DC tends to get weaker or stronger as a whole. Like they didn't keep Flash at pre crisis speed while cutting down Superman.
Why? Because it was a mess. Not hard to write a fun story, but more difficult to create a coherent canon. There was a story where he moved the entire population of Earth. How do you factor that sort of speed into every story?
... they didn't. Stuff like that would just come and go. Very fun but when you're losing in sales to the likes of Marvel soap opera, not really a recommended direction.
Superman has regularly outsold and out muscled Thor, where the very powerful Surfer struggles to maintain a title.
He would be intangible if within his lifetime, otherwise tangible but rendered unable to alter history. If he fixes your engine, you're still late because your tire then blows, etc.
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I'm pretty sure Byrne and Wolfman said they didn't know what to do with characters that had vast powers like that on a regular basis and they were pretty much put in charge of "fixing" the character when his sales were in the toilet. In general the concept of writing characters with high power levels has become a forgotten art within western comics. At least when it comes to cape stuff. It's really more of an asian niche these days, with things like Mob Psycho and One Punch Man, DBZ, etc.
As for the Pre-Crisis stuff getting back into continuity. Even if you take a look at just his childhood, the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis are telling pretty opposite tales. Pre-Crisis he was a a full blown adventurer as a youngster, Post-Crisis he basically was ignorant of anything outside of his hometown until he was 17-18. Then you've got the matter of the Kents which imo the Post Crisis kind of drank the Batman Kool-aid about death and loss. IDK it's kind of hard to merge two timelines with some pretty fundamental differences.
Last edited by The World; 09-23-2020 at 12:19 PM.
Rules are for lesser men, Charlie - Grand Pa Joe ~ Willy Wonka & Chocolate Factory
Correct - he could time travel, but not to his own lifetime. Any time he time travels, he becomes spectral if he was already present anywhere in the universe at that time period. It's actually one of the things that really bothers me about the two Donner movies - he can't fcbfdking do that!
Still, I do miss Superman being able to time travel at will. I agree with CTTT, in that I think Superman should reference his pre-Crisis adventures like Batman sometimes did under Morrison. We got a little of that in the Rebirth era, actually, like Kal telling Bruce about the time he wore a rainbow colored Bat-Suit, to Bruce's confusion.
Grant Morrison also did something similar in his Action run. You can read a lot of "Classic" Superman stories into the in-between spaces in Morrison's run. For example, in Action Comics v2 # 8, Kal moves into Brainiac's ship and it becomes his first Fortress, but later in Action # 13, he has his normal arctic Fortress. When did he lose the space Fortress?
It was in Superman # 187, from 1966! Urko the Terrible, a gaseous being set on conquest, invaded the Fortress, forcing Superman to abandon it when he realized how it might draw alien threats!
Other stories are simply implied, like the entirety of the early Golden Age being present "in spirit" in the way Superman acts with that street level mindset, or the Silver Age in the zaniness of some of the threats Superman faces later on!
"You know the deal, Metropolis. Treat people right or expect a visit from me."
I don't agree with all of the decisions made post-Crisis but even I have to admit that some kind of attempt to make him more realistic was necessary in order for him to survive. His numbers were in the toilet and it's hard to argue that stuff like Krypto and Superboy and all of the SA stuff wasn't holding him back a little bit. I think at that time that DC only had something like 30% of the market. A year earlier DC approached Marvel to publish their books for them.
Assassinate Putin!
So there really are different things mentioned, between continuity and the powers. The power thing is a lot like David's grey Hulk in that his powers were scaled to give him a higher ceiling of challenge.
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He kind of was because the power reduction was not across the board as I recall. Superman, Wonder Woman and Kid Flash/ the Flash got a huge power reduction but I think the Green Lanterns and some others stayed about the same.
Superman at his Silver Age levels is a tough character to write. Most writers did things like have him move planets then be hurt by a giant robot. In other words, massive inconsistency. Others just threw kryptonite or magic at him constantly. The few really good writers gave him quandaries of an ethical and humanity nature that he couldn't resolve justly with a punch. But it comes down to only the very best writers being able to write him properly at those levels of power.
Power with Girl is better.
The main thing about Silver Age Superman is that most of his stories were comedies, i.e. they were humorous adventurous stories for kids and that was fine in the '50s, but when comics Post-Marvel started targeting a teenage crowd, and went for some kind of baseline realism, which is to say, superhero stories are default dramatic, then you couldn't really justify the fantasy element of the silver age anymore.
I don't care either way. Every fleischer cartoon had him struggle to pull off a feat.That's all that is needed really.Moreover,i want competent superman more than powerful one.Finaly,the character is an overdog not one punch man.He is powerful.but,ain't invincible .Goldenage atleast for starters would be great for me.
Well, you can't blame them as cool as Mob Psycho, One Punch Man, or DBZ, they are not Silver Age Superman's level crazy. I mean as strong as Ultra Instinct Goku is Silver Age Superman is just pure bullshit power and not to mention it's not that the Asian market (South Korea and Japan) loves to write OP character, but the strange market that they please love OP character because they can just self-instert to them for how bland they are. So yeah.
I don't know. I find the Fleischer struggling a bit boring. The story beats are always the hero is knocked back on his feet and then puts his back into it and triumphs. A challenge isn't really a challenge to me if the hero is always going to overcome it. I'd prefer that if you have the challenge be a 10 on the scale that Superman not find a way to achieve 11 in order to triumph. Either give me a price that Superman has to pay for getting to 11 or make him find a way to overcome the challenge that doesn't involve overpowering it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Golden Age Superman is the most powerful being in his Universe. I think it's not until Mxyzptlk that he ever meets anyone in his power class. Superman is almost a Bugs Bunny or Popeye like figure in the Golden Age.
Yes. Superboy towing a veritable galaxy of planets is not going to work today which is ironic because you could have Q or Galactus do the same thing with their "mental powers" or "cosmic powers" and it would be completely accepted because the method by which they do it is complete fantasy while Superboy with the chain is laughed at. The funniest thing is nobody necessarily dismisses the strength, speed and durability it would take, just the chain.
As a little kid, those stories were dramatic but so was the Adam West Batman. But, for the adult audience, at least the audience that still reads comics, they are too whimsical.
I wonder sometimes if it's a "chicken vs. egg" argument. I remember a debate that occurred about Spike on "Buffy" where some people contended that the Spike of later seasons was very popular and someone else argued that he was, with the people still watching the show but those people were a fraction of what the audience was at the show's height. Everybody else stopped watching.
To be sure, there was a massive drop-off of the comics audience before the changes which led to them. But I do wonder if the push towards a very deconstructionist style resulted in some people loving it but, in the long term, a greater drop-off.
Regardless, it is what it is today, a niche market where the movies, shows and merchandise are what matters.
Power with Girl is better.