Would you accept a villain destroying Krypton instead of natural causes?

[greatmetropolitan]

I much prefer Krypton dying due to natural disaster or of effectively planetary old age, as I firmly believe Superman should have as little tragedy in his past and backstory as possible. Krypton being destroyed by an outside force means his home planet didn't die, it was murdered. Genocide should not be part of Superman's backstory.

Similarly, I much prefer iterations of Superman where he donned the costume before Pa Kent dies - Superman should not be driven to be a hero because of tragedy or to honour anyone's memory or dying wish, he's a hero because Clark Kent doesn't now how to not be a hero. Everything he does helps someone. Clark is Superman because that's who he is, not because of Tragic Past Event X. (I think he's one of the very few heroes who should be like that, btw. I'm fine with plenty of heroes having tragic backstories, just not Superman.)

[Jon Clark]

I prefer it being a simple natural disaster. The K.I.S.S principle should be applied to most parts of an origin. The Waynes were killed in a simple mugging- no conspiracies. A random bolt of lightning just happens to hit those chemicals in Barry's lab. And Krypton just died for impersonal reasons.

If you really wanted to make it someone's fault I'd grudgingly accept Zod having either done it in spite or it being a doomsday weapon (ala Byrne) that activates unintentionally after Zod is stopped.

I'm half-surprised that the movie didn't decide Jor-El blew the planet up just to make his (flawed) prediction accurate. Just to show us that no one is really heroic.

[Vanguard-01]

I'm half-surprised that the movie didn't decide Jor-El blew the planet up just to make his (flawed) prediction accurate. Just to show us that no one is really heroic.

Considering that the DCEU films are rife with examples of people being heroic, I really fail to see how that's a message that Snyder or anyone else would want to convey.

[Adekis]

Personally, I dislike the idea. I prefer the global-warming-applicability that comes with a death of Krypton's own creation and the council's inability to accept for political reasons. It's a good parable to work into the origin.

[magha_regulus]

I prefer the natural disaster route, and maybe Brainiac interfering or tampering with the presentation of Jor-El's data.

[Coal Tiger]

A villain being responsible for Krypton blowing up is frankly a terrible idea. At best, you could say that Brainiac suppressed the data and the research showing that Krypton blowing up was imminent. Putting a villain at the heart of Superman's origin is bad for the character.

[JackDaw]

No.

First of all my gut feeling is that present day writers should concentrate on producing good new stories, not pissing on the stories of the original creators. The suggested alteration is a massive departure from the existing mythology, it would completely re-write Jor-el's story.

And secondly the idea of an advanced society continually pillaging their world regardless of long term consequences is more relevant than ever. It's exactly what we're doing today to our own Earth.

[Adekis]

No.

First of all my gut feeling is that present day writers should concentrate on producing good new stories, not pissing on the stories of the original creators. The suggested alteration is a massive departure from the existing mythology, it would completely re-write Jor-el's story.

And secondly the idea of an advanced society continually pillaging their world regardless of long term consequences is more relevant than ever. It's exactly what we're doing today to our own Earth.

Agreed for the most part! But my inner mega-nerd feels compelled to say that in "the original creators'" version, Krypton died of old age, not resource-pillaging. I think the latter is a much better reason for Krypton's destruction though.

[JackDaw]

Agreed for the most part! But my inner mega-nerd feels compelled to say that in "the original creators'" version, Krypton died of old age, not resource-pillaging. I think the latter is a much better reason for Krypton's destruction though.

Your "inner nerd" is right, of course.

I suppose if there has to be some future re-working of Superman's origin story, I could go along with the "resource pillaging" modification of original creators story...it would be easy that way to maintain thrust of Jor-El's role, and might indeed explain better why others were so hostile to his predictions, so reluctant to accept them.

But it would be difficult...I think...to put Krypton's doom down to a super villain without under-mining Jor-El. And positively shudder at idea of writing as Jor-El bringing about destruction to prove himself right!i

[Mister BoMan]

No, not really. We have Batman whose parents was killed by Joe Chill or a unknown killer( in some stories) and Barry Allen's mom killed by Thawne, so I rather not have a villain destroying Krypton. I prefer the classic view or Krypton being destroyed bypillaging their resources.

[Sacred Knight]

If that villain is Brainiac, then yes. Otherwise no.

[Adekis]

But it would be difficult...I think...to put Krypton's doom down to a super villain without under-mining Jor-El. And positively shudder at idea of writing as Jor-El bringing about destruction to prove himself right!i

Agreed completely! Er, has anyone ever done that? Blamed it on Jor himself? I don't think I've read one that does, but there's a ton of Superman origin tweaks out there I've never read..

[Dispenser Of Truth]

No, and it has always been a profoundly stupid idea in all of its various incarnations. It's right up there with Ghost Jor-El in terms of Missing The Fucking Point.

[Flash Gordon]

No, it entirely misses the point. Plus, an advanced society dooming themselves by pillaging their own world is more relevant now more than ever. It is actually what is happening to our wonderful planet Earth.

[K. Jones]

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is that it's a little more complicated - firstly, it has to be a villain WORTHY of being the one who destroyed Krypton. You can't just have that be their big claim to fame, and hey, now they're coming to Earth, too, because screw Superman apparently, and then that's their only story function, they are boring otherwise, they're strong as heck at first then Superman beats them, and pow, they go the route of Doomsday, Imperiex, and all the other one-hit wonder characters.

There's also the importance of the environmentalism/science run amok/patrician arrogance aspect of the Kryptonians themselves, who destroyed their own planet and sealed their own fate. That's a beautiful and poetic thing and we don't want to lose that. Now, a villain can be involved - a villain could have sped it along, influenced certain Kryptonians, a villain can be neck deep in the thick of the events that led to Krypton's destruction - as long as he's just helping move things along, but he isn't just like "And then I PERSONALLY BLEW UP KRYPTON MYSELF WITH NO HELP."

So that's all - if a villain can meet the expectations of being both "1. A good villain, with an interesting thing to say about Superman, and 2. Not diminishing from the arrogant stupidity of the Kryptonian rulers themselves", then bam, sure, go for it. For my money, I like both Brainiac's involvement (knowing it's coming, perhaps helping it along, collecting information and Kandor and skedaddling) and Vyndktvx's involvement (he threatened Krypton with the Multitude but was thwarted by Jor-El, but may have some slight involvement in a Fifth Dimensional, not strictly linear sequence of events kinda way).