Superman Best or Worst Superhero

[not friend]

Worst for being a dullard.

Best of course, is Gwen Stacey for stealing our hearts and hearses.

[Replies From View]

Superman was a bit faded in the effects shots of Superman 4, so I'd vote for him being the shittest.

[Replies From View]

Best is Ant-Man, because he has the proportional strength of an ant that's man-sized, scaled down to the size of an ant.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

In reality, Superman would have this massive guilt complex and/or ADHD, because he'd constantly be hearing and seeing wrongdoing with his super-hearing and super-long-sight and X-ray vision, but he wouldn't be able to sort more than a tiny fraction of the troubles.

[Captain Z]

Best is Ant-Man, because he has the proportional strength of an ant that's man-sized, scaled down to the size of an ant.

You're thinking of Ant-Man Ant.

Ant-Man has the ability to create minor traffic accidents that, unbeknownst to the victims, prevent future fatal accidents.

[Pijlstaart]

Never watched Superman, never read the comics. Father wouldn't have it, he liked the kray twins best, and he'd trot out his weekly press release about Ronnie being the real psychopath but also a gay, over and over again, but they never made a campy Kray twins cartoon so we had to go without. Very masculine, Superman, every shared house I've been in has a big gallon tub of protein and a podgy man with body dysmorphia who was "gaining", think they'd been watching too much Superman. Gets into your subconscious, we all emulate our heroes. I latched onto starving woodland creatures trying to survive the winter.

[Kryton]

The Evangelicals or whatever they're called.

MR SHIELD MAN AKA Norman Biscuits. A genetically de-modified soul that just waves a shield around whilst shouting loudly.

Tony Costume. Wears a MASSIVE CAPE made of fuck knows what. And it's remote controlled.

Black man: A Black man with a tribal-esque leitmotif.

Mysterious woman 1

Mysterious woman 2

[biggytitbo]

Superbman is the worst as there is no imagination or depth to him at all, he's just a 'man', who is particularly superb. Shite.

[Glebe]

[tag]Kevin Smith attends Margot Kidder send-off.[/tag]

[Replies From View]

Laurel-and-Hardy-Man is the best one of them all though, yeah?

We're all agreed on that?

[Howj Begg]

The worst superhero, but bizarrely the one with the best films - mainly cos of the directors and cast (Pryor, Kidder, Reeve, Hackman, Beatty, Donner, Lester)

Before anyone contests this, I should note I don't actually give a shit about superheroes or superhero films, but I think these are pretty good. As someone mentioned recently, Reeve and Kidder doing screwball comedy is pretty great.

[Misspent Boners]

Yanni-and-Hardy-Man is the best one of them all though, yeah?

We're all agreed on that?

Ftfy

[Gulftastic]

No one has ever come close to matching Reeve as Superman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIaF0QKtY0c

[Kelvin]

The worst superhero, but bizarrely the one with the best films - mainly cos of the directors and cast (Pryor, Kidder, Reeve, Hackman, Beatty, Donner, Lester)

Oddly, I'd say the opposite. He has the potential to be a very good superhero, but he's been in so many bad or out-dated films at this point, that most people only associate him with the problems with those interpretations, and not with what makes him so good.

That said, I do think he's a very hard character to get right, even for comic book writers. Which is why you see so many retellings of his origins and death, but not many high profile stories set between those two points. It's too easy to make the character feel distant or unconnected, too easy to focus the threat on Superman himself, rather than on everyone he has to protect. There's a story by Scott Snyder (Superman: Unchained) that I really like, and which I wish someone would adapt, as it avoids almost all the usual pitfalls. It says something interesting about the character,  it features lots of setpieces - especially one with a robotic crane - that are actually exiting and imaginative, and it feels surprisingly distinctive.

But obviously, with so few good adaptions, and arguably so few good modern comics, it's hardly surprising that most people will only see him as a dull character who can only die to kryponite, who is entirely one note, and who can solve everything with his endless powers. Even though that doesn't have to be true, it has been, generally, for many, many years.   

