Remember that time when Superman was two people and also had different powers? Don’t worry: neither do we.
This looks like a job for Superman? Well, maybe he could have skipped this one...
- Superman:
- Pictured is the infamous "Superman Blue" saga. After a sales sag following Clark and Lois' marriage, the idea was devised to, in a reference to an old Silver Age story, have Superman undergo a transformation into a blue energy being, who'd then split into another red energy being, both possessing different traits of the original. While general consensus is that the actual stories were at least decent, the angle itself was derided as nonsensical and gimmicky, the idea wore out its welcome fairly quickly, and it was undone after less than a year. It has since become seen as a go-to example for failed storylines in DC history, even earning a cameo in Dark Nights: Metal as a denizen of the Dark Multiverse, suggesting it to be a nightmare of some kind.
- Chuck Austen's Action Comics run was infamous for its extensive Derailing Love Interests, due to Austen vocally wanting to prop up his Fan-Preferred Couple of Clark/Lana, despite well over a decade of the two being characterized as Amicable Exes. The result is a bizarre angle which saw Lana come off as a pathetic Stalker with a Crush who went so far as to name her child after her obsession with Clark, and the Kent's as unsympathetic Helicopter Parents. Needless to say, virtually all of this was ignored once Austen left the title. The only part of Austen's era that anyone does speak fondly of is, surprisingly enough, his handling of Superman and Wonder Woman's friendship. He even had Diana give a sufficient explanation as to why they're friends and not lovers, which proves especially ironic when DC tried to make them a couple during the New 52 over a decade later.
- Superman: Grounded, from J. Michael Straczynski's half-aborted run on the main title, had Superman walking across America "to rediscover the country" because he couldn't... cure... cancer? The comic was so critically derided that it was called the worst comic of the year.
- The New 52 era was easily the most infamous low-point in Superman's career, and is often highlighted as the main example of the era's failings as a whole. Not only did it have a decidedly less stable start than DC's other A-List books (with George Pérez quitting after continued frustration with poor communication with DC's higher-ups), but the overall approach to the era was to push Superman as Younger and Hipper, which most writers ended up presenting as Superman being a hot-headed Jerkass disconnected from his humanity, and hardly seemed to even like helping people. Not helped was the attempt to push away Lois from being Clark's Love Interest in favour of pushing him and Wonder Woman as a Super Couple, a widely derided decision from the start, and only became more frustrating as writers' only way to make the relationship work seemed to be them endlessly arguing with one another. The Troubled Production aspect of the N52 as a whole lead to writers and storylines rotating out constantly (one infamous case being when writer Andy Diggle quit before his first issue came out) and the Superman books being constantly thrown into uninteresting crossovers (with three in the span of less than two years). This all culminated in Superman: Truth, which suffered from an overly bleak tone and lack of direction, leading to the book haemorrhaging readers. So tainted was the reception of the franchise that DC would eventually just flat out kill off the character and replace him with Post-Crisis Superman (though The Final Days of Superman was well-written enough that even his detractors felt bad for him). While fans in hindsight do agree to there being some high points such as Grant Morrison's opening run and Superman Unchained, not many tears were shed when the life and adventures of N52 Superman was relegated to apocryphal events in Superman Reborn and dumped into Earth-52 in Doomsday Clock.
- Supergirl
- Supergirl had a very tumultuous publication run in the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths. As a major part of the The Man of Steel relaunch was to push Superman's status as the Last Son of Krypton, the character of Kara Zor-El was effectively Exiled from Continuity, and in her place was "Matrix", a shapeshifter organism from a pocket-universe who took the form of Supergirl, and was eventually taken in by the Kent family as "Mae Kent". The character's odd origin and personality however led to her spending years being tossed around the DCU with little clear direction, until Peter David's Supergirl (1996) overhauled the character by merging her with a human girl named Linda Danvers who'd been manipulated into joining a cult, becoming an earthborn angel in the process. While the book itself maintained a loyal fanbase, it proved poorly selling due to being almost In Name Only, and was eventually cancelled with the Many Happy Returns storyline, writing out both Matrix and Linda entirely. Then DC attempted to reintroduce the idea in the form of Cir-El, Clark and Lois' (supposed) Kid from the Future, who proved even less popular, and was mostly ignored by writers during the short period she was around. It wouldn't have been until 2004 when Dan Didio would push to have the Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El reinstated in The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), and Kara has persisted as a member of the Superman Family ever since.
