3. The Time He Came Back To Life As Two People And Was Electric
Something that's spoken of even less than the Death of Superman was the eventual, inevitable return of Superman. Because it wasn't just enough to reassure readers new and old with the resurrection of the Man of Steel, that had to dazzle them with something new! Something exciting! Like...new powers! Because clearly the amassed powers of Superman - at that point including flight, super strength, invulnerability, heat vision, x-ray vision, etc - were not impressive enough on their own. The only thing that could be better than that would be like...electricity, or something. Not long after his resurrection there was storyline where Supes stopped getting power from the sun, so instead got them from electricity for reasons we can't be bothered to recall, because they were stupid. So his powers became electricity-based, and he got a new electric blue look, complete with sparks trailing behind him wherever he went. Not content with mucking up the character this much, DC went further with a story inspired by a 1963 story which saw Superman split into two distinct beings, identified by their opposing colour schemes: blue and red. The reasons for the split are almost as stupid as Electric Superman's origins, and the ensuing plots were similarly boneheaded. Each Superman believed himself to be the original, and each represented different parts of the character's psyche. Blue was more rational and even-handed whileas, can you believe it, the red one was brash and hotheaded. Since seeing sense and returning Superman to his usual self, these characters have rarely (if ever) been mentioned.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