Poor Superman.

[bgmnts]

The best superhero is Ali Larter from Heroes because if I recall she is a bit mental and her power only manifests when she goes schizo. Same with the man who could paint the future, well, vague scenarios of the future, but only after injecting heroin.

Powers are only good when they are activated by mental illness or drug use.

Domino is a good one, from X Force. Her power is both incredibly lazy and inspired.

[Gulftastic]

The best superheroes are Supergirl and Lois Lane from out off of DC Bombshells, because, well, just because.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

He's boring because his superness is such, he is really Foregone-conclusion-man.

[Operty1]

If Superman does one of those shits where it feels like it all fires out of you at once, would it shatter the toilet pan? Super shits?

[Replies From View]

There's a Superman film where he zaps The Great Wall of China with his eyes to rebuild chunks of it that have been exploded off.  And all the stones magically leap up from the ground and refill the holes.

He has too many powers.

[Delete Delete Delete]

[newbridge]

Superman worst, that blue little fat demon man that I vaguely remember from that 90s movie (Venom? Spawn?) best

[Chairman Bodog]

Ironman is just an ex-Delta Force mercenary with alcoholism. Unless he gets hacked by a Twitch streamer and has his wingsuit sent to the andromeda then he could probably take on Superdunce by coup.

[Dr Rock]

The idea that Superman can't fuck Lois because his super-sperm would be like a machine gun firing up her fanny I think might be attributed to Kevin Smith at some point. But Clark Kent doesn't wreck toilets when he pisses or shits, so his muck probably isn't deadly, although the worry is that it's an alien's DNA, or a super-baby would kick out Lois's tummy.

I liked Marvel comics as a kid and I only read DC if there was no Marvel available because DC comics were boring and old-fashioned. I now know there were some interesting runs at DC in the 70s but I never saw them. Superman comics were dull because there was no peril because he was over-powered, but they were also written and drawn in a dull manner. But recently I've taken to the reprints of his 60s comics because they weren't supposed to exciting as much as imaginative fun, Marvel hadn't rewritten the rules yet and Superman had silly adventures and daft problems to solve, the more silly and daft the better for a long while.




And the tactic was to get a kid's attention at the comic stand and think 'I must find out how this happened and how it will end' so covers were bait and Superman was given any new power, like superventriloquism, if it helped the story. Stories aimed at 6-10 year olds. When Marvel pulled the trick of appealing to kids, teens and college kids alike, DC had to change, but they were stuck with Superman who was over-powered. Marvel had been careful to not make that mistake, every character had flaws and weaknesses. Thor was one of Marvel's most powerful charcters, so what did they have him do? Pit him against other Gods like Hercules, or go off into space (on a longboat) and have mad adventures (Kirby was driving the ideas in the comic by this point, but Stan's dialogue was much better than what Kirby was capable of.)

John Byrne depowered Superman a fair bit when he had the reins in the 80s, and the stories were very popular, that's probably the settings that would make an interesting character, because he could be duffed up by a robot.

Meanwhile the movies - the first two are brilliant, the third is patchy (Mean Superman is great), don't mention the fourth...- gave us the only person who played Superman and you believed it as really him, Christopher Reeves. He was so perfect was he in the role(s) but it didn't change the comics much, not until Byrne got on board. Find the one where Jker decides to taunt Superman instead of Batman, it's a good read.



Thing is, even with a then-hot, then-good artist like John Byrne doing his best, other superheroes were better, cooler, Marvel had shat out gold in the 60s, and those superheroes evolved, like what Frank Miller did with Daredevil. Byrne's Superman will never be more fondly than the work he did with Chris claremont on The Uncanny X-Men - another book with an interesting evolution, leading to the Byrne/Claremont run which had very cool art and a run that was full of ideas. Marvel had moved the Overton window, DC tried to go Marvel with X-Men rip-off Teen Titans, which was ok. Batman stopped going into space, instead he stalked the night skyline after a Joker who did kill people, and that's how we've sort of got the Batman we see onscreen these days, which can work.

