outside looking in. It won't make me happy by any means, but I think my time to leave DC altogether is at hand.

Isn't Mr. Oz the person Johns kept teasing during his new 52 Superman run? I remember there being a person who was mysterious that we never found out who it was. If that's the case, I doubt Johns had this story for that many years and planned it to be about merging the two characters. It's probably a different story all together.

[StrikeJP]

From what I've heard of Rebirth, Superdad and Nuperman are one in the same. Basically Superdad is Nuperman right before Flashpoint and spoilers:

Dr. Manhattan funny business

end of spoilers. So the best way to think of Superdad is as time-displaced.

I think there is an easy fix to make everyone happy:

1. Over the next year while Nuperman is gone, Superdad fixes up his life, somehow bringing back the secret identity, etc.
2. Nuperman comes back from the dead somehow.
3. In DC's next big event (follow-up to Rebirth), Superdad saves the universe but results in him and his Lois having to go back in time right before Flashpoint (where they came from). In doing so they leave their son behind (who is a weird time-anomaly). Nuperman promises to watch after him (because in a strange way it is still his son).

Ta-da! Easy fix. Superdad/Nuperman become one in the same, and now Nuperman knows of all his past adventures he had as Superdad. Jon Kent is the time-anomaly son of Superman and gets to stick around. Everyone is (mostly) happy. I doubt DC is this smart, but we can hope.

P.S. Hire me DC, I'll work for free.

[Sacred Knight]

I'd love that Strike. That's the initial conclusion I came to as well. That New 52 Superman is actually pre-FP Superman altered. Superdad is pre-pre-FP Superman, heh. Its what makes the most sense to me. But again we now have this hinting that Superdad is not who he thinks he is, whatever that means. That's what makes me think they're going to try and say that he's the one who is native to this Earth or something. But I suppose if I let go of the major negativity for a sec, there are other options. I'm just trying to think what's going to happen from Johns point of view though, and Johns has always preferred a Superdad-like model. For someone who loves the Silver Age so much, with Superman he's perpetually stuck in the post-Crisis. And when he does venture outside of anything before 1986, its friggin Donnerisms.

[StrikeJP]

I wouldn't give up hope Sacred. There were strong hints in the Rebirth preview that Nuperman will be back. That being said... whether DC comes to a similar conclusion like we did, remains to be seen. And I wouldn't blame you in not having a ton of confidence in them.

[Last Son of Krypton]

All news/spoilers related to Rebirth have made me never want to read comics anymore.

[DieHard200904]

All news/spoilers related to Rebirth have made me never want to read comics anymore.

I call it growing out of them. Frankly, if all they need is to obsess over continuity and making convoluted history, then that is where I really don't care much for it.