On Evil Superman

 I will not have a lot of time to write on Friday, so I am writing this earlier in the week! I hope it turns out okay.

Funnily enough, I wrote down the idea for this Saturday Note right before bed, and then I had a related dream? That kind of thing doesn’t usually happen to me. I thought it was pretty weird. And kind of cool, because I was Batman in that dream.

On Evil Superman

I keep starting these Notes with variations of, “So I recently re-watched Justice League Unlimited…”, and I’m sure that’s getting old, buuuuuuut–I was recently re-watching Justice League Unlimited and a major part of the story is the possibility of Superman turning evil. In a previous season of the show, we see an alternate universe in which this exact thing has happened–Superman has led the Justice League into overthrowing the world governments (or at least, the US government) and rule with an iron fist. It’s a great episode.

Our Superman, the main universe one, proves in the end that he’s not like that one, because he refuses to kill. Even when it seems like everything is in place for him to kill Lex Luthor, Superman decides that he can’t do it, he’s not that guy, and he’s not a murderer. No matter what.

…man, the DC Animated Universe spoiled us.

For reasons beyond my ken, it has become fashionable in recent years to present the idea of “What if Superman… WAS EVIL!!!!” Sometimes this is delivered through alternate, name’s-changed-so-legally-okay examples, like Homelander on The Boys, and other times it’s done with actual Superman, like in Injustice. We’re going to focus on the latter, because it’s a lot easier to do an essay about.

Let’s face it: this has become a horribly boring scenario in the last few years. It’s up there with “What if the Nazis won World War II?” in terms of over-asked questions in genre fiction. It’s overrated, overused, and often undercooked. We need to move on from this idea. There is a reason that the Superman character exists as he does, and simply asking, “What if he’s Evil?” doesn’t generally do that much with it.

Particularly frustrating is the motivations of it. In Zack Snyder’s planned Justice League cycle, he was going to have Superman turn evil and join Darkseid because Lois is going to die and also the Anti-Life Equation (however that works??). Look, Injustice also frigid Lois Lane, but in t hat version, what broke Superman wasn’t just that she died, it was that he was tricked into killing her, which is a lot more likely to drive the man insane. Snyder assumed that just having his lady love die would be enough (okay, that and the Plot Device of the Anti-Life Equation, but blegh) and I feel like that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of who Superman is. 

I sort of get why some people like the idea of an evil Superman as an antagonist. Because it’s a really, really strong villain–no one can beat Superman, can they? So it gives you a challenge for your protagonists, and they have to come up with some really ingenious things to try to stop Superman from killing them. Except it often boils down to “Batman must fight Superman for humanity’s freedom.”

Side note! I would be really interested in seeing a take on Batman being the one who turns into an evil overlord, though it would have to be done in a less obvious way. I have only seen one comic try this out, and that was in the backstory. I suppose there’s also the different Batmans in Dark Knights: Metal, if we want to count those? I don’t particularly.

This also seems to forget that there are other Kryptonian villains that could be used as world-conquering overlords. And ALSO there are plenty of other characters in Superman’s weight class in the DC universe–Captain Atom, Shazam, Wonder Woman–that would make it pretty difficult for him to assert complete control over the world (the Injustice tie-in comic remembers this, if no one else does).

But no! We want evil Superman! So we’ll get our evil Superman story!

I strongly suspect that this has a lot to do with the modern backlash against Superman. There are a lot of people from my generation who decided that Superman actually sucks because he’s almost completely invincible, and morally upright, and decided that meant he was a bad character who had no challenges to face. Therefore, the only thing we can do with him is make him evil, and elevate Batman as the only hero good and human enough to face him. 

The truth, though, is that if you can’t think of anything to do with Superman other than making him the villain, I suspect you haven’t thought about it hard enough. There are a ton of things you can do with Superman! There are a ton of stories in which he can be vulnerable–whether physically, intellectually, or emotionally! And if none of those appeal to you, then you can just stay away from the character!

That sounds harsh, and I suppose it is, but I just don’t want to keep reading or watching stories about Superman turning evil because authors can’t think of anything else to do with the character. They want to make a grim, dark superhero story, not realizing that superhero stories can be dark without derailing the characters and making them into villains. Or without fridging Lois Lane. 

We could be doing so much more with superhero stories than “Oh no! Superman’s evil!” takes. It’s become frustrating that it’s become so common–and it’s disheartening that it was almost the entire center of a cinematic universe.

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