Thinking Out Loud: In Justice

What if Superman were a bad guy? Fans have been asking this question since the Golden Age of comics, but there never seems to be a satisfying answer. Well, honestly, the answer is "boring", but most won't appreciate that, so let's talk this through, shall we? As I've discussed more than once, Superman is "The Man of Tomorrow", the ideal to which humanity can strive, representing compassion as much as strength; a shining light for all mankind. Any attempt to shift Superman away from this history and iconography tends to fall flat, like Man of Steel or Injustice, which focus only on Superman's powers and not his humanity. That's not to say that Injustice is bad, or even the target of my ire, the comics I've read are really quite good (I haven't played the games), but they're not good because Superman is the villain, but in spite of it. It honestly baffles me that some of the same voices that claim Superman is a boring character because he can do anything, then turn around and laud versions where the character is a villain; he's still all-powerful, so how is that any different? 

"But what about Red Son?" I hear someone cry from the back. Yes, Red Son is really good, brilliant even in places, but Superman isn't a "bad guy" in it. I know decades of propaganda has made it difficult for some, but being a Communist doesn't automatically make the otherwise completely-altruistic Superman a villain. The comic has Superman turn most of the world into a Communist Utopia without hunger or labor, how is that "evil" behavior? Yes, Luthor overcomes this world order with a supercharged capitalist dictatorship, but he's clearly the villain, he's Lex freaking Luthor. I know I'm an avowed anarchist, but it's not as simple as "Capitalism Good, Communism Bad", ok? Anyway, if one of the best alternate takes on Superman has him save the world and institute broad social welfare programs, where does that leave our "evil" version? Well, we have Ultraman, Zod and Hyperion, but these just don't seem to be what people want, because they're not *strictly* Superman. 

I think a lot of this comes back to most readers being more interested in seeing Supes punch things than actually be Superman. It's a lot easier to justify Superman taking the violent way out if he's bad to begin with. And again, for those in the back, it's not that you can't get interesting stories out of this idea, I enjoy both Irredeemable and Brightburn on their own merits, but they're not Superman stories for a very good reason. I know this is a trend that will never really go away, but I'd like it to, as it's just tiresome and only demonstrates a misunderstanding of who and what Superman is. There are plenty of alternate takes on a similar character, even in addition to those mentioned above; check out Supreme Power, Super Folks or even Invincible if you really need that in your life, because each of those at least does something novel and unique with the concept. Superman is all good. Any other take is usually a waste of time.