How would YOU merge the Supermen?

[The Shredder]

Or, just do the proper thing and bring back either Kal-L or Earth 1 Pre crisis Kal-El, give him the memories of everything that happened the last 30 years, appologize on behalf of DC Comics for turning Superman into a cluster f--k in the first place and then go forward.

At this point, with the fan base being so divided, I'm not even sure if that would solve the problems.

Right now, it's a big cloud of mystery with the Superman titles, and once again, I'll try to be as patient as I can be to see how this plays out. Hell, I gave Nuperman over two years before deciding to cancel most of the Super books I was purchasing, so yeah, I can wait a minute on Rebirth. If it's not to my liking, then once again ... adios! If it's revealed to be something actually kinda clever and satisfying ... well that would be like a deep breath of fresh air. Especially when it comes to Superman comics for awhile now.

[Jon Clark]

Option 2 is to have 1 superman from 1938 on,who has lived the whole 80 or so years being superman,and cram every damn thing that has ever been written about superman into this supermans life.

If I knew I could make it set in stone for all future time I'd love to establish a "real" Superman that would never appear on panel but whom every published/filmed/broadcast version was an echo of. But I suspect knowing DC that if you tried introducing the concept someone would eventually try to tell stories with that version of the character and defeat the purpose.

[GreenLanternRanger]

I wouldnt merge them.

[beetee]

Just have them do a handshake.

[MajorHoy]

How about having New52Superman return as the new Bizarro?

[MeloDet]

For everyone saying that they'd have Clark still married to Lois after the merger, would you also merge the two Lois'? Cause otherwise you'd basically be swapping Pre-52 Lois' husband for a different person (albeit similar in many ways) and I can't help but feel that'd be a little strange.

How about having New52Superman return as the new Bizarro?

Jeezus I don't know if that'd be a bigger insult to N52 Superman fans than what we're likely to get or a slight improvement, but I'm definitely not a fan of that idea. If they're going to switch Nuperman for Superdad I hope they just let him die and be done with it. Don't bring him back depowered to live out life as an ordinary Clark Kent (for N52 Supes in particular that seems to be even sadder) or write him off as a fake/clone to rub salt in the wounds of the people who liked him. Just let it end for christs sake.

[DieHard200904]

I would split the universes and let Pre-Flashpoint be the canon one. If this universe is all the same and stays that way, then personally, I would rather keep the guy dead if needs be. I wouldn't care for the merger at all. Making him evil, reminds me too much of the shit they did to Kal-L.

[manduck37]

If given the task to merge the two, I have some ideas. I'd keep the Morrison origin to reintroduce the GA aspects of Superman back into the mythos. I'd use the Nu52 Lex as a military contractor/inventor who built his empire then became a criminal. I would keep the Wonder Woman relationship as having happened early in his career, when he was younger. Have an agreeable split of Supes and WW, so they can work on the League together and still be friends. Then have the relationship progress into the one with Lois. Proceed into the family with Jon, so there can be a Superboy out there for other books. Plus it actually progresses Clark and Lois, rather than having them stagnate in the perpetual single hero role or the "triangle for two" for too long. Have the original Death of Superman have happend like the Pre-52, in the 90's. I tend to like most of the villain origins for the Nu52, like Parasite and Brainiac. So I'd probably keep them. Have Clark still work at the Daily Planet, doing news reports and blogging for their website. Lois could do the same, possibly branching out into television like in the Nu52. Lois becomes a tv reporter and journalist while Clark is more of a blogger and internet columnist. Clark continues to write his social justice pieces. I also would have Clark refuse to report on "Superman" during his career, with some kind of stance that there are bigger societal issues to address that a flying man can't fix. That way he keeps his journalistic integrity and you have some fun story beats where that could have negative impacts on his career.

I'd use the more dystopian Krypton of cold and sterile science from the Pre-Flashpoint but the Krypto from Nu52. Nu52 Krypto is pretty awesome. I'd likely keep the Kents alive, at least more into his adulthood. That or keep Ma Kent around after Pa has a heart attack or something, like Pre-Flashpoint Superman. I'm much more interested in expanding Superman's supporting cast than whittling it down. So for that reason I'd use Pre-Flashpoint Metropolis' supporting cast. I'd use Pre-Flashpoint Cadmus, Bibbo, and the SCU.

[Ascended]

For everyone saying that they'd have Clark still married to Lois after the merger, would you also merge the two Lois'? Cause otherwise you'd basically be swapping Pre-52 Lois' husband for a different person (albeit similar in many ways) and I can't help but feel that'd be a little strange.

I assume a merger involves the entire mythos, not just Clark. Otherwise, what's the point? That'd be even more convoluted than what we have already.

Honestly, merging Lois would be pretty easy. She hasn't been a big enough part of the 52 mythos to be drastically different from post-Crisis. At most I suppose you could say that she dated John Carrol before she hooked up with Clark, and maybe have stories like Doomed and Truth happen in some fashion, though I'd rather just say Truth never happened so you dont have to try to work the secret identity back into the bottle. Doomed though, could happen to a merged Superman without changing much of the actual story (especially if set before Lois and Clark get married) or messing with the general status quo.

