Controversial Superman Opinions

[dumbduck]

Just adding my agreement to those who say that Supes would get no better treatment at Marvel.

DC and Marvel AFAIK are pratically cousin companies. A lot of talent goes back and fort across them. COIE, maybe the most important reboot ever, was made by DC/Marvel guys Perez and Wolfman, and Marvel men Miller and Byrne.

Many crossovers over the years, and even after the relationship got colder due to the 'pornstar' comments, talent still intermingled.

This means it's an illusion thinking that Supes would get this 'alien' pool of talent that would look at him completely differently over there.

It's also an illusion thinking that writers who make great Superman clones and pastiches would write a great Superman. Those clones have a great advantadge over Supes: They are not Superman. They don't have the decades of cultural, political, jingoistic... this diffuse antipathy that the whole industry has for Supes.

A writer who writes a great Blue Marvel, or Hyperion, or even anti-heroes to villains like Gladiator or Sentry... the moment they start writing Superman... poof. Dust. Mediocre Superman. We would get lucky if Marvel simply didn't leech a Batman like character with kryptonite in their pockets on Supes. That's my theory at least.

Finally, Supes is so ridiculous with his system of weaknesses and handicaps to his powers that we wouldn't be able to complain too much. Compared to Marvel characters he's completely obsolete. Any midling energy manipulator would drain him. Any beginner psionics meta would control him.

IMO.

DC should bring back Golden Age Superman. It would be awesome to have an outside of continuity series with Superman having adventures back in the 1930's. Reboot action comics Nro. 1. Modern art and writing style but a 1930's setting with 1930's powerset. Crime, racism, war, home violence, workplace discrimination, bigotry, I mean the ugly 1930's. And they should make it so a year in Superman's world equals a year in ours. So characters get to grow old, quit their jobs, get new ones, get married, get divorced and eventually die after having children and stuff.

Yes! Great idea. I want that.

[Thor2014]

I enjoyed Jeph Loeb's work with Superman and I really miss EMG drawing Supes.

[Johnny Thunders!]

Superman is a super genius, Lex level. I think Superman should be able to time travel under his own power, and if he has to, outspeed the Flash in a must do situation.

[Francisco]

You know? I actually like this idea!

People keep talking about needing to power Superman down in order to make him more relatable. Problem is, when they try to do it in the main continuity, the fans get real tired of it real tired of it really fast. A standalone story in the style of his Golden Age run may be just the thing to take away the extreme power and just focus on the parts of Superman's personality and motivations that really matter: his status as a champion of the downtrodden.

Done right, I could see this book being THE thing that helps people fall in love with Superman all over again and recognize that it's not his power levels that make him special, it's what he represents.

Seriously, DC! Get ON this one already!

The way I see it you can power Superman down as long as he stays a competent hero. The problem comes when he is powered down not only physically but also mentally. If you're going to make him weaker and less physically imposing you need to also make him a clever guy able to plan or improvise his way out of difficult situations. (Just like Spidey/Bats/Cap etc)

1930's Supes would be "da bomb" done like that.

[stephens2177]

When is the last time Superman was the obvious most powerful hero on earth? As in stronger than Billy,faster than Barry,cause I wouldn't mind DC doing this,even though I know ppl would.lose their shit if they did.

[Francisco]

When is the last time Superman was the obvious most powerful hero on earth? As in stronger than Billy,faster than Barry,cause I wouldn't mind DC doing this,even though I know ppl would.lose their shit if they did.

I wouldn't mind if he was portrayed as the most capable.

[Kuwagaton]

Being the most powerful was never say, being faster than Barry Allen. It also never meant always winning.

[stephens2177]

So the answer was never,or a very very long time,thanks guys really.

[superduperman]

DC should bring back Golden Age Superman. It would be awesome to have an outside of continuity series with Superman having adventures back in the 1930's. Reboot action comics Nro. 1. Modern art and writing style but a 1930's setting with 1930's powerset. Crime, racism, war, home violence, workplace discrimination, bigotry, I mean the ugly 1930's. And they should make it so a year in Superman's world equals a year in ours. So characters get to grow old, quit their jobs, get new ones, get married, get divorced and eventually die after having children and stuff.

