kk.

lol totally agree w that

Doctor Manhattan would turn superman into nothingness before he can change into his fruity little tights.

Doctor Manhattan = God Smurf

Haha, this is why Marvel Comics are better than DC Comics anyday.

I feel like the person who wrote that had to much time on their hands and is taking it way to seriously. Ok you hate superman cool we get it.

This is clearly a parody. In fact, a lot of the facts presented are flat out wrong. Superman isn't indestructible, has MANY weaknesses (most psychological), is about as moral absolutist as any superhero (Batman included), and the powers given vs. powers earned thing fits just about any superhuman as well.

Tho i never care to think on it, Batman is just a better all-round hero than Superman (but that's more childhood admiration talking than logic)

Parody or not, the author presented and backed up his argument very well. It also gave me a little entertainment which is always nice.

He's scared of a rock.....

I agree with the dude 99%... The only thing I disagree with is Superman in Kingdom Come, I actually though he was cool there.

But he didn't back it up. Unless presenting incorrect facts counts as backing up.

I disagree about Superman being boring to watch because of his invincibility. I watched his Animated Series in the 90's and he'd get beat and up and almost killed several times. He definitely is not invincible when he's inches from death often.

I do agree about him having boring, unpersonal morals. Superman is the king of superhero boyscouts. He really needs a more personalized mentality instead of just being the enforcer of USA laws, you know.

I think the author of that article exaggerated many things, but he does have some points here and there.

Overall, I think Superman is okay but he's just too much of a boyscout. He needs more attitude and more personal feelings or passion for his work.

I like how everyone who thinks they know something about Superman always calls him a boyscout when Batman happens to be far more neurotic about things like not killing and such.

Even Wiki has a part about his boyscout-ness, so I don't know what you're talking about. He is a boyscout.

My point is that if Superman is a boyscout then so is Batman. I'm not saying that his boyscout-ness is a bad thing. In fact, being a boyscout is something of an archetype extending as far back as Jesus Christ. It's a role model figure.

I can ramble off tons of examples of Superman not being a boyscout or Batman being a boyscout or Spider-Man being a whiny bitch. Superman is no more or less flawed than any other superhero. The criticisms of that website and this thread are all stereotypes from, frankly, people who don't know what they're talking about because they've not read a comic book in the last ten years, Superman or otherwise.

Not really...speaking as how everything Marvel and even Stan lee admitted the fact that he was inspired and highly respect DC's Justice League.

What do you guys think the X-men are? Marvel's version of the JL, along with the Avengers...

Anywho, this is just one guys view and should be slapped for his stupidity and ignorance on the character called Superman (in which he's way off in many ways btw) on why HE feels Superman sucks, he's the most iconic comic book character of all time and arguably most popular. Hell, to this day people still love Superman

LOL@ the part where he's like "Batman had a tragic childhood unlike Superman" blah, blah...umm let's see here Superman was a child when A. his parents got blown to bits due to Krypton's destruction and was sent to Earth to A. for his own survival B. He's be more powerful there and C. to help mankind and do good. And this boyscout gig is just silly. First of all, MOST good guys in DC and Marvel sport some kind of "boyscoutness" to them...Superman is just the ultimate boyscout, that's not to say he can't be "more of a badass" I mean come on lol his name is only "Superman" and can fuck most characters up in DC or Marvel with ease any day of the week.

So, how is this a bad thing again? Please humor me Superman haters lol...

Ohh yes and this ignorant crap about him being "indestructable" yeah...so he's very powerful so what? Like Marvel doesn't have any superpowered characters...Phoenixlol Does that mean he can't be killed? umm no...

Green Kryptonite ring any bells? Powerful Magic? Hello....I'm not sure what's more sad honestly, the fact that some people are still ignorant to Supermans strengths and weaknesses or the fact that people dont' realize that he's the most well known iconic, fictional comic book character of all time.

I just loved it how Marvel tried making their own versions of "Superman like characters" like Silver Surfer, Sentinel or Hulk people with lots of power and just fail. So, I find it a bit hypocritical to see some Marvel fans rip Superman saying" He's practically invulnerable" yeah....because there's not one Marvel character that's "near invulnerable" lol *sarcasm* but will admit the Hulk has easily been the most successful out of those Marvel three. Exactly....made up personal views aren't "facts" and those people who believe this guy know even less then this guy does. I suggest those ignorant Superman haters search online wiki or DC site something and read Supermans full story and understand more about the character.

Superman>>you

Superman is a DICK!

Superman is a dick

Now for my personal opinion:

Yes, I do find Superman terribly boring. To quote Batman, the man himself, "the last time you inspired anybody was when you died." Superman, as a character, is rather flawless. As a superhero, yes, he has kryptonite and magic and can be beaten up from time to time, but as human being (which he's actually not), he's so squeaky clean the pope would feel dirty in his presence.

I guess it's because we all know that if we had Superman's powers, we'd go nuts. We'd X-ray through girl's clothes, fly around naked or something, or pick on our old high school bullies.

I don't hate Superman, but he's hard to empathize with. Batman, by comparison, is very flawed. He's paranoid, socially awkward, anti-social, and, admittedly, really screwed up in the head. He's interesting because he's one step away from being just another lunatic.

Still, Superman exists as something the other heroes aspire towards. He's irrelevent in and of himself, but in the larger universe, he is what every hero wants and hopes to be. Is he too perfect, to "godly"? Maybe. It's been shown that not even death can kill him, so he's literally the Jesus of the DC universe. We all want to be like him, but we can't be. Most people are just frustrated at that fact. But he was an archtype. Without Superman, there would be no Batman, no Spider-man, no Wonder Woman, no Captain America. He's the standard, and, fairly or not, he has his role to perform.

