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Does that count as Harsher in Hindsight? I'm pretty sure depictions of the Kryptonian elite ignoring and denying what was about to happen existed before climate change became a subject
Climate change denial is as old as the link to climate trends and fossil fuel companies. Fossil fuel companies were largely the pioneers in the field, who surprise surprise, did all they could to keep the knowledge from getting out. If it predates 1960 or so, it's harsher in hindsight.
In Future State Wonder Woman decided to nip Superman's fascist leanings in the bud, starting with commanding him to take a day off, eat a hotdog, watch a movie, buy some ice cream, try interacting with the people he had sworn to protect. She declared that she would be saving the puny insectoid alien planet today, so Superman could relax on Earth.
I guess something bad happening to Yara Flor could push John Kent over the edge. That could explain why Nubia had to become Wonder Woman next, though Nubia's mission was completely different from Yara's. Considering Jace Fox had just gotten done with an NGO takeover of Gotham, Batman being the one to oppose Superman would have been consistent, though it would have undermined the whole point of the Justice League story, that the members needed to trust each other more, and without a good reason for Yara failing the Super Bat conflict seems like it would never get started.
Edited by IndirectActiveTransport on Oct 4th 2024 at 5:35:07 AM
Buldogue's lawyerSpeaking of Superman and climate change, early in his history
it was established that Kryptonians possessed his general strength and powers on-world, while later, it was established that the unique atmosphere of the planet suppresses the natural abilities of the inhabitants.
Unchecked climate change and air pollution seems like a reasonable explanation for them slowly losing their powers over time.
The Protomen enhanced my life.Jason Aaron interview about Absolute Superman
Including our first look at the interiors featuring Superman protecting a favela from the Peacekeeper battalion working for the Lazarus Corporation.
I love how Supes' speed looks here, leaving a fire trail in the form of an S.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I just reread "Future State Nubia"... and yeah, Grail specifically says "Wonder Woman is no more" upon seeing Nubia, then asks Nubia if Diana is doing a better job as queen than her predecessor. That pretty much confirms Yara Flor died, at least was presumed dead(Hippolyta too) but relevant to this Superman thread, it seems that the 5G plan was for Jon Kent to have fascist tendencies that Yara Flor would reign in until something bad happened to Yara and Jon goes full fascist, with Jace Fox trying to stop Jon by drawing on his experience fighting The Magistrate.
Future State was kind of a bleak series already, looking back. Yara's three stories are positive, her growing into a better person who helps bring peace to an appreciative world, but its immediately undermined by the ruling class of her peaceful world actively hunting down those it considers "witches". The Yara dies! Nubia takes her place, fends off Grail's attempts to do whatever, puts Circe back in prison(only bystander and hero witches die of course, villain witches get to come back to menace people), eventually seems to complete the task the nine goddesses forced upon her, reunites with her tribe and gets on speaking terms with her sister, but then all the humans she swore to protect die, the plants all die, Darkseid obliterates her and all the amazons who aren't Diana, then the sun dies. Then monsters eat every other part of the universe Diana would like to live in, then eat Diana herself, who decides to take them with her.
Even that bit of world peace Yara helped bring about would have apparently ended as a direct result of her biting it if things had gone according to plan...was somebody off their medication, or did somebody need to get on medication? It's like DC hired a bunch of new writers who assumed they were being paid to tell super hero stories only for the company to suddenly decide it wanted Elizabethan tragedies instead, with the writers having to abruptly course correct.
Edited by IndirectActiveTransport on Oct 14th 2024 at 9:00:18 AM
Buldogue's lawyerAbsolute Superman 1, "Last Dust of Krypton" is pretty good. Its politics are very hamfisted but Superman stories are rarely about subtlety.
Probably the single biggest change to the character (who at his core is still trying to help people as best he can, and there's even a nod to the whole "Superman could singlehandedly wreck Earth's economy" thing), is that Kal was a child on Krypton before it was destroyed, although it's hard to say quite how old he was. 6? 10?
And Brainiac is being set up as the greater scope villain, so it will be interesting to see how he functions in this version of the continuity.
"Its politics are very hamfisted but Superman stories are rarely about subtlety."
What politics is this exactly? Has Superman gone woke on us and telling us not to sleep?
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Abs Superman is off to a great start, he actually lives up to being a Champion of the Oppressed here, starting the book helping out Brazilian diamond miners by clearing out the asbestos in the mine and mining up and processing all the diamonds for them.
And when the corpo soldiers working for the company start assaulting the favela workers, Superman leaps out in defense of them and helps them take all the diamonds so they can sell the material themselves and keep the profits.
Amusingly this is already more hard hitting social tackle the real world problems stuff in one issue than Tom Taylor's entire Superman Son of Kal-El run.
TIL of The Kryptonite Kid by Joseph Torchia, a 1979 novel about a lonely elementary school boy in the 1950s who believes Superman is real and writes letters to him. Apparently it was censored after its initial release but also had an off-Broadway play in 1990. Topless Robot did an overview
here.
Been Reading the power girl comic...
1: It really wants to be a teen Supergirl comic
2: Everybody when their happy has the same "Quirky" personality cept with "Paige" moments of feeling sorry for herself
3: While I like they remember that Omen's psychic powers would make her a goddess among the heroes... They kinda use her way too much as a DEM.
This is an outrage against Luminara!TIL that the Superman radio show had a different take
on Superman's origin when he arrived to Earth...mainly that it took him 25 years to get here despite Krypton sharing Earth's orbit and being on the opposite side of the sun.
Upon coming to Earth Born as an Adult, he saves a professor and a kid named Jimmy (no relation to Jimmy Olsen) from an out of control trolley and asks them where to find other men, and they name him and give him an idea for a job.
God, he must've been so bored in that space capsule if he was awake the whole time.
Edited by lalalei2001 on Dec 8th 2024 at 2:40:06 PM
The Protomen enhanced my life.Fanon has it that "super-sanity" means "the Joker knows he's fictional and that's why he's a Straw Nihilist"
Joker under Scott Snyder does lean towards Leaning on the Fourth Wall over what he means to Batman.
Edited by RedHunter543 on Dec 9th 2024 at 11:17:08 PM
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"

Tropers/slimcoder
"Oh yeah the original intention for 5G would have been to turn Superman into an authoritarian dictator, even having their own version of Civil War where Superman wants everyone to go public with their identity and Batman went against him arguing no."
Hmmm, I wonder where I could have seen this plot thread before. Superman being an authoritarian tyrant that the Dear Old Dark Knight has to stop? What a totally novel concept that TOTALLY hasn't been milked to death! I'm sure they'd even give him a totally sympathetic reason to turn evil that totally doesn't contradict his character as he slowly loses his redeeming qualities.
Here's my home address, social media, and bank account!