Sounds a lot like Earth 38. Which was based on John Byrne's Generations books. In that one, the kids of Superman and Batman took over for them as time went on.

[Ascended]

When is the last time Superman was the obvious most powerful hero on earth? As in stronger than Billy,faster than Barry,cause I wouldn't mind DC doing this,even though I know ppl would.lose their shit if they did.

Actually, the last time we saw Clark at those levels was Lobdell's New52. He had some stupid crazy feats in that run, and then Doomed saw him survive a black hole and spend two months in deep space (no prep time! Eat it Bats!) traveling at FTL speeds. Dude fought a physically manifested temporal paradox and kicked its ass (twice); there's no doubt he was the top dog by miles.

Being the most powerful was never say, being faster than Barry Allen. It also never meant always winning.

But this is also true. "Most powerful" doesn't mean "best at everything," it means most capable and competent. Even post-Lobdell Clark wasn't faster than Barry, wasn't as skilled a fighter as Diana, etc.

[Jim Kelly]

Superman was most powerful in 1967 in SUPERMAN No. 199 (August '67): "Superman's Race With the Flash!" on sale June 20th, 1967.



The Flash was also much more powerful back then (even though he didn't have the Speed Force) and you could say his speed was equal to the Man of Steel's--on the ground. But Superman could fly and he could travel through time under his own power without need of a Cosmic Treadmill. And the Man of Tomorrow had all these other powers that the Fastest Man Alive didn't have.

Even being fast, Barry would still have gotten himself killed if he tried to speed through a nuclear blast. The Caped Kryptonian could speed through a nuclear blast and feel the better for it, as it would be like a refreshing sauna for him.

When Superman raced the Flash around the Earth, there were all sorts of conditions placed on the two contestants. Yes, the Scarlet Speedster could control all his molecules--which I don't think even the Metropolis Marvel could do so well--yet, had Superman been able to use all his other powers, there's no way Barry could have won in an all out race to the outer limits.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I don't know if he was ever most powerful but he never seems second best. Mon El, Validus, Mxyzptlk, Superman had equals or betters but he never seemed outclassed. I think of it this way, where did Siegel go after Superman, the Spectre! So that to me says where Superman ranked.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Controversial opinion: Superman is a very underrated character that only a few people really get.

[Agniwolf]

Controversial opinion: Superman is a very underrated character that only a few people really get.

and i will add more on that

some people who accompany him for a long time still dont get him even with loads of references under their possession

and before someone points out, im too green to say i "get"

[dumbduck]

I guess these are pretty common opinions, althought many real Supes fans are against them:

Kryptonite and Red Sun radiation weaknesses have to go. I've seen the arguments why since the 1st time I lurked in any kind of comic book forum and I'm pretty sure most fans know them.

Superman has to be the 'master of the suns', any sun, red, yellow, blue. This establishes his 'alphaness' amongst kryptonians the same way Batman fans want his overall alphaness in his franchise and Wondy fans want hers.

It's in the same way that the Flashe(s) are the masters of the speedforce.

This is to be established with him learning to block, then convert and absorb kryptonite and red-sun radiation.

This means that other kryptonians still have the weakness, so mr Bats can have his 'I'm awesome' button still present but not at the cost of the Superman character/overall franchise.

I tolerated the 'SuperFlare' as I thought it would be the 1st step in this direction, Clark learning with Diana's help to better control his own powers. If that was not the case, then it's just another weakness. Something Superman *really* doesn't need.

Different colors of sun don't weaken him, they change his powers so he needs to adapt on how to use them.

Blue sun still makes him stronger.



The Superman/Batman friendship has been damaging Superman since 1986.

The Superman/Wonder Woman relationship is extremely important - For Superman - the character, the brand. I don't presume it's as important for Wonder Woman. It's not sexism: I wish it was as important for her, but I think that more Wondy fans don't like Supes than Supes fans don't like Wondy.

Superman, even if he's the 1st hero, needs a well established, solid, canon training period. That such a thing was never detailed post 86s origins is just one more element of the damage of the 'farmboy' concept.