What's your favorite (or least favorite) origin story?

[Sacred Knight]

Ah you just like that post because I was mean to Johns and Byrne.

I was being hyperbolic and silly there (George Carlin called it "playing the dozens") but re-reading the post they did come across as pretty douchey things to say. Apologies to misters Johns and Byrne. Neither of them should ever be allowed near Clark or his setting ever again because I *was* legit about that part, but both are quality talent I usually enjoy and respect and I'm sure they're both fine people. As long as they're not on Superman.

Hey I admitted that in a vacuum I thought MOS is a decent story, (just a bad Superman story considering the changes and their long-lasting impact) and I give it to Johns that he least likes writing the real Superman, so I'm not a total hater.

[Restingvoice]

I haven't read everything. Which one has all of Smallville knowing he's Super but decided to keep it a secret because they know he's a good kid?

I like the design of Jor-El best in Birthright and New 52. I also really like New 52 Krypton.
I like the New 52 scenario that they gave the rocket and a mutated goat to the government to cover up the track
I like Clark best drawn in Byrne. So handsome and buff. I also like that he's a jock, it explains his muscle to the commoners. That said I hate Byrne's Krypton the most. Like I get the point of the sterility of Krypton but it's just... so... uninteresting, because I like the alien side of Clark and I want to know more about Krypton. I know it's a dying planet but I don't want it to be too dead.
I think American Alien has the funniest scenes but I don't like that he came after Batman.
I like Pete Ross as the best friend, not the jerk best friend so I don't like Secret Origin. I'm also not sure about The Real Clark being that nice and shy. I feel like Secret Origin Clark is too nave. I prefer Birthright Clark or American Alien.

I don't necessarily need Luthor to be from Smallville or The Kents to be alive, but if they are I don't mind either. Neutral.
Metropolis I'm undecided on how much into the future it should be. I think it should be futuristic enough for it to be the City of Tomorrow, but I don't want it to have a flying car yet.
Military experience... don't think he needs it... haven't really read that version though

Oh and I'm okay with accidentally burning down the crops with heat vision but no accidentally killing neighbors.

So I guess overall Birthright?

Ideally though I'd have Byrne's Clark physically, American Alien Clark personality, New 52 Krypton, Jor-El and Lara, a more toned down Birthright Metropolis, New 52 young Kents when they found the rocket and Byrne's Kents in the present.

[Adekis]

New 52 is my favorite, but I also picked "Other" mostly for various pre-Crisis comics that I'm quite fond of.

[superduperman]

It's unanimous! Everyone agrees that DC needs to bring back the New 52 origin.

[Sacred Knight]

Well at this point I'd rather it be used on a new incarnation of Superman entirely. It'd be a waste to apply it now in the main line considering all that's going on.

[Vordan]

It's unanimous! Everyone agrees that DC needs to bring back the New 52 origin.

Did we all just drive off all the Post Crisis fans over the years ? I know some people who do love Johns Secret Origin and there’s plenty who will tell you Byrne’s Superman origin is the best one there ever was, so can’t take this poll as representative of all Superfans. I want to know what the brave soul who voted for Miller’s Year One liked about it so much that they chose that as their favorite lol.

[SiegePerilous02]

Well at this point I'd rather it be used on a new incarnation of Superman entirely. It'd be a waste to apply it now in the main line considering all that's going on.

I don't know that there is anything in the current canon preventing it from working aside from the living Kents.

Which does make DC's determination to run from it very frustrating. There is nothing about him being married to Lois and having Jon in the present that prevents New 52 T-shirt and jeans Superman existing in his younger days.

[Sacred Knight]

Oh other than the Kents it could work, my opinion against it is based purely on my own biases/feelings about this current direction as opposed to objective workability. Plus I'd love to get a situation where his origin were reinstated for an incarnation of a character and it continued from there naturally.

[SiegePerilous02]

Oh other than the Kents it could work, my opinion against it is based purely on my own biases/feelings about this current direction as opposed to objective workability. Plus I'd love to get a situation where his origin were reinstated for an incarnation of a character and it continued from there naturally.

Oh yeah, I get what you mean. I knew you meant that DC's current direction didn't allow for it. I just generally don't get why they feel that way.

[superduperman]

Did we all just drive off all the Post Crisis fans over the years ? I know some people who do love Johns Secret Origin and there’s plenty who will tell you Byrne’s Superman origin is the best one there ever was, so can’t take this poll as representative of all Superfans. I want to know what the brave soul who voted for Miller’s Year One liked about it so much that they chose that as their favorite lol.

I think MOS was a very basic origin that served a functional purpose but it's not very interesting. I have my own issues with it having nothing to do with what's in it necessarily. Johns origin just tried too hard to be everything to everyone. And failed on almost all counts. The first issue of Miller's YO was...okay if you ignore the dialogue. After that it goes downhill quickly. BR was both a good origin and a good story. New 52 actually made an effort to try to update the GA origin but Morrison's meta stuff gets old quickly for me. All Star just seemed like kind of a cop out dodge to me.

[Quinlan58]

"Man and Superman" (which oddly enough hasn't been mentioned even when all the origins were listed), with Birthright in an extremely close second place (it really is the better origin in many ways, I just vibe with the tone and sensibilities of Man and Superman more)

[Thor-Ul]

Personally I like more the Morrsion's All star on epage origin. It resumes the essential aspect of the origins in four sentences and four pages and the rest are additives than can change from one retelling to another but from one origin to another those are essentials.
Each retelling of the origin add or take elements than can be product of their times (as the rescue of the space plane in MOS or the battle against the automatons chopters in BR), so most of them are about how the story is being told.
Maybe my least favorite choice is Secret Origin, too much nostagic driven.

[Jim Kelly]

I like the three books that Ralph Cosentino did on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They do what I wish other origin stories would do--coherent versions of the origins that synthesize the best aspects of all the origins, without any divergent elements.



What bugs me about so many origins is that each writer/artist team wants to put their own stamp on the character. It's not their character--the origin shouldn't have to change to suit the writer. It should be universal.

[JBatmanFan05]

I like the three books that Ralph Cosentino did on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They do what I wish other origin stories would do--coherent versions of the origins that synthesize the best aspects of all the origins, without any divergent elements.

Thanks for posting that. Never saw that. Despite writing for 2-5 year olds, he did a fine job, and beat many origin tellings told for adults. He did synthesize well, and avoided many controversies (like whether the Kents lived or died before Clark went to Metropolis, Superboy, other Pre vs Post Crisis disputes, adaptation vs adaptation disputes, etc).

What bugs me about so many origins is that each writer/artist team wants to put their own stamp on the character. It's not their character--the origin shouldn't have to change to suit the writer. It should be universal.

I generally agree with this core contention. Obviously though, it's a tad impossible to totally not do an origin that bears some of the writer's "stamp" (personal vision of the character). But I agree that if writers or editors aimed for universal more often, like this Consentino guy, they'd get better results.

[exile001]

Did we all just drive off all the Post Crisis fans over the years ?

I'm right here! I just see all the hate as white noise and ignore it. In the same way I don't argue against the love for pre-Crisis Superman, which mostly does nothing for me.

We're all Superman fans here, I don't think we all need to agree on anything more than Superman is awesome and don't be a jerk to other Superman fans.