Jeezus I don't know if that'd be a bigger insult to N52 Superman fans than what we're likely to get or a slight improvement, but I'm definitely not a fan of that idea. If they're going to switch Nuperman for Superdad I hope they just let him die and be done with it. Don't bring him back depowered to live out life as an ordinary Clark Kent (for N52 Supes in particular that seems to be even sadder) or write him off as a fake/clone to rub salt in the wounds of the people who liked him. Just let it end for christs sake.

I gotta admit, it'd be an interesting new take on Bizarro, but it's gotta be about the most insulting thing they could do this side of making him a zombie.

[adrikito]

How about having New52Superman return as the new Bizarro?

Those words are insulting... Would you like this fate for superdad? or superdad as superboy prime?

[MeloDet]

I just don't see how any merger where Superman ends up as father to Jon and married to Lois can be considered anywhere closed to 50/50. We can talk over the finer points of which origin sticks and what stories happened in the past, but the thing that's going to affect most stories going forward is his status quo and that's a much harder thing to balance out. The best I can think of would be to have a merged Lois and Clark aware that the merger has taken place (maybe give them conflicting memories about whether or not they were together) so that they decide to seperate or put a their marriage on hold temporarily in order to sort things out. They'd still both act as parents to Jon and you could pull a lot of drama from two people trying to be parents together while dealing with a strange mix of the familiarity of husband/wife and the unexplored romance of N52 Lois and Clark. They could then build a new relationship from there and come back together as a family. Anything else would feel like PreFP Superman just absorbing Nuperman to me.

[SuperiorIronman]

I would have them both merge as Superman. New 52 Superman merges with PreFP Superman however New 52 Clark still exists.

Superman due to the merger exists in a weird spot chronologically speaking. He simply exists in the New 52 universe now as if he always did. Superman was him in this universe however New 52 Superman was who was present in this timeline up until Superdad arrived. Simply put, everything was the same up until Superdad showed up and after he did the universe just rolled with it. New 52 Clark's supporting cast simply believe that Superdad is their Clark, and can only suspect something is up. Superdad would still be himself but to the second power and simply always have existed here to the inhabitants of this universe, but nothing has changed with Superdad's history itself. It would be like a transplant and the universe just went with it.

New 52 Clark could become a different kind of Superman and expand on his growing set of powers, a lot of which the older Clark wouldn't have. New 52 Clark would be the only person who would know about Superdad not being the native Superman. New 52 Clark now no longer exists in the same way as anybody from before would recongize and only know th other guy as Clark Kent/Superman. New 52 Clark exists as a multiverse hiccup. Merged and yet still existing.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

I would have them both merge as Superman. New 52 Superman merges with PreFP Superman however New 52 Clark still exists.

Superman due to the merger exists in a weird spot chronologically speaking. He simply exists in the New 52 universe now as if he always did. Superman was him in this universe however New 52 Superman was who was present in this timeline up until Superdad arrived. Simply put, everything was the same up until Superdad showed up and after he did the universe just rolled with it. New 52 Clark's supporting cast simply believe that Superdad is their Clark, and can only suspect something is up. Superdad would still be himself but to the second power and simply always have existed here to the inhabitants of this universe, but nothing has changed with Superdad's history itself. It would be like a transplant and the universe just went with it.

New 52 Clark could become a different kind of Superman and expand on his growing set of powers, a lot of which the older Clark wouldn't have. New 52 Clark would be the only person who would know about Superdad not being the native Superman. New 52 Clark now no longer exists in the same way as anybody from before would recongize and only know th other guy as Clark Kent/Superman. New 52 Clark exists as a multiverse hiccup. Merged and yet still existing.

This sounds

A: Confusing and frustrating for every character involved unless handled perfectly, which it would not be.

B: Very, very likely to be what they actually do. After 'properly' merging, something like this is now my second guess for how it's going to go down.

[Kuwagaton]

How to merge is a fun idea, but if we're being honest there is no possible merger that isn't a lengthy, convoluted, expository train wreck.

If it was up to me anyway, I'd retcon Nuperman into Kal's twin Marv. And then I'd let them continue with Marv being trained by oz to fight like his brother, who was banished to another dimension that put him ten years early.

[StrikeJP]

I've mentioned this in other posts, but this is the best way to merge them:

According to Rebirth, New52 is just an altered timeline of Pre-Flashpoint. So both Supermen are technically the same guy. Soooo...

1. Have Superdad and his Lois go back to their original timeline, right before Flashpoint happens.
2. Superdad has to leave Jon behind otherwise he never exists. Nuperman will take care of him because it is technically his son. Jon is now considered the "time-anomaly son of Superman." A simple explanation of Jon's origin.
3. Once Superdad goes back to his time, Nuperman gains back all his memories of being Superdad. He's essentially lived two lifetimes and all stories still count.

Could also open up some interesting stories where Superman has to make Lois fall in love with him again so she can remember their son. But in the meantime, DC can have their single Superman and he can have a son at the same time.