10 Awful DC Superheroes Who Were Successfully Reinvented

10. Superman

Why He Was Awful

Superman's creators Siegel and Shuster and DC were making up the rules as they were going at the beginning, because there were no rules for them to stick to when they started. What's more, they were making comics for kids, so it isn't inconceivable why, from their perspective, they weren't overly concerned with making sure every detail of each issue matched up perfectly logically with everything else they were doing.

That being said... Here are some of the powers Superman has shown up with in his early days in the comic books, that he likely only used the once, and promptly forgot about: 1947's Superman #45 includes the hero possessing both telepathy and shapeshifting powers! Keep in mind this wasn't written by some hack who didn't have a grasp on the character €“- Superman's co-creator, Jerry Siegel himself, wrote it!

Having been captured by aliens and physically incapacitated, Superman is forced to use his mind (meaning, telepathy, a power he never had before) to convince his captor to remove the device he used to travel through dimensions. He then proceeds to convincingly transform himself into a member of an alien species, tricking everyone!

In Superman #127, the Man of Steel battles Titano, a giant monkey that has since shown up in the nineties Superman animated series, as well as other comics. After defeating the ape, Superman hurls the monkey into the past (and you thought the ending of the Superman movie was whacky!). Not to make that the strangest thing in that particular issue, however, he then proceeds to use his super-vision to look through time to make sure Titano's doing well in the past, which he is.

Fans were, naturally, surprised to have Superman see through time, so the change was made to "super-imagination" in a later reprint of the story, implying that rather than actually checking, Superman just imagines that he's fine, and promptly forgets all about it. These examples don't even mention things like the super-ventriloquism (ability to throw his voice across great distances), or his Super-Horse named Comet, who was evidently sentient, and in love with Lois Lane.

How He Was Fixed

A lot of the work here was done for DC by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which reset the DC universe in 1986. This helped simplify much of Superman's continuity, removing many of the sillier aspects of his background.

Gone was the Superhorse, and any remnants of the nonsensical powers he previously possessed. The limits of his powers still aren't overly clear, but we can now list, at least, the powers he does possess, without fear that next week he'll manifest the ability to project tiny Supermen from his hands (which happened, in Superman #125).

We need to remember, of course, that consistency in comic books is a fairly modern invention, so we can't be too hard on the Superman of times past... but still, no one can argue that it's good to see the time Superman pretended to marry a mermaid erased from continuity.