Read something in the "My Adventures with Superman" thread and thought the response fitted better here:
Kara Zor-El's existence weakens Superman's deal as a character as the alienated "Last Son of Krypton". However, she also vastly enriches the wider franchise and allows for many stories that couldn't be told with just Superman alone.
My answer to that is she doesn't have to be from Krypton to be Supergirl. There are other ways to keep Superman's connection to Krypton present in the stories without establishing that other people than him also survived. I'd rather they kept Superman unique and just found other ways to do Supergirl and other characters.
If his rocketship didn't blow up (I think earlier origins showed it blowing up on impact) and the Kents kept it around--then there would be a computer system on board that would have in its memory banks a wealth of information about Krypton and its science. I would prefer that Clark knew about that all along--that the Kents didn't keep it a secret from their young son and they let him know exactly how they found him. The rocketship's computer could be his "Super-Teacher from Krypton." And that way you don't retcon any of him being the last survivor of a doomed planet.
Of course you can have other heroes eclipse Superman in certain areas. Heck, he doesn't even have to be the absolute strongest being on earth, he just has to be at the top. Nothing about his stories requires him to outclass everyone in the world.
Not in strength, speed or invulnerability. Those three are the core powerset for Superman. Its funny how Flash has to be fastest but Superman can't be strongest because reasons?
Superman isn't supposed to be jack of all trades, master of none. He is the man of Tomorrow, the absolute proof of absolute power not corrupting the last son of a doomed planet because he is the best man possible. The best of humanity. Otherwise he is just preacherman aka post Crisis Superman, he talks big but is just another hero among dozens of heroes, he is neither the first hero, nor the most powerful but he is certainly the most preachy.
Last edited by Superfan90; 05-31-2021 at 12:05 PM.
I never said he "couldn't be the strongest". I said he doesn't have to. You can't just dictate a rule without justifying it.
Superman has to be one of the strongest because he is a company icon that symbolizes power. It's the same reason why Batman has to be one of the best fighters and one of the smartest and richest of the DC universe but doesn't actually have to be the best fighter, nor the smartest person, nor the richest.
And Superman's speed definitely isn't crucial to the character. He has to be fast, but all of his iconic images are about his strength and flight, not his speed.
I gave you the justification, Superman needs to be the strongest because its how he was envisioned with and is the core of the character that he is the ultimate human, the biggest character flaw of humans (Absolute power corrupts absolutely) does not apply to him. You can't have that unless you have a Superman who is the strongest, most powerful man on Earth.Batman doesn't works on that concepts and he is the greatest detective on Earth, not greatest fighter or whatever. Its like calling Hulk the strongest one there is and then revealing that he isn't because its unfair to Hercules or Thor. Hulk is the strongest being on Earth because he is designed from the start to be so.
Superman has to be one of the strongest because he is a company icon that symbolizes power. It's the same reason why Batman has to be one of the best fighters and one of the smartest and richest of the DC universe but doesn't actually have to be the best fighter, nor the smartest person, nor the richest.But you can't even find many sources calling Superman strongest because its unfair to Wonder Woman or whatever character.
And Superman's speed definitely isn't crucial to the character. He has to be fast, but all of his iconic images are about his strength and flight, not his speed.
It doesn't matter that its not as iconic as his strength, he is the archetype for speedsters, not Flash. Because he came first.
If Superman's strength was dialed back to just being "lifting strength", it would fix a lot of the "too powerful" complaints.
I know that's not necessarily how strength works, but it's comics, so logic doesn't matter.
When Infinite Frontier fails for Superman, they'll once again turn to Geoff Johns to fix things.
Controversial because I know plenty, myself included, aren't crazy about Johns' Superman. And others, again myself included, would probably rather see another veteran like Waid tapped to fix the mess in such a situation. But either guy could at the very least right the ship in the most general of terms. But Johns is usually the guy they go to when they need to fix something they've otherwise irrevocably broken. See the upcoming JSA reboot. So I see Johns' Doomsday Clock ending to end up rather prophetic whether it intended to be or not. By 2023 at the latest, he'll be in charge of a major "Superman Returns" type event.
Last edited by Sacred Knight; 05-31-2021 at 12:29 PM.
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
That logic is totally wrong. Him being the perfect human doesn't mean he has to be better than all the superhumans. In fact, Steve Rogers represents the exact same thing about absolute power not corrupting and he is outclassed by many superheroes.
Hulk has been defeated by Thor many times in terms of raw strength. None of those moments made Hulk into a lesser threat.
And Superman isn't an archetype for strength. Again, you can't just say he is and make it so. Nobody thinks of speed when talking about Superman. He's fast, but he isn't who you think of when talking about speed. If he was an archetype for speed then people would call him a speedster, bit they don't.