YMMV / Superman & Batman: Generations

• Angst? What Angst?: Unlike her twin, Supergirl Red (Lois Wayne) doesn't seem all that troubled by the prospect of being eleven years old in body forever.
• Complete Monster:
  • The Ultra-Humanite attacks the Metropolis World's Fair with a giant robot in 1939, intending to kill civilians until he gets $1 million. After he is stopped, he takes Lois Lane as his hostage until Batman and Superman find his lair. He reveals that he has set the Hyperglobe to blow up Metropolis, but Batman and Superman stop him. Though seemingly killed, it is later revealed he has swapped brains with the below-mentioned Lex Luthor. Years later, he exposes Lois's unborn son, Joel, to Gold Kryptonite, rendering him powerless, and manipulates him into believing that Superman stripped him of his powers. In 1979, Joel and the Ultra-Humanite attack the wedding of Bruce Wayne Jr. and Supergirl, leading to the deaths of Supergirl and Lois. Hours later, Joel also dies, because the concoction from the Humanite that gave him superpowers is ultimately fatal. In 1989, when Superman tracks him down, the Ultra-Humanite reveals he had several of his close friends and family murdered and plans to swap brains with Superman to gain his powers. When Superman stops him, it is revealed that the Ultra-Humanite has made it appear that Superman killed him in cold blood out of spite for Superman.
  • Lex Luthor is far worse than his mainstream counterpart. In 1929, he betrays his boss, Dr. Erwin Stanislaus, and has a robot wreak havoc on the city until it is stopped. In 2008, Luthor, now a brain in a robot's body and calling himself Metallo, attacks Metropolis and is stopped, but not before he detonates an EMP that causes a blackout in Metropolis. In 2025, Luthor escapes from prison and detonates a larger EMP, causing humanity to fall back into the Dark Ages temporarily, with hundreds of millions dying. In the 25th century, Luthor is freed again and goes to the Superman Museum, planting a bomb and intending to gain control of every computer grid on the planet. The bomb is contained safely, but Luthor succeeds in gaining control of every computer grid, and wages war on humanity until he is stopped.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • The emblem on Luthor's armor is Superman's S-shield flipped upside-down with black in place of red, appropriate for Superman's evil son.
  • Joel Kent's given name is likely a play on Superman's biological father Jor-El.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes : While the first two volumes were reprinted in (now long out of print) graphic novel's Generations III was for many years only available in the original issues. Finally averted with the 2021 release of a complete ominbus of the series.
• Sequelitis: The general perception is that the first book covers a lot of ground and wraps itself up nicely, meaning the second and third didn't have much to say, along with coming out around the time Byrne's skills were in full decay. While the second is seen as merely not that great, the third is the most disliked—not only for its unnecessary nature, but because it features two of Byrne's notoriously creepy Age Gap Romances.
• Squick: In Generations III, a time-traveling Superman kisses a 14-year-old Lana. Keep in mind that physically, Superman was around his 50s and was centuries old chronologically.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: It can be argued that the last half of Generations I gets a little too eager to anti-climatically kill off friends, relatives, and even children of friends of Batman and Superman for the sake of making the tale unnecessarily darker.

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