The Official Superman Thread

Stallion9979

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A place to talk about all things Superman comics related....

Here's my first interesting question...What currently stands as Superman official canon?

Man of Steel? Birthright? An amalgam of both? Some New Earth hogwash?

What from the last 20 years of post-Crisis Superman still actually happened without being retconned?
 
I personally hope they did away with the whole Birthright series...I thought it was horrible from start to finish...the only thing I liked about it is that it ended lol....
 
I thought Byrne had a clean streamlined origin and there was no reason to mess with it...it was a perfect jumpoff point for readers...

there just been so many changes and tweaks to Superman's back story I'm curious what still is and isnt still recognized...
 
Byrne's cold, clinical Krypton is no more. Supes was with the Legion in his youth, and Lex was in Smallville.
 
ugh...sorry not a Legion fan at all...Superman has no business with the Legion as a team mate...

the Lex angle I could easily deal with since it works so great on the show...Smallville is slowly going from pre Superman days to pre-DC universe days...you have other heroes showing up in interesting ways and showing how in the future all these people could actually interact other then just joining up and pounding the bad guy of the week...
 
Well, Blame Goeff Johns, everybody else seems to.
 
The only thing that I don't like about the direction of Busiek and Johns towards Superman is that they completely trashed his origin. That and they got rid of the fact that Superman killed Zod and his cronies because he had no choice.

I feel that the New Earth Superman should be the perfect blend of all the Superman mythos. Donner's Superman, TAS Superman, Smallville (ugh) Superman, Byrne's Superman, Rucka's Superman, Siegel/Schuster's Superman, etc.
 
see but didnt he kill an alternate version of Zod and them...the Pocket Universe Versions outside of the regular DCU...

I really dont like this New Earth at all...you dont seem to be much of a Smallville fan huh lol...
 
see but didnt he kill an alternate version of Zod and them...the Pocket Universe Versions outside of the regular DCU...

I really dont like this New Earth at all...you dont seem to be much of a Smallville fan huh lol...

I'm actually liking the New Earth direction of Superman due to the solid storytelling of Busiek on Superman and Johns on Action Comics. This is the first time I'm breaking my holy rule of buying no more than one Superman/Batman/Spider-Man/Punisher title.

I just don't like that they changed a few things (like Superman killing just one time having to go through such a dilemma) and that they discarded his orign especially since Birthright came out not too long ago and now we really have only a few ideas on how Superman's origin came to be.

And yes, I loathe Smallville. But I recognise that there are people who like it. Just like how there are people who like Superman: The Animated Series and hate it. Or like Superman Returns and hate it. I feel that every fan of Superman and every aspect of Superman needs to be recognised in some shape or form.
 
well i actually decided to do some digging and according to wikipedia....

According to monthly Superman writer Kurt Busiek, the origin of Superman in the post-Infinite Crisis New Earth continuity has yet to be established, meaning that both this series and Man of Steel have been removed from current DC Comics continuity. This is the second major Superman origin 'revamp', the first Superman origin retelling is the The Man of Steel by John Byrne which ran in 1986. There is currently a third in development.

So I guess that means they are gonna be coming out with the New Earth Superman Origin pretty soon...and all the past one will be no longer canon...

The article also goes on to say...

Post-Action #850

Action Comics issue #850 presents the latest revision of Superman's origin, containing many subtle retcons to Birthright. Indeed, the new timeline is specifically indicated to supersede Birthright and Man of Steel in a panel which shows a progression of three successive versions of Superman viewed by Kara Zor-El and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century.

Written collaboratively by Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Geoff Johns, the new version includes details such as Krypto's presence on (the real) Krypton Jor-El's frustrations with the Council of Krypton refusing to evacuate the planet, Clark's awareness of his adopted status from a young age, having interactions with Lex Luthor at a younger age, Clark not being the indirect cause of Lex's baldness, his wearing glasses as far back as his early teens in Smallville, and apparently making his public debut in a scene similar to one that is shown in The Man of Steel. The new version also supports retcons in the portrayal and aesthetic design of Jor-El, now similar to Marlon Brando's portrayal of the role, and Krypton, as featured in the ongoing Richard Donner co-authored arcs of Action Comics (essentially rendering Krypton closer in style to his and Bryan Singer's shared film continuity)as well as the fitting in with the retcon introduced in The Lightning Saga that Clark was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes at some point in his youth (possibly as Superboy) and retains possession of a Legion flight ring. Some of Byrne's elements remain intact, such as the strained relationship between Superman and Batman, as well as Clark's teenage crush on Lana Lang. Also, in Action Comics #858, Clark Kent is shown as being mild-mannered (but not clumsy) with Perry White admonishing him for not having friends his own age.

