Superman Rogues Gallery Appreciation 2022

[Thor-Ul]

Random thoughts on the villains of the Bendis' era:

Rogal Zaar - What more needs to be said about this guy? Whatever Bendis' plans for his true origin and relation to Clark, ultimately the "real destroyer of Krypton" just didn't leave much of a positive impression or memory on the audience.

The sooner we forget/retcon him out, the better will be.

Invisible Mafia - Really interesting concept and way of working organized crime into Metropolis in a way that makes sense for a city housing Superman, but the culmination felt a tad anti-climactic. Not sure if it's a better alternative to Intergang.

One of the best ideas and I really liked. How good could that worked.

Leone - Points for being a cool-headed, female, crime boss in Metropolis who also runs the Daily Planet...not that Bendis has enough time to really do anything with it before she's exposed. And, also, her coming from another world kind of just came and went. And she got away, so all that build up kind of felt squandered.

Leone was a perfect character and had clear motivations. Make her from earth 3 was indeed from nowhere, and derailed her character.

Uber Parasite - Did this really need to exist aside from providing a (not very memorable) fight at the end of Bendis' final Action arc? He literally comes out of nowhere. I guess I appreciate the attempt to bring in the OG Parasite back.

I have to confess than I had forget him.

Red Cloud - Probably the best of the lot. The idea of a purely cloud based villain that Superman can't punch or defeat with his normal powerset and works at the same job as him and is a rival reporter to Lois is actually a pretty compelling dynamic, and some more diversity to Metropolis in terms of gender and racial variety. The moment where she suddenly grows a conscience and helps Superman against the Legion of Doom only to turn around and then kill Melody to screw with Superman was a bit much, but at least Bendis didn't redeem her into a good guy.

Another good contribution of Bendis to Superman world. And Frontier has described her situation perfectly. Melody was a far better character and he just took her out just like that.

Leviathan - A character Bendis really tried to make into a big deal and as this "ideological" Big Bad of a character only hardcore comic fans remembered and who honestly felt like he was trying as hard as Bendis was to make himself seem relevant.

And another concept than well deal could had been better. But Bendis ended so abruptly. (Also, in Shadow War everything set in the Leviathan era has been undone, by the way: all the secret agencies are working again, Talia is back on control, and so).

Luthor - Not really the most memorable version of Luthor. Part of that is Bendis having to work with Apex Lex which doesn't leave him much to work with beyond "trying to kill Superman", Bendis' Lex is more interesting the way characters talk around him than at him, but him and the Legion of Doom just become the typical Bendis talking heads.

Bad timming, I suppose.

Synmar - I'm still not quite sure what this characters' deal is because a lot of Bendis' ideas about him feel half-formed or incomplete. I feel like Bendis was trying to go for a villain Superman couldn't communicate with or understand...but then Superman starts communicating with him and he has some vague, generic, motivations. And I don't think the parallel's to Superman's journey were well-developed. I just don't think Bendis is ever the right choice to develop a properly alien culture. Now, give it to Al Ewing...

I am still trying to understand why Synmar hated Superman. It was because he was given powers to imitate Superman? Maybe he was angry because his people didn't gave him a cape or something like that.

Dr. Glory - Does anybody care about this lady? She's basically just the representative for Bendis having STAR Labs be shady and incompetent across every book he's writing for some reason. I don't even know what her real motivation is other than shady science. And maybe she got away after everything? Who knows.

Female evil scientist. Maybe we need more of those. Oolong Island is a barrel of testosterone.

Xanadoth - Haven't we already had a magic Big Bad for Superman before? Nevertheless I appreciate the intent and design if not the execution.

Design was interesting... but it ends there. And that must be more merit of the penciller than from Bendis itself.

On a final evaluation, the contributions of Bendis in Action were better than his work on the Superman title. On the rogues side, at least.

[Vordan]

Random thoughts on the villains of the Bendis' era:

Rogal Zaar - What more needs to be said about this guy? Whatever Bendis' plans for his true origin and relation to Clark, ultimately the "real destroyer of Krypton" just didn't leave much of a positive impression or memory on the audience.

By far the biggest miss of the Bendis era. Dude was boring from his design to how he was used. Even Superlad’s theory that he was meant to be Kal’s half brother didn’t make him more interesting to me

Invisible Mafia - Really interesting concept and way of working organized crime into Metropolis in a way that makes sense for a city housing Superman, but the culmination felt a tad anti-climactic. Not sure if it's a better alternative to Intergang.

We should have both, and use the 100 as well. There should multiple criminal organizations and power players in Metropolis instead of just having everything tie back to Lex or Intergang. I like having multiple competing villainous factions working against each other as much as Superman. Really like the Invisible Mafia and it would be cool to have Red Cloud come back and work for them. I still think Bendis made a mistake outing her, but her status quo really works best with a Superman who still has a secret identity.

[Thor-Ul]

By far the biggest miss of the Bendis era. Dude was boring from his design to how he was used. Even Superlad’s theory that he was meant to be Kal’s half brother didn’t make him more interesting to me

From where somebody could had invented that?

