Superman General

So I was reading an old Teen Titans comic from the early 80's, and there just happened to a be preview for a He Man series DC was doing at the time, and just like with the Zoo Crew, Superman takes a hop over to another dimension — aka, Eternia — which he just happens to have been to before. Or, in other words, Eternia was essentially part of the DC Multiverse, and should technically be part of it once again thanks to Convergence. Just thought it a fun little bit to point out.

edited 16th Jul '15 8:21:33 PM by kkhohoho

It's been part of it for a while. there was a crossover and I think Adam's mom lives on Earth-0

"The New 52 had Darkseid's first appearance showing him getting his ass kicked by the Justice League in their first team up, which led to fears of Villain Decay...until his personal comic came out during villain's month, and it was revealed that after his first defeat, he systematically invaded other versions of Earth specifically to hunt down and destroy the Justice Leagues of those worlds. At the end of the comic, there's an entire room full of Superman corpses."

Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but I'm looking for an image or scan of said room of superman corpses. If one could even give me more specific terms to google for, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

edited 20th Jul '15 2:34:03 AM by Flaminghello

This it?◊

Alternate realities sure are convenient.

Yes, thank you so much.

Any alternate continuities will always be conveniently weaker than the main ones.

Anyway, hadn't Marvel already done this with the Marques of Death? Who jumped around dimensions killing all alternate Fantastic Fours just so he could show Doom he was better than him? And then, of course, we have Spider-Verse...

RE post 951: I'm not sure, but I think that was the first appearance of the Prince Adam He-Man. Prior to that, in all of the He-Man mini comics included with the merchandise, He-Man was this barbarian warrior-hero with a magic harness that increased his strength and one half of the Power Sword (Skeletor had the other half) that formed the key to Castle Greyskull. Apparently, anywhere Superman goes, hero types get secret identities...

I've been thinking about a lot of the criticisms I often see leveled at Superman, my own included, and I was wondering if I could do a sort of translation, since I find a lot of them to be valid, but not precisely worded to address the actual issues. So, without further ado:

"He's overpowered." => "He's a boring fighter." Now, flying bricks are notoriously difficult to write a proper fightscene for, and at hight power levels, it's simply unclear whether any move will accomplish anything, what the thresholds and limits are. It's like a wrestling match where one fighter is always no selling, until the success of any move is more or less arbitrary.

"He's unrelatable." => "He's deified." Face it, when half their stories have some sort of religious theme going on, and are titled to match, it's difficult to argue against DC marketing treating its main heroes as gods. Thing is, gods are unrelatable. It's rather disingenuous to complain about people not being able to connect with your characters, when you've deliberately made them distant and untouchable by mere mortals.

"He's boring." => "He's stilted." As the guy's shtick has become being a sort of walking moral compass for everyone to follow, this often has a chilling effect on writers unable to present him as anything but a 50's TV dad, all prim and proper, with very little zest. The aforementioned deification is also detrimental to the idea of him taking a day off and enjoying himself, which is when a lot of characters get fleshed out.

"He's preachy." => Um, ditto. The two above points frequently turn the poor guy into a mouthpiece, regardless of whether he'd logically have any reason to rant on the topic at hand. Not to mention stories like What's so funny... or Kingdom Come which are deliberate self-aggrandizing jabs at the competition. Not a graceful attitude, to say the least.

Finally, the frequent rebuttal that he harkens to some ancient idealism is itself somewhat off the mark, as his Golden and Silver Age iterations were decidedly less squeaky clean and serious, respectively. His current characterization is a modern invention and as such, it's not too iconoclastic for it to continue changing according to the times and mores.

All in all, these are little more than musings regarding the guy's reputation, but I think they can be enlightening with respect to popular reactions thereof.

edited 5th Oct '15 1:10:44 AM by indiana404

Regarding preachy-ness, I don't think the issue there is with Superman. The problem is with a comic book getting preachy in the first place. I've seen preachy Batman comics, preachy Flash comics, preachy Iron Man comics, preachy Captain America comics, and they're all bad. Superman, as the moral centre of the JLA, just gets hit with it more frequently.

Bad writing? Why do writers seem to make good guys either flat characters or turn them into Jesus? Why not just portray Clark as a well rounded farm boy turned reporter who has superpowers instead of an alien Christ figure?

Because all those Alex Ross covers would seem even more pretentious and self-gratifying? Because actually admitting that Clark was raised in flyover country would mean considering the people there with some measure of respect? Because writing a fleshed-out person is more difficult and less suitable for creative interpretation than a generic symbol? Possible reasons galore, pick whatever suits your fancy.

I struggle to think of a series that better exemplifies Superman's timelessness than Justice League Beyond. A comic set almost a hundred years on the future, Superman's in a new Justice League and doesn't seem out of place in any way.

Thing is, gods are unrelatable.

Well, some have said the Greek Gods were just humans with super powers and were just as petty and jerkish as humans could be.

"He's preachy."

This word gets tossed around so much I think it's lost all meaning. Any character pointing out what's clearly right or wrong can be considered preachy these days. People don't even care if the character is actually making some good points.

He's overpowered.

Green Lantern, The Spectre, The Flash, Firestorm. We're still using this argument when these guys exist?

He's boring

This one is pretty subjective and what counts as an interesting character always depends on personal preference. I've seen Superman lose his temper, question himself, relax with friends and family etc.

Finally, the frequent rebuttal that he harkens to some ancient idealism is itself somewhat off the mark, as his Golden and Silver Age iterations were decidedly less squeaky clean and serious, respectively. His current characterization is a modern invention and as such, it's not too iconoclastic for it to continue changing according to the times and mores.

This I'll agree with but you could say the same of any character from the Big Two created in the Golden And Silver Age.

edited 5th Oct '15 1:48:53 PM by windleopard

If not moreso.

Frank. Stop. Yours Sincerely, GOD

edited 5th Oct '15 1:49:15 PM by Zarius

What...what happened to his eyes?

Frank couldn't be bothered to draw eyes but he drew the Atom's bulge.

You know Clark there's these places where you can do that privately without embarrassing yourself. They're called bathrooms.

What? Poop? Wait, birds fly, Supes flies, birds poop everywhere outside...

I'm more concerned that Clark's fists are bigger than his head.

Birds also eat bugs. DO we want Superman to start eating bugs?

Some people do eat bugs. I don't think Clark is going to act exactly like a bat or bird anytime soon. That would make for a WEIRD elseworld tale.

Come to think of it, due to the peculiarities of his physiology, Clark would make for a spectacular extreme omnivore.

Hey, he's not Matter Eater Lad