- After the successful reintegration of Kara-Zor-El in Superman/Batman, writer Joe Kelly and artist Ian Churchhill took on Kara's newly launched ongoing series. The run was very poorly received, owing to Kara's Darker and Edgier characterization that made her come off as a violent, hostile brat, her penchant for New Powers as the Plot Demands, and most infamously Churchill's art making the underage Supergirl into Ms. Fanservice, which compounded by Kara's tendency for uncomfortable crushes on men significantly older than her lead to many accusations of the book being a vessel for jailbait. Kelly's run would last only 20 issues total, and after that and a decent run by Mark Waid, writer Sterling Gates would revitalize the character in her critically acclaimed run.
- Supergirl (2011) was yet another example of the Superfamily's poor management during that era: Kara was made even more angsty and edgy, wanting now nothing to do with Clark, suffering massive Survivor's Guilt and being openly hostile with Superboy due to him being a clone, despite pre-Flashpoint Kara getting along with him just fine. She also received a new costume that was lambasted for its weird design, notably the removal of her skirt in favour of segmented panties and knee-high boots with "knee windows", and despite Word of God claiming it was supposed to be Tamer and Chaster than her previous look, it only sexualised her further. The creative team clearly had no idea what to do with the character, which lead to her bouncing back and forth with various concepts that didn't quite stick, and she was very Out of Focus in the DCU as a whole.
- As an extension of the New 52 era, Superboy would see a major overhaul that would see him be bounce between him being the brooding member of the Teen Titans with none of his prior relationships intact, and being subject to Fantastic Racism by Supergirl in the Superbooks due to being a clone. The character would then be revealed to actually be a clone of Johnathan Lane Kent, the evil future son of Clark and Lois, and then die and be replaced by the original. Very few liked the direction, the character was eventually written out, and Superboy would first be replaced by Jon Kent in DC Rebirth, and then the original Conner Kent would be reintroduced in Young Justice (2019), leaving the N52 version in the dust.
- Steel: In the series' final issues, Steel and Natasha move to Jersey City, NJ. From the moment they arrived, the crapstorm never stopped. Basically, John Henry was warned and harassed by the police the instant he showed up. Natasha was badly brutalized by a thug who was Too Dumb to Live. During a visit back to their family, Natasha saw this bright shining heritage-aware African-American clan, shown in prior issues to be the basis of their morals and character, become hyper-ghetto-quadrophonic-stereotypes. Oh, and John's long-lost thought-dead brother (Natasha's father) turned up as an elegant crimelord, who got John in further trouble when he killed the dumb thug who hurt his daughter. One police detective seemed to have Offscreen Teleportation to aid him in giving John grief—-and the officers all seemed corrupt. This was even lampshaded when John had to go back to Metropolis, and was treated like a hero, worthy of the mantle of Superman and Supergirl. Suffice it to say, after the series was done, the next time John and Natasha showed up, they were back in Metro and Jersey City has not been mentioned since. (On the other hand, separating them from the rest of the Irons family did a lot to push Nat into the role of John Henry's snarky sidekick, a move that stuck and would eventually see her becoming Steel herself.)
- Post-Crisis General Zod faced a dilemma: He was both a famous character who had recently appeared in the commercially succesful second Superman film, but also conflicted with Superman's new status as the "Last Son of Krypton". So DC tried to have their cake and eat it too, by introducing FOUR new versions of the character. Similarly to Supergirl, these were all very poorly received due to being very confusing, creating Continuity Snarls and trying to hammer a character that many comic book fans consider to be The Scrappy. Fortunately, once DC finally started to include other survivors of Krypton, one final version of Dru-Zod, directly based on the film version, was introduced in the comics.
