Controversial Superman Opinions

[13th Superman]

The Fleischer Cartoons are devoid of color, devoid of humor, takes itself too serious and Superman never smiles. Yet, those cartoons are still the best of the best and continue to be the Superman that defines my childhood.

Me too. I still remember how I felt watching The Mad Scientist, the Billion Dollar Limited, and Volcano. Simply amazing.

[Tra-EL]

Me too. I still remember how I felt watching The Mad Scientist, the Billion Dollar Limited, and Volcano. Simply amazing.

Absolutely. I don't think anything can top the Fleischer cartoons for me. Every time I watch them, I morph right back into my living room when I was 5 with a towel wrapped around my neck with re-wind after re-wind. Those cartoons can't be beat!

[13th Superman]

Absolutely. I don't think anything can top the Fleischer cartoons for me. Every time I watch them, I morph right back into my living room when I was 5 with a towel wrapped around my neck with re-wind after re-wind. Those cartoons can't be beat!

Lol. It's the same for me and my brother! I have fond memories of when our dad would bring them home and we tried to act out how he changed clothes in the from Clark to Superman while his theme song was playing. Heh it still a part of me today when i need to change clothes real fast.

[Sacred Knight]

The current "time refugee" set up of Superman is THE stupidest idea in Superman comics since the idea of continuity became a thing.

[Mr. Mastermind]

Ever? I can think of a couple worse. Making Superman dying because he got punched hard by a rock monster and having that be THE comic book event is much worse.

[Sacred Knight]

For me its the worst ever. It's an immersion breaker and I can't deal with those. Just dumb ideas I can deal with.

[Superlad93]

Lol counter controversial opinion: the "time refugee" thing is actually kind of a fun idea, and it gives Superman a whole 10 years worth of completely new and unique real estate to work with. So long as everyone remembers that Mr. El is their Superman who got plucked to Battle World--I mean Talos I think we'll be fine. You just put him back in the Kent identity (most likely the point of Reborn) and you move from there. I don't think it affects the long term as badly as some of my fellow members assume.

I for one would love to see new villains, location, friends, and rivals that Mr. El has accumulated during those lost years come back. I personally don't understand how it breaks immersion.

[magha_regulus]

1. Superman should routinely get new powers over time, especially mental powers
2. Kryptonianso should have at least the 1938 powers on krypton
3. Superman needs to have had a career as superboy
4. They need to bring back the silver age Superman as the main superman.
5. The New God's and the Legion of Superheroes are Superman characters
6. Kryptonians are more intelligent than humans period
7. Superman is as much a science hero as an action hero
8. Kon-El is a waste of a character and should have been a casualty of the reign of the Superman
9. Mr. Mxyzptlk is one of the greatest superman characters

[Kuwagaton]

Ever? I can think of a couple worse. Making Superman dying because he got punched hard by a rock monster and having that be THE comic book event is much worse.

That makes it sound like an allergic reaction to rocks. Well, he does have them if we're talking kryptonite. But he died taking on a beast capable of harming him solo, where everyone else failed. Originally Doomsday was a total monster and things were at the point where all other options couldn't fly. And he didn't exactly even lose, they took each other out.

[Sacred Knight]

Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw), whom debuted in 1993, is the best Superman villain conceived since Brainiac way back in 1958.

(See? I have plenty of love for old-school Jurgens)

[Maxi]

I agree with Sacred Knight. Superman being from a parallel universe is just a bad status quo. The fact that this Superman is a stranger for everyone is just too tied to convulted continuity and it's limiting the amount of stories that can be told because Superman doesn't have a proper lore and supporting characters of his own.

That being said, I'm loving Tomasi and Gleason's run, but I wonder what could they do if they had the character properly set up, with all his villains and supporting characters.

[Jim Kelly]

People who are really into comics and have bought every Superman title for the last thirty years might be really enthused by the current state of affairs--but for the rest of us it's confusing as all get-out. And for anyone who thinks they might want to pick up a Superman comic, just to step a toe in to see if it's something they'd like, I don't see how it's possible to understand what the heck is going on.

I dunno myself. And I'm not going to spend hundreds of dolllars buying back issues and collected editions, wasting my time reading for months, just to put it all together.

The only way I can read these comics is by ignoring a lot of what is going on and trying to find a simple anecdote within a given issue that lends itself to some comprehension. I'm just hoping, when all the dust has settled, DC will have an easy to understand origin story for Clark that can be summed up in a few sentences and makes a lick of sense.

[Superlad93]

People who are really into comics and have bought every Superman title for the last thirty years might be really enthused by the current state of affairs--but for the rest of us it's confusing as all get-out. And for anyone who thinks they might want to pick up a Superman comic, just to step a toe in to see if it's something they'd like, I don't see how it's possible to understand what the heck is going on.

I assumed that to, but then I kept on seeing comments like "I never picked up or liked the idea of a Superman comic till now," "this is the best Superman has been in years," "best book from Rebirth," or "the current Superman book made me a Superman fan."

I think as comic fans we tend to unintentionally look down on those just coming to our world. We just assume that they can't take the story in front of them at face value and enjoy it. We assume they need to know everything like we do. I know that's how I was when my friends asked me if they should get into Superman with Rebirth (they aren't fans of comics). I gave them the Rebirth issue of Superman and Superman #1 and them been reader ever since. They've told me that they just like how familiar but new the current books are. To them it just boils down to "huh Superman has a kid now? Cool."

I would've assumed that the current direction of Superman would have made the character completely inaccessible, and would've made him very unpopular. However the opposite seems to be the deal. This is the most well liked I've seen mainstream Superman books in forever. I honestly think that us comic fans are the ones with the hang ups when it comes to this stuff, and we sometimes unwittingly use "new readers" as a sort of scapegoat/validation.

[Ascended]

I would've assumed that the current direction of Superman would have made the character completely inaccessible, and would've made him very unpopular. However the opposite seems to be the deal. This is the most well liked I've seen mainstream Superman books in forever. I honestly think that us comic fans are the ones with the hang ups when it comes to this stuff, and we sometimes unwittingly use "new readers" as a sort of scapegoat/validation.

Agreed. Before it all hit I was one of the people here saying that DC had lost its mind and sales would crash by issue 6 because a time-lost Superman was too weird and difficult to get into.

Damned if I wasnt totally wrong.

I cant speak for Action but Superman has been easy to follow. Hell, its only brushed up on the idea of the time refugee but still managed to get the status quo across without making things any more confusing then they were to begin with.

I still maintain that its an easy status quo to work with. But this might just be me letting my desire for growth get in the way of an unbiased opinion. I like seeing things evolve, and while this is a f**ked up way of getting there it has forced the franchise forward.

[Superlad93]

I cant speak for Action but Superman has been easy to follow. Hell, its only brushed up on the idea of the time refugee but still managed to get the status quo across without making things any more confusing then they were to begin with.

Yeah I think it's ultimately really easy for writers to just straight ignore the time refugee angle after Clark gets set up as Clark Kent. The next writers could just straight up keep it moving as if Clark and Lois just started a family normally, and they'd be fine. But then you could also callback to it for new foes, friends, rivals, and locations just like you can call on the time Clark spent a thousand years in Valhalla with Wonder Woman fighting monsters. Superman's a weird guy, and the DCU is a weird place. Universes end, sun talk, and Clark fuses with with an antimatter opposite version of himself to fight a multiversal vampire. Sh!t happens. Keep it moving.