The Versatility of Superman

A great thing about the superhero genre is that fans have their favorite.  And the several decades that the gerne has existed, gives fans a long list to choose from.  However, there is one character that arguably set the genre into great heights. Set it on the path it is on now.  Perhaps the Godfather of all superheroes.  Superman has lasted the test of time, has been a various form of media, and will forever be immortal in pop culture and perhaps engrained in everyday culture.  He is THE boy scout among the various heroes that exist.  Some say the boy scout trait is important, some say it is boring.  It is a vital trait for Superman to have but he is much more than that.  Even though he is at the core of the superhero genre, it could be said he is the bread and butter of the genre, the Man of Steel is far more versatile than the boy scout manner. 

The path that Superman has gone down in recent years, is the aggressive Superman route.  Many stories – in the books, games, and films – Superman has been shown as an overlord or an evil version of himself. That trend quickly became the one the one to adopt, which it was.  However, it soon became redundant.  For a character that is a true and absolute sign of hope, it was odd to see Superman in that light.  Regardless, there was still versatility even in those depictions.  In Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Superman was powerful force of nature that brings chaos where he goes.  But in the depiction, he was the Darth Vader to Darkseid’s Emperor.  Despite that absolute power, he was still second in a chain of power.  In the Injustice games, he was the main threat.  It was him.  He called the shots.  That Superman’s word was indisputable law.  Even with a bigger threat coming in the form of Brainiac, Superman bested him to reclaim the title of a global threat.  And of course, there are other forms in the books, including one that landed on Apokolips instead of Kansas.  There, he was raised from birth to be Darkseid’s world ender.  He was even raised by Germans during World War II.  Even though the evil Superman trope was considered the best and more unique to tackle the character for some time, the reasons behind the change were different and unique all themselves.

With stories like Superman: Red Son and The Flashpoint Paradox, they show Superman in another light.  One has Superman raised in the Soviet Union and the other has him crashing in the middle of Metropolis instead of a Kansas farm.  Both stories though, Clark was taken in by the governments and kept for their own needs.  As a Soviet Union representative, he was the deterrent, a weapon that was on the brink of being used.  And after his crash in Metropolis, Superman was taken away and stored away to never see the sun until he was an adult.  However, despite the upbringing, at the end, Superman showed his benevolent nature.  It showed that he is much more than a boy scout.  He proved that nature triumphs over nurture.  It showed that Superman is good at his core.  Good is in his DNA.  For a character that is meant to be the gold standard of superheroes, Superman must have lawful good in him. 

Then with stories like Superman: Doomsday and some in the Justice League animated show, Superman is a character that is more than willing to unleash the absolute power he has within him.  Superman goes against threat that are greater than him.  His soft and kind demeanor needed to be forgotten, needed to be thrown to waist side.  Doomsday and Darkseid forced Superman to tap into something he rarely goes into.  Superman was forced to use quarreled rage.  Superman usually holds back a significant amount of his power in fights.  But in these collisions in these stories, he had to unleash.  He had to be a horrifying force of nature to protect humanity.  These stories reveal that Superman could exist in between the traits of being terrifying and a force of a good.  It also showed that Superman doesn’t need to turn evil to unleash all that power he has.  He could stick to his character still and use this terrifying power by having treats force his hand.

More stories like The Reign of the Supermen and Zack Snyder’s Justice League show how crucial Superman is to the world.  Not as a boy scout but as a true symbol of hope.  The world was left hopeless, was feeling a sense of being defenseless in the stories.  Even the Justice League – as powerful as they are as a team – felt outmatched without Superman.  They resorted to drastic means to get Superman back, not just for them to be whole, but for the world to be safer.  And it The Reign of the Supermen, Superman left a hole in the world.  A few other Supermen tried to fill that hole he left behind.  Despite some having good intentions and others having the power to match him, they were unable to outright replace him.  Showing that Superman is much more than a powerhouse, a boy scout, a voice of reason, but an unconquerable, unreplaceable embodiment of hope. 

Superman will always be associated with the boy scout trait.  Due to that, many considered Superman boring to watch and to write.  But there are numerous avenues that fans can take Superman.  He is not limited to the boy scout persona at all.  One story he could be intimated by his own power, and in another separate one, Superman could use it to overtake a galaxy or to beat a Darkseid and Doomsday in the same fight. Superman’s limits are non-existent, as are his capabilities as a character.