We should have both, and use the 100 as well. There should multiple criminal organizations and power players in Metropolis instead of just having everything tie back to Lex or Intergang. I like having multiple competing villainous factions working against each other as much as Superman. Really like the Invisible Mafia and it would be cool to have Red Cloud come back and work for them. I still think Bendis made a mistake outing her, but her status quo really works best with a Superman who still has a secret identity.

That would had been something interesting to see.

[The Frog Bros]

Random thoughts on the villains of the Bendis' era:

Leone - Points for being a cool-headed, female, crime boss in Metropolis who also runs the Daily Planet...not that Bendis has enough time to really do anything with it before she's exposed. And, also, her coming from another world kind of just came and went. And she got away, so all that build up kind of felt squandered.

Yeah, I liked the potential for inter-dimensional plot lines near the end of the run and thought her having the 1938 AC car was kinda cool. Would have been neat to see this all fleshed out.

Red Cloud - Probably the best of the lot. The idea of a purely cloud based villain that Superman can't punch or defeat with his normal powerset and works at the same job as him and is a rival reporter to Lois is actually a pretty compelling dynamic, and some more diversity to Metropolis in terms of gender and racial variety. The moment where she suddenly grows a conscience and helps Superman against the Legion of Doom only to turn around and then kill Melody to screw with Superman was a bit much, but at least Bendis didn't redeem her into a good guy.

Really liked this character but for me she was severely hampered by the art near the end. When drawn as, you know, an actual "cloud" it was pretty great. Romita, however, drew her as less amorphous and more like a block figure resembling a big red tree with infinite limbs. Made the character seem less cool (for me anyway).

Luthor - Not really the most memorable version of Luthor. Part of that is Bendis having to work with Apex Lex which doesn't leave him much to work with beyond "trying to kill Superman", Bendis' Lex is more interesting the way characters talk around him than at him, but him and the Legion of Doom just become the typical Bendis talking heads.

Ah yes, the Year of the Villain stuff...

[Frontier]

Well, spoilers for Young Justice:

spoilers:

Kneel Before the Line of Zod! As voiced by Phil Morris!

end of spoilers

[Vordan]

Well, spoilers for Young Justice:

spoilers:

Kneel Before the Line of Zod! As voiced by Phil Morris!

end of spoilers

Very interested to see how this plays out, looks like they’re taking some cues from the Krypton show.

[Vordan]

Henshaw and Jon will tussle in Dark Crisis.

[Frontier]

Very interested to see how this plays out, looks like they’re taking some cues from the Krypton show.

Definitely in terms of the look I think they're channeling Colin Salmon.

Good thing Conner's shirt blew up so he didn't get to see the House of El crest...

Henshaw and Jon will tussle in Dark Crisis.

Is it wrong that I kind of want to see Jon get wrecked by Henshaw?

[SuperX]

Definitely in terms of the look I think they're channeling Colin Salmon.

Good thing Conner's shirt blew up so he didn't get to see the House of El crest...

Is it wrong that I kind of want to see Jon get wrecked by Henshaw?

Finally we know who was in the "bubble" the whole time, it was a black version of lor zod, that follows the awesome zod from Kryptons lead.

Oh I see zod trying to kill him quick if he knows who he was made from, hell if he finds out he is a clone he might try to kill him quick.

Anybody else see Conner and Lor battling it out now? Conner better bring something extra to the table, cause I'm sure lor has the full kryptonian powerset.


Damn that is great art, and Henshaw should be able to wreck the piss out of Jon. Jon is nowhere near his prime when he can use his AMP ability to overpower guys like him. It's really cool seeing Henshaw again. Maybe Conner will come and "try" to save Jon, maybe together they can beat him

[scary harpy]

Was this already discussed?

Gilbert Gottfried played a genius toymaker called Nick Knack on the live action television series "Superboy".

https://www.looper.com/831696/the-dc...helped-create/

[Vordan]

Was this already discussed?

Gilbert Godfrey played a genius toymaker called Nick Knack on the live action television series "Superboy".

https://www.looper.com/831696/the-dc...helped-create/

Funny how people who participated in Superman productions at one point in their life tend to come back for more stuff later on (like Cryer).

[Vordan]

Zod having a Z on his chest is so dumb… but I can’t help loving it. Does make the whole insistence that Superman’s shield is not an S look silly though. Guess we need to just establish that the Z is actually an ancient Kryptonian symbol for fear?

[Frontier]

Zod having a Z on his chest is so dumb… but I can’t help loving it. Does make the whole insistence that Superman’s shield is not an S look silly though. Guess we need to just establish that the Z is actually an ancient Kryptonian symbol for fear?

Hasn't that been the House Zod crest for a while now? I don't think they came up with that on their own.

[Vordan]

Hasn't that been the House Zod crest for a while now? I don't think they came up with that on their own.

Oh it started with the New 52, I’m just commenting on the general idea of the Zod family crest also just happens to look like the letter Z lol.

[SuperX]

So what do you think the deal is thst zod is stuck in the PZ when Lor is out being Darkseids field leader?

Wonder if zod can touch things to in there or its just Conner thst can

Lor is perfectly aged to fight Conner, so you know it's gonna happen, I feel bad for YJ Conner,can't have the full kryptonian powerset and can't have his orignal power TTK to fend of Lor