Evil Superman? Yawn.

[mrrieper]

Spoilers for Smallville, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Injustice 2, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League ahead.

Superman is the original superhero. Before Spider-Man, before the Fantastic Four, before Batman, there was one superhero. Superman, the Man of Tomorrow. The last member of an alien race known as the Kryptonians. Escaping the destruction of his planet as a baby, he was found in Kansas by Jonathan and Martha Kent, and raised to be a good, decent, moral man... Who also happened to have powers beyond those of mortal men.

Superman is generally seen as the paragon of the DC universe, much like Captain America is for Marvel Comics. He's the most powerful person on the planet by a longshot, and yet he dedicates his life to helping people. They don't call him the Big Blue Boyscout for nothing.

So why is media so interested in turning him evil?

Injustice: Gods Among Us is probably responsible for the glut of Evil Superman stories. Basically, the Joker (with the use of kryptonite infused fear toxin stolen from Scarecrow) tricks him into killing Lois Lane and his unborn son, which also triggers a nuke to detonate in the middle of Metropolis (because shut up, that's why). In the blink of an eye, Superman has killed hundreds of thousands of people, purely by mistake. So he finds and murders the Joker while Batman's interrogating him about where he got the nuke.

Now, whether or not killing the Joker was right, and whether or not Batman is responsible for Joker's victims because he doesn't kill Joker is neither here nor there, because Superman doesn't stop there. He basically decides to become a planetary dictator, ruling the Earth with an iron fist and killing thousands of criminals.

Now, I can kind of see where they were going. He still wants to protect people, he's just taking more of a Punisher meets Judge Dredd style of action. I find it weird that Batman is apparently incorruptible, though.

However, by the end of the game he's unrecognisable as Superman. Why? Well, because he decides to deliberately destroy Gotham and Metropolis because the civilians "whine and complain" about his actions. And we literally see him destroying bridges full of civilians leaving them to drown, and unleashing Doomsday (basically the Hulk with zero morality) on the populace. Oh, and this is after he kills Shazam, who's about fourteen or fifteen years old.

Anyway, he gets stopped by his heroic alternate universe version and put in a power dampening prison.

I have a massive problem with Superman killing innocents. He just seemed like Homelander by the end of the game, it was very annoying.

Anyway, by the events of Injustice 2, Batman lets him out of prison because Braniac is attacking Earth. The old Justice League work together again, and bring him down. Superman is more recognisable in this game I find, since he's working to stop a great evil. I prefer his character in this game, even though he's still an antagonist by the end. Depending on which ending you pick he either gets beaten down by Batman and has his powers removed with gold kryptonite before being locked in the Phantom Zone, or forcibly brainwashes Batman into being his slave and seeks to take over the universe. Hilariously this ending is continued in a comic book crossover with Masters of the Universe, meaning He-Man comes to save the day. Or something.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is yet another game that seeks to demonise Superman, only this time it's the entire Justice League as well. Also, it's set in the Arkhamverse, after the events of Batman: Arkham Knight. Basically, Braniac has invaded Earth, and Superman apparently has the amazing idea of going to his Skull Ship and trying to convince him to stand down. When other members of the League question the intelligence of this choice, he basically says "you can't judge him just on appearance and because he's an alien, after all I'm an alien". Somehow this works even on the extremely paranoid Batman, and long story short they all (apart from Wonder Woman) get irreversibly brainwashed into becoming vicious murderers.

And I do mean irreversibly. The Suicide Squad are sent to kill them, and they succeed. Yes, even Batman. The Batman who you've played as in multiple games, and who you no doubt grew to like, gets shot in the face by Harley Quinn while he's tied up on a park bench raving about how they're all going to die at Superman's feet. Joy.

Anyway, so through the magic of kryptonite and bad writing, you somehow manage to kill Superman after he's killed Wonder Woman and you've killed the other Leaguers. Great, hopefully Darkseid doesn't choose to invade anytime soon.

Now, the fact that there's so much Evil Superman content out there is annoying. It's been done to death. Not just in the games I mentioned, but in other shows that don't technically use Superman (The Boys, Invincible), and films such as Brightburn, which is a horror film where the Superman analogue is the monster. But I've noticed whenever it's DC, they specifically use Superman. This is despite the fact that there is a character who was created to be
the Evil Superman character called Ultraman.

Ultraman is from an alternate universe where everyone is the opposite morality to the regular universe. The Justice League is now the Crime Syndicate, Lex Luthor is a hero, and instead of Bruce Wayne being Batman, we have Thomas Wayne Jr and his alter ego called Owlman (because owls prey on bats). Oh, and Abraham Lincoln is the guy who assassinated President John Wilkes Booth.

Now I can only think of two forms of media that have specifically used Ultraman. Smallville used the character in a couple of episodes in the last season, where instead of being found by the Kents he was found by Lionel Luthor. As a result he is extremely messed up, having killed his adoptive brother Lex, and at one point mentions how odd it is not to have blood on his hands before lunch.

Another example is the animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, which for some reason gave him a mobster accent. Also he appears with the rest of the Crime Syndicate, and eventually gets deposed by Owlman as the main villain (who upon discovering the existence of alternate universes gets extreme nihilism and attempts to kill every Earth ever. He's also voiced by James Woods).

So I guess what I'm saying is this: give Evil Superman stories a rest. Definitely don't make us kill him in unnecessary sequels to games that already have the perfect ending. And if you absolutely have to do an Evil Superman story, just use Ultraman. It's literally his whole purpose.

Comments

[magister]

This was one of the reasons I didn't like the DC Snyderverse. Granted Superman was nowhere near what you've talked about, but the way he was characterised was not something I would recognise as Superman. Basically, he's an all-powerful alien who's kind of isolated from humanity and whose only real link with the human race is the womanhood loves. To be fair, that's potentially an interesting story. Sadly it's basically Dr Manhattan from Watchmen and Snyder's already had one swing at putting him on screen. It just seems a great shame that no-one seems to be willing to make something as unashamedly heartfelt and idealistic as the original Chris Reeve Superman from 1978.

[mrrieper]

Pretty much. DCEU Superman felt kind of like Batman, which then meant that when Batman turned up he had be even more grimdark to the point that he may as well have been the Punisher in a batsuit.

[magister]

Indeed - it's like dominos toppling. Although I found out recently that Batman scarring people actually came from Darren Aronofsky's script for Batman Year One.

[mrrieper]

Huh, interesting.