Superman suffered the stupid 'Superman is dead' storyline, then he returned in a jazzed up look... and didn't feel enough like Superman to be a lasting change. So he remains a very powerful 'boy scout' in a world where comics are read mostly are adults and want cooler characters who stab people or shoot loads of criminal scum, they don't want poor old Superman.

In the public imagination, a public who now know many more superheroes, or at least the movie versions, Superman is the dull option. None of the re-imaginings stuck, the movie version does't seem right, and like quite a few DC characters (especially baddies - The Penguin, The Toy-Master, Gorilla Grudd,) he''d work much better back in the silly 60s comics:


As for what superhero is the best, it's Daredevil. Or She-Hulk. Or The Thing. Or Spider-Man. Depends who the creative team working on the book is.

But if you had to pick the powers of a superhero to have yourself, then I reckon Superman has the best all-round set.

[Replies From View]

Jeremy-Irons-Man was the best superhero at pretending to be disgusted about fathers marrying their sons, all the while bumming his real-life son during the production of 'Danny The Champion of the World'.



"With the power of bumming I shall bum you later, son," was his superhero catchphrase.  "But marry we shall not."


My mum used to say that Jeremy-Irons-Man was the only man on earth who could smile with just his eyes.

[saltysnacks]

I am increasingly finding the idea of a character who just isn't a piece of shit interesting. There has been far too much emphasis on 'realistic' grimdark bullshit. 'Oh, I am a flawed man with issues, look at my tights'. I am not an expert on comic books, but I believe that the best way to handle him, would be dealing with his inability to solve every problem, but he remains virtuous despite the impossibility of his task. A kind of Sisyphean Superman. The tension could arise through depicting him failing to save the day despite his power and effort.

[Chairman Bodog]

My mum used to say that Jeremy-Irons-Man was the only man on earth who could smile with just his eyes.

To be fair, your mum said that with a mouth full of cock.

[Replies From View]

To be fair, your mum said that with a mouth full of cock.

Yes and I've never forgiven you.

[FredNurke]

The idea that Superman can't fuck Lois because his super-sperm would be like a machine gun firing up her fanny I think might be attributed to Kevin Smith at some point.

Larry Niven came up with it, for what it's worth.

Superdickery is a treasure-trove of lunatic Golden Age comic covers, and I'm very glad to see it's still going - hadn't visited it in years.

[Dr Rock]

I am increasingly finding the idea of a character who just isn't a piece of shit interesting. There has been far too much emphasis on 'realistic' grimdark bullshit. 'Oh, I am a flawed man with issues, look at my tights'. I am not an expert on comic books, but I believe that the best way to handle him, would be dealing with his inability to solve every problem, but he remains virtuous despite the impossibility of his task. A kind of Sisyphean Superman. The tension could arise through depicting him failing to save the day despite his power and effort.

Yes, there's a story there, but I think Supermen knows he can't save everyone. He can't clean up all the political problems in the world and give us peace on Earth, or at least he shouldn't do that. He's a symbol, that is supposed to inspire people, making them want to be more like him and hopefully evolve into a better world. And he needs a civilian life for the part of him that wants to feel like a human, to keep him sane.

I'd read a Superman comic that dealt with the themes you talk about, although I'm guessing it's been done, or maybe is being done now - I don't know, I don't read comics any more.

[saltysnacks]

Yes, there's a story there, but I think Supermen knows he can't save everyone. He can't clean up all the political problems in the world and give us peace on Earth, or at least he shouldn't do that. He's a symbol, that is supposed to inspire people, making them want to be more like him and hopefully evolve into a better world. And he needs a civilian life for the part of him that wants to feel like a human, to keep him sane.

I'd read a Superman comic that dealt with the themes you talk about, although I'm guessing it's been done, or maybe is being done now - I don't know, I don't read comics any more.

Could be a decent origin story then, where he comes to terms with that.