Superman was way too mortal.
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Ginkasa — 15 years ago(September 05, 2010 10:25 PM)
I think the issue was that sometimes he didn't seem like Superman. I can dig him not instantly decimating everything that comes in his way. But, it was like every episode the enemy would somehow just have some gun that could knock Superman back.
There were also occasions where it seemed his various powers weren't really being utilized; his super-speed mainly. Any time his speed could actually be useful suddenly he doesn't have it! He flies at a snail's pace or can only run normal human speeds. But, oh, now the danger's gone he can zoom behind Lois Lane to catch her or something.
I also didn't like how, apparently, every alien somehow has Superman levels of strength like its not even something special. It kills the "Super" thing.
Most of the drama should be from whether Superman can save the supporting cast or not. That's why Superman has the best supporting cast in all of superherodom: so they can have all kinds of craziness trying to kill them. Will Superman get there in time? How can Superman possibly stop the missile from blowing up the orphanage, keep the villain from escaping, and catch Lois Lane all at the same time? Only occasionally should there be a villain who can stand toe-to-toe with Superman, rather than just any joe schmoe with a laser pistol to exosuit or something. -
MydnightRose — 15 years ago(March 22, 2011 04:44 PM)
Maybe because I have watched too much Smallville, but I don't think this Superman is that "weak" or vulnerable. I personally did not like the spacesuit and the diving suit, but I understand why they decided to go that route and I respect them for going there.
Lois Lane=
Leia Lane -
PopcornDave — 14 years ago(October 12, 2011 12:32 PM)
I agree. It seemed no matter what story they were doing and no matter what the setting, there was
always
a villain there who could go toe-to-toe with Supes like it ain't no thang. The showrunners said they were desperate to avoid relying on kryptonite every week so tried to create threats in other ways, but I think they went a little too far and created a situation where not only is Superman a little bit of a pansy but almost every villain ends up just having a prolonged fistfight with him. For Christ's sake, in one episode we're expected to believe that a friggin' robot kangaroo is a serious threat!
I think it says a LOT that Superman's most popular villains are brooding puppet masters like Luthor, Brainiac and Darkseid, while characters who go up to Superman and start punching him in the face (Metallo, Parasite and so on) are B-list at best. The reason is obviously that Luthor et al can challenge Superman in ways beyond the physical, and that's what makes Superman stories interesting. I like a lot of the fighting plots, but with a character like Superman you can't do them every week; it just becomes cheap. -
wetbrain — 13 years ago(November 21, 2012 07:42 PM)
Yes I a gree, he's way to weak in this series.
Anytime a writer takes on a legendary character.. and by now Superman is indeed, a modern legend, you are agree to taking on certain constraints.
For example, you don't write a modern Sherlock Holmes story where Holmes is a bumbling fool or a Robin Hood story where Robin robs from the poor and gives to the rich. Unless you are intending to write a satire, which Superman is clearly not.
He's not a flying version of Spiderman. He's basically a super hero's Superhero.
It's a shame that in a cartoon which basically allows special effects to cost really little to no more than regular scenes, Superman is less powerful than his live action counterparts.
There are plenty of things that can challenge a Silver age Superman
a) Kryptonite (multiple colors)
b) Villains with similar powers - Bizarro, Zod etc.
c) "the Red Sun" environment
D) Magic
E) Some scientific discoveries (Virus X) as shown in the comics - but used sparingly.
F) The classic "I need to be in 2 places at the same time" problem.
De-powering Superman creates as many problems as it solves. For example, why should villains even bother with Kryptonite? Just a throw a big enough bomb at him and he's dead anyways.
Superman deserves better. -
preachcaleb — 13 years ago(November 23, 2012 07:33 AM)
Because a big enough bomb is as hard to get a hold of as a chunk of kryptonite. He withstood the equivalent of a nuclear blast. How much bigger of a bomb would the bad guy's have?
Straightedge means I'm better than you. -
HellboundHero — 12 years ago(July 19, 2013 10:51 AM)
Superman's invulnerability is a common criticism.
I'm glad that the writers took it down a notch.
His powers had already been taken down a notch in John Byrne's run in the comics, then STAS came along and took it down much further, further than necessary IMO. -
DarthBill — 11 years ago(May 02, 2014 04:43 AM)
You know this turned into an on again/off again argument between me and a friend for years. At this point she's genuinely convinced that Bruce Timm "ruined Superman for a generation" with both this & Justice League because of the inconsistent power levels issue. The thing is Superman's power levels have always been inconsistent across multiple incarnations, and when I pointed out that the old Max Fleischer cartoons (which are awesome) and the old Super-Friends cartoons (which are horribly lame) had the exact same problems she was all like "Nu-uh, I'm not gonna criticize those because they were made in a different time" which I personally think is an extremely flimsy reason not to criticize those earlier versions, but in the case of Super-Friends she probably has nostalgia issues (personally I hate Super-Friends and everything it represents but that's another story); I mean c'mon, it's one thing to like Super-Friends despite how bad it is but saying its flaws don't count isn't fair. Hell, by her logic pretty much every incarnation of Superman "ruined the character for a generation" since no one's ever done a particularly good job of keeping his power levels consistent.
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Duragizer — 11 years ago(June 10, 2014 04:10 AM)
Perhaps his power levels were scaled back a little too much, but it's preferable to pre-Crisis "move planets and fly to other galaxies in seconds" power levels.
I'm Heather Langenkamp's husband in another universe. -