Now what it means for alot of the other things that took place in Superman canon from then on I have no clue...how they will fold events like Death/Return...Lois & Clarks wedding....Lex II...murdering the Pocket Zone Zod and things like that in is up in the air...it just doesnt seem like so many events would make sense in such a small span of time....
 
well i actually decided to do some digging and according to wikipedia....

According to monthly Superman writer Kurt Busiek, the origin of Superman in the post-Infinite Crisis New Earth continuity has yet to be established, meaning that both this series and Man of Steel have been removed from current DC Comics continuity. This is the second major Superman origin 'revamp', the first Superman origin retelling is the The Man of Steel by John Byrne which ran in 1986. There is currently a third in development.

So I guess that means they are gonna be coming out with the New Earth Superman Origin pretty soon...and all the past one will be no longer canon...

The article also goes on to say...

Post-Action #850

Action Comics issue #850 presents the latest revision of Superman's origin, containing many subtle retcons to Birthright. Indeed, the new timeline is specifically indicated to supersede Birthright and Man of Steel in a panel which shows a progression of three successive versions of Superman viewed by Kara Zor-El and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st century.

Written collaboratively by Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Geoff Johns, the new version includes details such as Krypto's presence on (the real) Krypton Jor-El's frustrations with the Council of Krypton refusing to evacuate the planet, Clark's awareness of his adopted status from a young age, having interactions with Lex Luthor at a younger age, Clark not being the indirect cause of Lex's baldness, his wearing glasses as far back as his early teens in Smallville, and apparently making his public debut in a scene similar to one that is shown in The Man of Steel. The new version also supports retcons in the portrayal and aesthetic design of Jor-El, now similar to Marlon Brando's portrayal of the role, and Krypton, as featured in the ongoing Richard Donner co-authored arcs of Action Comics (essentially rendering Krypton closer in style to his and Bryan Singer's shared film continuity)as well as the fitting in with the retcon introduced in The Lightning Saga that Clark was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes at some point in his youth (possibly as Superboy) and retains possession of a Legion flight ring. Some of Byrne's elements remain intact, such as the strained relationship between Superman and Batman, as well as Clark's teenage crush on Lana Lang. Also, in Action Comics #858, Clark Kent is shown as being mild-mannered (but not clumsy) with Perry White admonishing him for not having friends his own age.

Pretty much like I said, they've completely scrapped Superman's origin without providing a new one and only giving us bits and pieces at a time such as his connections with the Legion of Superheroes and how Krypton was before it exploded. It's actually rather annoying.
 
I think that DC was going in a really good direction right up until IC...since then its been making tons of needless changes for the simple sake of making changes and Superman...which should be a simple iconic character is marred in way too much complexity...
 
Can't argue with you there.

Except for Green Lantern. Those books are in such a f**king awesome direction now thanks to Johns and Green Lantern Corps. :up:
 
but from what I hear they are gonna have every color in the rainbow with its own ring and corps...how many Lantern Corps are you actually gonna need...I imagine next to that Supes confusing origins may not be that bad after all lol...but Superman being a Legion member sucks and is completely ridiculous...
 
but from what I hear they are gonna have every color in the rainbow with its own ring and corps...how many Lantern Corps are you actually gonna need...I imagine next to that Supes confusing origins may not be that bad after all lol...but Superman being a Legion member sucks and is completely ridiculous...

The multiple Lantern Corps is f**king awesome! :cmad:
 
idk..never been too much of a GL fan theres so much going on there that I wouldnt even begin to know whats going on there...
 
idk..never been too much of a GL fan theres so much going on there that I wouldnt even begin to know whats going on there...

You should have checked out the Sinestro Corps crossover. It's DC's best storyline of 2007 if not the best crossover of the year in my opinion.
 
ive heard alot of things about it...but with almost no prior knowlegde of all the backstory there i feel i would be completely lost...
 
superman being in the legion is great direction for the character. never gave any good reasons why its a bad move.
 
I've never typically been a legion fan...

I personally liked the whole loner aspect of Superman up til he joins the league later in his career...

seems like nowadays every hero needs to be on a team of some sort to gain attention and with a character like Superman thats just not necessary...
 
its not necessary, but it doesn't hurt the character considering the influence superman had on the legion. and i don't see many people *****ing about him on the JLA.
 
Someone should put up descriptions of Superman's origins,from the Pre-DC Superman Origin,the Pre-Crisis version,the edited Pre-Crisis version,the Post-Crisis version and the modern versions.That would be a intresting read.
 
I just started reading Action Comics. The art is outstanding. Superman looks and acts like the Superman I know. The classic Legion characters are looking good. The characters I'm not familiar with look good, too. The only thing I don't like is the need to introduce all the different characters with little labels, and descriptions of their powers. Most of their abilities are pretty obvious, either due to their name, their appearance, or the fact that they're demonstrating those abilities in the panel.
 

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