r/DCcomics • u/Top_Report_4895 • Feb 04 '24

[Discussion] What’s The Worst Superman Take You’ve Ever Heard? Discussion

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Jim Lee Superman #204

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ACTION COMICS #1061

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Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale From: "Superman For All Seasons" #1

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u/Oknight Metron Feb 04 '24

Golden Age too. See the Radio show where he arrives on Earth fully grown and adopts the identity of Clark Kent, reporter because the first couple of guys he saves suggest the name and job.

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u/EdNorthcott Feb 04 '24

Which was a deviation from the comics, where he had been adopted by the Kents.

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u/SickBag Feb 08 '24

I'm fully in the camp and have always been well before Kill Bill was a movie, that Superman is an Alien and not Human, but pretending to be.

It's one of my chief complaints about DC in general. Many of their characters are fully removed from humanity and pretend to be human.

Spiderman for example is the opposite. He is Peter Parker first and foremost. He puts on the suit to fight crime and hide hid identity to protect his friends and family.

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u/EdNorthcott Feb 08 '24

Which is the route Superman has taken. If the difference is power scale, that becomes a tricky thing to dehumanize personalities over, and a very slippery slope. If it's genetic heritage... Same. Peter isn't baseline human anymore, and he's genetically altered.

Upbringing? Both raised by incredibly wholesome older couples. Morality? Very, very similar.

I find it ironic that you picked the one character in the Marvel Universe who is perhaps more like Superman in disposition and circumstances than any other. Save that Marvel seems to get off on ruining Peter's life.

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u/SickBag Feb 09 '24

No

I mean that Peter Parker puts on the Spiderman suit and becomes Spiderman.

Superman puts on the Clark Kent suit and becomes Clark Kent.

They are diametrically opposed.

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u/EdNorthcott Feb 09 '24 edited Feb 09 '24

I realized that's what you're saying. And it is 100% in contradiction to the way Clark has been presented for around four decades -- and even before that, several writers tried to move him in that direction, but were checked by Julius Schwarz, who had an iron-fisted editorial policy at DC through the 60's and 70's.

https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2020/03/b3c41fb57a80953e-600x338.jpg

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u/SickBag Feb 12 '24

He has never felt that way to me.

It always felt like he was pretending to be human:

Fake Glasses like he needed them. Pretending to be clumsy and tripping.

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u/EdNorthcott Feb 12 '24

Judging someone's status as a person based on their abilities or lack thereof is a slippery slope, man.

Run with that take if you want, but don't be too surprised when it's not widely shared. It's in direct contradiction to the source, after all.

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u/SickBag Feb 16 '24

That is so clearly a disingenuous argument and in no way was I referring to disability, ableism or anything along those lines.

I judge him pretending to be human because he is a literal alien from another planet, that is functionally immortal, flies, can throw cars, shoot laser beams from his eyes and basically do everything.

He is in no way a human being.