Originally Posted by
Kuwagaton
Maybe that's due to the weird luck of most of those things just not being as loved. Like the alternative to growing up with Alfred got to die off whereas Superboy is about as popular as growing up and not being Superboy. Is anyone out there fighting for amnesiac Catwoman, or if the hooker thing is out is anyone sore?
As far as identity and morality go: ten years before the Miller/Grant Batman was the Bob Haney Batman, whose subtle differencess in life produced a completely different character. Ten years before Byrne/Stern? Guys like Bates were virtually writing the same character by comparison, just through different circumstances. If I show you a Swan story from 1978 vs 1988 you would probably not be able to tell based on anything but page quality.
When it comes to fan divides, all I can think of is this Op Ivy line: "I'm in this prison you built for you." If your favorite creators do Superman I don't think you'll really care about those details, just as a story you don't like can pop up anywhere. If they sat down with five fans they would get five different preferences based on something you could work through with any origin anyway, and then they would get angry letters from a sixth later.