People like Captain Marvel and Captain Atom can, of course, give Superman some challenge, but I'd like to see the idea that Firestorm is a match for him as well toyed with a bit.
People like Captain Marvel and Captain Atom can, of course, give Superman some challenge, but I'd like to see the idea that Firestorm is a match for him as well toyed with a bit.
Hah, Firestorm in the old Superfriends was very much a character who was "in Superman's league" as the saying goes. In one episode he turned a small asteroid into a temporary yellow sun to give Superman a power boost. It's like the opposite that JLU episode where Superman fight Captain Atom and Adam shifts his energy blasts to imitate red sun energy wavelength.
But yeah, Firestorm could beat Superman.
I would like to have all the powered super fily characters existing and living in the same universe all at the same time.
Every Bat character gets a book (to grow and proper as a character) or show up in someone's book, the super characters get created "it seems" just for the short term, then swept away as fast,never to be spoken about again on the page. DC doesn't appreciate them or want them, which is why the superman line keeps going around in circles and superman just keeps getting restarted after every big story.
The super family could be huge, and more importantly strong by now if DC showed just an ounce of caring about this line, like they did the bat line.
I think the characters could thrive if they do 2 things
- don't retread on what has been done before
- don't take away from superman himself, create something new for the character instead
Created from 2 of the greatest men,made with 2 powersets thst are both SUPER,and has 2 cool asf looks and attitudes.
I think that you make a really good point about the Superman family. In my view DC is content in investing in the Batman line because it sells the most. So they just keep going back to that. They're not seeing the bigger picture that the Superman family of books could be just as successful, if they invested in it much more.
Reading the adventures of Superman as a boy, a.k.a. Superboy, I can see why it was problematic for the publisher. The stories had to be in the past, so it wasn't possible to have crossovers with other comics--without bending the rules of time travel--and team-ups of the entire Superman Family were rare. Much easier just to create a younger clone of Superman in the present day and call him Superboy--and thus assert their claim to the trademark (which they were always in danger of losing).
But this time complication also proves to be a benefit. We get to have Clark existing in a world where he's virtually the only active super-hero. It's like how it was back in 1938, when Superman was the only game in town. That gives the creators a lot more freedom to use Superboy without worrying about him tripping over all the established super-heroes and super-villains.
That freedom also allows them to introduce various new super-heroes and super-villains that aren't part of the later universe. So they end up creating characters like Mars Boy, for Superboy to meet other powered characters as either friends or foes. And ultimately that leads to the Legion of Super-Heroes--which wouldn't be necessary if Superboy existed in a time when the Justice League, Teen Titans and Outsiders were all active.
Nature abhors a vacuum--so the lack of established fantasy characters in the world of Superboy demanded new ones to fill the void. And that's a good reason why the Superboy comics were so prolific in creating new ideas.
Yes. I really don't know what the people were thinking in 1986 when they dumped Superboy, Supergirl and Krypto. They had to know that these characters needed to continue in publication (in some form) to keep up the trademark. If you don't use a trademark, you lose it.
Short of someone (a la Marvel Comics and Captain Marvel) stealing away the trademark--they will keep using "Superboy" enough to retain ownership of that trademark. That doesn't mean they have to have a Superboy in the mainstream continuity--but they need to keep using the name somewhere (on the various reprint books they put out, for merchandise, maybe if they ever release an official SUPERBOY T.V. series box set).