Why does everybody hate Superman?

[Vivi22]

But what stupid reason would Superman have to not lock up Lex for ever?

For the simple reason that he tries very hard not to simply play god with people's lives. He's one of the most powerful characters in comic books. Depending on the story, other heroes may not be able to stop him at all. One of the things he has to frequently deal with is the fact that he could easily solve all of the worlds problems himself. He could kill or imprison all of the criminals forever, end world hunger, end wars, maybe even end disease. But to do it he'd have to impose his will on everyone. What gives him the right? That he was born with super powers? He has to walk a very fine line between helping humanity, but also letting us continue to live free of oppression and to try and solve our problems ourselves.

Hell, that conflict is at the very heart of one of my favourite DC stories: Kingdom Come. A book which almost single handedly revived my love of DC Comics and the Superman character when I read it several years back.

 

[Yopaz]

I don't hate Superman, but I'll add my thoughts anyway.

Superman is perfect. He's almost invincible, he's got a lot of powers, he's got a strong moral compass. Really he's a nice guy. For avid readers there's a lot of things you can say about Superman that I don't know, but being a little interested and sometimes reading a comic or two I don't catch the subtleties, I catch what those who aren't that into it see. A bland boring person.

 

[Eddie G1223]

I love Superman. It's the writers I can't stand.

 

[Ranorak]

But what stupid reason would Superman have to not lock up Lex for ever?

For the simple reason that he tries very hard not to simply play god with people's lives. He's one of the most powerful characters in comic books. Depending on the story, other heroes may not be able to stop him at all. One of the things he has to frequently deal with is the fact that he could easily solve all of the worlds problems himself. He could kill or imprison all of the criminals forever, end world hunger, end wars, maybe even end disease. But to do it he'd have to impose his will on everyone. What gives him the right? That he was born with super powers? He has to walk a very fine line between helping humanity, but also letting us continue to live free of oppression and to try and solve our problems ourselves.

Hell, that conflict is at the very heart of one of my favourite DC stories: Kingdom Come. A book which almost single handedly revived my love of DC Comics and the Superman character when I read it several years back.

That might be the case for say, moral ambiguous points, like the points you mentioned.
But Lex is a criminal, and I'm not sure, but the prisons in Metropolis aren't that cardboard crappy like Gotham, are they?

Why does Lex remain free?

 

[Axyun]

He's boring. The only Superman I ever enjoyed reading was when Doomsday arrived. First time Superman was actually in a threatening bind. He's too unrelatable otherwise.

But, in general, I've never been a fan of too-powerful heroes like Thor, Green Lantern, Silver Surfer, etc. I prefer my heroes I bit closer to earth (Batman, Spiderman, Wolverine). Batman gets extra props because he has no super powers at all. He's just a genious martial artist and detective with an agenda and a lot of cash to burn.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

They sell him as an all American hero when he is an illegal immigrant. lol Seriously though, i think its the movies that ruin him. Dumb shit with Lex, so bored with that loser. We want a movie with someone that can go toe to toe with him like Darkseid or whomever with out the bullshit cop out of Kryptonite.

 

[Vivi22]

That might be the case for say, moral ambiguous points, like the points you mentioned.
But Lex is a criminal, and I'm not sure, but the prisons in Metropolis aren't that cardboard crappy like Gotham, are they?

Why does Lex remain free?

Depends on the story, but he has served prison time at various points. The problem is Superman can't just summarily send someone to prison. You have to prove he's guilty of something in a court of law, and aside from being a billionaire with multiple companies, Lex is also a genius. Sure, Superman may know Lex was behind something, but he still has to prove it or it's simply his word against that of a respected business man who usually does do positive things for Metropolis as well. And Lex is very good at covering his tracks.

 

[Shinclone]

As most people here have said the character is just plain boring. His rogues gallery has only four real major threats (Luthor, Brainiac, Classic Doomsday and Darkseid) There's nothing about him to draw you in. Batman has the tragedy of of his parents being murdered in front of him and then goes on an epic journey to better himself and stop that happening to more people. But even his stories just go round and round. Then if you do get into it, DC will reboot the universe after about two years, while giving the fans the finger. Infact fuck DC. You want a good read with decent characters, read just about any Marvel comic. Daredevil, Thunderbolts, Spider-Man, Avengers. All excellent reads.