Though... I wouldn't mind them giving him a bit of mental trauma from time to time. Or giving him a conflict without a straight black or white solution.

I love that site and Superman can be a dick which is one reason I think he's notably not boring.



Again, that's not true. In Superman: For Tomorrow, Superman was being an ass to everybody, especially Batman. When Supes swooped in and saved someone in Gotham City right out from under Batman, Bats confronted him. He asked "What do you think you're doing?" Superman replied, "Making your job look easy." Tell me that isn't a huge slap in the face to Batman. Bruce even took a swing at him for it and Clark continued to be an ass when he dashed out of the way. He said, "Next time I won't move and you'll break every bone in your hand." It's like he was on a power trip at the time which I personally didn't find boring (though matter of opinion, for sure) but one thing that's definitely true is that it's certainly not "squeaky clean" behavior.

The thing is, people look at Superman in a very superficial light. They see a guy who can move planets and think "Well, he must be boring since he has no weaknesses." But they fail to identify Superman's real psychological weaknesses. He's not human by birth but the thing is, he's constantly reminded (and so are we) of how human he actually is. How much he loves and wants to be loved. How much he fears. How much he hates. And how hard he works to make sure he doesn't stray from the right path. He's not just automatically a good guy. He struggles to stay one. You'd be surprised how many Superman issues feature no action whatsoever but are just introspectives into his psyche.




The thing is, Superman has similar desires too, if a bit subconscious. Part of what I find so interesting about him is that his story amounts to a man who's not human who feels human and at the same time trying to be more than human. And that's hard to deal with.




I think one of the reasons Batman and Superman play off each other so well is because they have more in common with each other than they care to admit. Superman is afraid of turning into a tyrant. Batman almost became one when he built the Brother I satellite.




That's true. He is an archetype but I don't think it's a particularly simple one.




Both of these happen quite a bit for Superman. In fact, Superman probably lives in the grey area more than Batman. Bruce is very pigheaded and often times becomes too cocksure about his ethics.

There are exceptions to every rule. Superman is not boring to me ALL the time. I rather enjoy some of his adventures, regardless of whether I know he'll win or not.

I guess my problem is not so much that he's flawless but that his "flaws" aren't emphasized enough.

For example, it was mentioned he struggles not to become a tyrant. That struggle is rarely shown. It is shown, but never emphasized. If it is, the context is rather questionable.

For me, Superman has a lot of potential. For one, he's not human at all. I remember once where Lex Luthor showed off his daughter to Superman and laughed that Superman, with his vastly different genetic make-up, would never be able to have a child of his own with Lois (movie version be damned.)

Superman fits in just too well. I think the Smallville series does a good job of showing just how hard Clark has to struggle to just be "normal." When he tries out for the football team, he takes a fall every time he's hit so the other people don't hurt themselves. He has use all his concentration not to hurt them in a tackle or run too fast. But, for the most part, for most of the time in the comics, he's "mild-mannered Clark Kent" to both his friends and to the reader.

Rather, for me, I feel his "life challenges", like Spider-man's life challenges, should be his struggle to fit in with normal human beings. After all, isn't that why he's doing all this for other people, so they will "accept" him? If not, it would be an interesting pscyhological angle to cover. How does a guy who can do the impossible feel about driving to work when he could fly? How does he feel about shutting a door knowing too much strength shatters it to splinters? How does he feel knowing he can't have kids? How does he feel knowing his wife is in constant danger just by being associated with him? How does he feel knowing that if someone could manipulate him, it could lead to mass murder?

There was the recent event where Wonder Woman had to face the dilemma where Superman was being controlled by somebody, and when she asked how to stop him from killing Batman, the manipulator said she had to kill him.... which violated her "no killing" code. If the roles were reversed, what would Superman have done?

I guess I just like to overthink my heroes, but I really like getting into their heads. Justifiably or not, whenever I get into Superman's head, it's basically "who do I save today?", clean and easy. I'd rather have him spend more time as Clark, struggling to keep up the farce that he's something he's not. It must be difficult having your friends and peers view you as "mild mannered Clark Kent" when you're so completely different. How would YOU feel if most people thought of you as something completely different than what you are?

Just want to chime in real quick: Wonder Woman never had a "no killing" code. She never likes or wants to kill her enemy, but she will do it when she feels it is absolutely necessary or she has no other choice.

If their roles were reversed, Superman wouldn't have done it. I believe he even told her that. That storyline caused a lot of friction between the two.

Interesting. I may stand corrected. I was under the impression that everyone in the JLA pretty much had a "no killing code" that was sort of like a requirement for membership. As far as I can tell, no one else in the League has killed anyone (intentionally, of course...), with perhaps the exception of Martian Manhunter, who had a conversation with Superman about his past where he admitted he had done "things... you would not approve of. It was a different time. You weren't there." Then again, I'm still iffy on several characters "histories" after a few Inifinite Earth storylines and retcons. I'm still a bit hazy on Hal Jordan's return and the retcon of the Parralax storyline, Wally West's return from somewhere after, what, the third Flash got snuffed, the fallout of Identity Crisis, among other things, so I could just be way off and the JLA could be full of murders with the exception of Batman and Superman.

Superman killed a few kryptonian criminals by exposing them to kryptonite. It was pretty intense too. He put the kryptonite in a small lead container and opened the top to expose just them. As they laid there dying he walked away saying "May God have mercy on your souls."

I'm not sure but I think there are a lot of distributed killings between the various heroes. In fact, the great irony is that Batman is one of the few who hasn't killed anyone yet in regular continuity.