Widely disliked ideas about Superman that you like?

[Super Monkey]

And those are the only stories that have been reprinted, like I said.

You guys must not be buying the Showcase Superman books. What are you waiting for? They are cheap and MUST HAVES for all true Superman fans.

[Aldous]

I'm in two minds about Bizarro.

Wasn't Superboy's Bizarro story the first Bizarro? I have liked this comic since I was a kid, and it's actually very sad, if I recall correctly. I haven't dug the issue out, but I remember it as a tale of good intentions gone wrong, with tragic results. (A Superboy story from the 50s I believe.) I could find the issue and write a synopsis if anyone's desperately curious.

I remember Bizarro mainly as this: a tragic duplicate of Superboy from a very good and sad story.

I never liked the Superman (ie. grown-up) version. I would have said: let well enough alone. The Superboy one didn't need a sequel or any further development.

[JulianPerez]

As for more ideas that I like but that other people don't seem to...

I don't mind "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis."

Okay, their solution was a little cracked, but STILL, I can't blame Marty for trying here. I can understand the spirit of the story: why DO the glasses make an effective disguise, anyway?

Some people say that Superman is based on suspension of disbelief and no matter how far you go, you have to, at some level, accept that glasses can be a disguise. My response to this is that if an idea is any good it should be able to withstand obvious questions, and that suspension of disbelief works for some things and not others: in other words, believing a man can fly requires some imagination, but glasses tricking people is just plain gullibility.

The explanation the movies gave for why glasses could be a good disguise is interesting, too: there's no real "trick" to the glasses; Superman is just a really good actor.

I do like the idea of different colored Kryptonite, too.

Many people think that different colored kryptonite needlessly complicates what should be a very straightforward idea (a radioactive rock that can kill Superman) but Kryptonite is so...magical a substance, almost...that it seems unfair to just have it do one thing and serve only one purpose. It was interesting to see Alan Moore's "Supremium," from SUPREME, which was less like Kryptonite and more like LSD: unknowable, mysterious, and a little scary.

Plus, it was kind of cool when very rare types of Kryptonite popped up. One of the few Conway stories I liked featured Superman saving the day with White Kryptonite. The fact that somebody got use out of White Kryptonite had entertainment value and coolness in and of itself.

Finally, I like the Jeph Loeb Supergirl, a character that sells well but for some reason people don't seem to like. I think they made the right choice in having her be feisty and independent. The problem with bringing Supergirl back is, you can't bring her back with her original characterization, as a hero-worshipping and slightly ditzy blonde, because the thing is, like Kandor, her story already got resolved: we watched Supergirl change from being a girl to being an independent, adult woman. They skipped the middleman and brought her right to the "end" of her Bronze Age "cycle," and so we're pretty much guaranteed to see something new.

Plus, I don't mind the outfit, either. Supergirl's cute, and I'm not hypocritical enough to say to say I'm bothered by fun-spirited cheesecake.

I think the Loeb Supergirl is something to rejoyce over, because as much as I admire Peter David as a writer, Supergirl went from being a very straightforward concept - Superman's girl cousin - to being something else that's very strange and only tangentally connected to the Super-universe.

[Gangbuster]

And those are the only stories that have been reprinted, like I said.

You guys must not be buying the Showcase Superman books. What are you waiting for? They are cheap and MUST HAVES for all true Superman fans.

Nope. I'm still waiting and hoping that DC will continue publishing the Man of Tomorrow Archives, in color. I do have the B&W 500-page reprint of the Fantastic Four comics, but I care about them less.

[Aldous]

Superman's supersuit:

A whole book can be written on his suit! The real suit never rips and the cape can stretch across a football field!

The fake (Iron Age) Superman wears a costume is forever tearing and ripping like the peice of (BEEP) that it is.

I couldn't agree more!

You will know from previous posts how much I detest the Eighties' ditching of the super-costume. I never saw anything so stupid in Superman comics as his cape getting ripped in half almost every issue, and the Man of Steel having to collect a fresh batch of capes from his mother. Holy Hannah! That was so stupid.

I always loved the idea of the super-costume, made of Kryptonian material stowed away in the rocket. It made such incredibly perfect sense!

When I started watching the George Reeves TV show recently (the authentic live-action Superman), I was very pleased to note his origin story included the super-suit made from Kryptonian material.

[Great Rao]

Although the current issue of Superman (#646) shows Superman sporting a ripped cape on the cover, in the story itself his cape remains completely intact and he even uses it to catch the pieces of a collapsing building.

[Super Monkey]

Although the current issue of Superman (#646) shows Superman sporting a ripped cape on the cover, in the story itself his cape remains completely intact and he even uses it to catch the pieces of a collapsing building.

Cool! Someone needs to scan that

Perhaps when you update this page http://superman.nu/a/comics3.php

it would be one of the great ways to show the difference.

[Permanus]

I always liked the fact that the suit was not only indestructible, but apparently infinitely elastic as well; it was always a blast to see Superman stretch his cape out to catch falling debris. That's how I do my housecleaning.