Read that back and realised it turned into a rant. Apologies. I'd gotten right into Green Lantern and then they pulled that universe reboot shit.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

He's too off-the-ground to me. Doesn't refer to his origins or supposedly goodie-two-shoes personality, I can roll with that. He's inherently super powerful, that's kind of what sets him aside, and that's not necessarily making him boring either if you pitch him against equally powerful opponents.

But that's the thing. You counter a hyperbole with another hyperbole and the whole situation just gets off the ground. It's just about power levels and you're not sure anymore if this giant explosion will actually do much more than clothing damage or whether it'll be deciding anything. Battles then turn into power level comparisons, not smart moves or wit, which I for one find unengaging.
The attempt to make him closer to earth via human relationships is also countered by his idealistic "goodie-two-shoes" personality.

So his two combined main features, that mindset and those superpowers, are pretty much blocking any chance of him being an interesting static character for me, and due to the inherent structuring of Western comic books with all their continuity problems, he also has no chance at becoming an interesting dynamic, developing character to me.

 

[V TheSystem V]

Overpowered, no interesting villains, no good recent films (until the Zack Snyder one, which I am hopeful about) and he's the vanilla superhero - he's just a bit too good at what he does. Batman and Spiderman have problems, but Superman can just throw his enemies into the sun!

 

[Your once and future Fanboy]

One of the reasons why we like certain stories, like good vanquishing evil. Is the struggle to overcome, taking pain and to keep going.
thats why many people still enjoy Wolverine comics, even when his regeneration power are so boosted that he is almost immortal (as in the Wolverine Orgins comics, he survive being burned down to just the adamantium sceleton). Because he feels pain and can get beat, it feels more rewarding to se him win.
But Superman isn't vaulnerable to anything but magic and kryptonite, and those are hard to show damage and pain thats relatable. And in most stories we see him knocked back by attacks but he don't feel pain from it, so why would we think Darkseid could beat him without magic or kryptonite, when the character is already presented as unaffected by anything else.

The most interesting stories with him are those that are more about his place in this world and his struggles with his powers (i.e avoiding killing villians), but the writers seem afraid to tell those stories. Even in the stories where he is yet to become Superman as we know him, he never kills because he couldn't hold back enough (if there are stories like this, please correct me).

If you wan't to sum up why many feel he is overpowered to the point where there isn't any dramatic tension of him being defeated, just see the final episode of Justice League: Unlimited:

-(SPOILERS)-

Darkseid and Brainiac have fused together and is destroying everyone, after he and Superman have fought a good while and Darkseid is dominating Superman, Superman just says he is glad Darkseid is powerful enough now to the point Superman don't have to hold back anymore. Superman then beats him to a pulp in 10 seconds... That's all folks!
All of the previous stories in the Justice League and J.L Unlimited show (5 seasion in total) have now been cheapen'd by this one minute of screentime.
All the tension of the previous episodes where false 'cus the big. blue boyscout could have squashed the enemy anytime he wanted.

-(end of spoilers)-

This is why I hate Superman!

This would have been OK in his solo show, but when he is in a group that had to team because the enemy where too strong, it seems like he is just being nice so that his playmates won't be jealous (even if it means putting them in lifethreatening situations).

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

"BEcause God exists... and he's American."
- someone
Because he is a tyrant, and a prick to boot. Seriously, what he represens...
Everything is his way, what he wants. And who cam stop him?
There's a moons-worth of his weakness-rock on earth, somehow, but he always overcomes it. There is little that anyone can do to actually kill the bastard.

 

[Your once and future Fanboy]

-snip-

- snip-

Hell yeah, thanks for reminding me of Vash, he is Superman only reletable.
And the people in the show actually complain about him not killing when it might be the right thing to do... and he has his own Joker as well, so he is almost like a mix between Superman and Batman.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I don't find him to be an interesting character, although I think the OP makes a good point in saying that he's generally not meant to be relatable in the common sense. He is meant to be a paragon of virtue. Thing is, you can have a paragon that is more relatable such as in the case of Captain America.

To me, Supes is kind of the LOTR of superheroes. I can appreciate what it means to the origin/development of the genre, but when it comes right down to whether I actually like it now or not, I always find I like the things that came afterward much better.

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

Superman's only weakness is kryptonite, of various types. Think about that.

you really have no fucking clue about any of this do you?
do us all a favor, button it.

kyrptonite, magic, red solar radiation, and psychic attacks.

Okay, fine. Granted. He has a grand total of SIX possible ways to attack him, counting godlike power that's more unstoppable than he is immovable (which you mentioned later) and hurting him emotionally through his friends/morality (which you didn't).

You know what Batman's weakness is? How about Spiderman's? Magneto? Iron Man's? Countless others?

Their weakness is EVERYTHING. They have to try to block, dodge, or otherwise counter EVERY attack, no matter how mundane, because it all hurts them... you don't have to spend a year and a fortune tailoring your attack to them and only them, hitting them with a big truck'll do it. The only way they'd survive against an army would be to have the good sense not to be there very long (or, in Magneto's case, if that army was stupid enough to use only metal weapons against him), because one of those thousands of bullets and mortars and tank shells would find them and kill them, thanks to the good 'ol law of averages.

By contrast, Superman can walk through the world like it's made of cardboard, keeping an eye out only for kryptonite, magicians, psychic warriors and big glass domes with red sunlamps mounted to the top. Many of these situations require preparation of the battlefield, meaning that Superman has to possess the incredible stupidity to fall into a trap before it's a fair fight, resulting in him getting the Idiot Ball rather a lot. There's absolutely nothing your average drug-dealing gang member can do to threaten him, which just makes his encounters with them boring, suspense-free, and a bit like watching the class bully pick on a nerd.

In fact, he's often mind controlled/turned evil for precisely this reason, (perhaps the most common use of his psychic weakness) because his power set is more like that of a villan than a hero in terms of strength, particularly with the invulnerability schtick. The closer your weakness gets to, "Can be destroyed, for one and all, only when the One Ring is thrown into the fires of Mount Doom," the harder it becomes to write unique, compelling stories about your struggles... especially if you plan to stick around for decades upon decades.

 

[Auron225]

I don't hate him - its just he seems so... 'perfect', he's boring. Flaws/weaknesses make superheroes more interesting. And Kryptonite isn't enough of a weakness.

You make a good point about his villains being around the same level as him, but people usually compare superheroes with each other rather than their villains. No-one asks "Who would win in a fight between Batman and The Joker?" cause we all know the answer. Similarly, no-one asks "Who would win in a fight between Superman and [insert superhero here]?" cause again, we all know the answer. It almost feels like he's cheating against any other superhero.

EDIT: The same reason it gets old pretty quickly to play any game with God-mode cheats on.

 

[hermes]

Because most of the time (before 80s) he is just boring and overpowered. During golden and silver age, he was just invincible and most of his adventures were fighting against something that couldn't hurt him:
- Meteorite is about to crash on Metropolis? No worries, Superman can make it explode without breaking a sweat.
- Giant robot? Its fine, Superman flies up to its head and rips it off with a punch.
- Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes? Its ok, Superman will find him. (seriously, Luthor was quite petty as a villain until the 90s)
- Louis Lane discover his identity? Fine, Superman can give her a lobotomy with his tongue by kissing her.

Which leads me the other complain. Superman powers grow with the needs of the writer. When he might have problems lifting a train in one chapter, he will easily move Earth on the next. Superman had everything from super-ventriloquism to super-accounting or a super-emblem-net, depending of the need of the week. He is invincible because of the plot. His powers count could reach up to dozens, and he would never use that power again of even account that it existed.

Things have gone better, though. If you want to good, current writing for Superman, I advise your to check on the DC Animated Universe...

 

[hermes]

If you wan't to sum up why many feel he is overpowered to the point where there isn't any dramatic tension of him being defeated, just see the final episode of Justice League: Unlimited:

-(SPOILERS)-

Darkseid and Brainiac have fused together and is destroying everyone, after he and Superman have fought a good while and Darkseid is dominating Superman, Superman just says he is glad Darkseid is powerful enough now to the point Superman don't have to hold back anymore. Superman then beats him to a pulp in 10 seconds... That's all folks!
All of the previous stories in the Justice League and J.L Unlimited show (5 seasion in total) have now been cheapen'd by this one minute of screentime.
All the tension of the previous episodes where false 'cus the big. blue boyscout could have squashed the enemy anytime he wanted.

-(end of spoilers)-

I guess you didn't saw the rest of the episode. Darkseid responds to Superman attacks and literally has him on his knees. In the end, the world is saved by... Lex Luthor (yeah, I don't know how that turned out either, but since its the last episode, we may never know).

Personally, I think that speech was mostly for bluffing and just to sound awesome. For a short time, Superman beats him nicely, but its not like Darkseid is close to dead. In fact, in several episodes of DCAU, Darkseid is beaten far worst than that.