8 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Superman For Everyone

4. Getting Rid Of The Trunks

Superman New 52 Ceremonial Armor
DC Comics

The New 52 was a huge, crazy deal for DC Comics when it launched in 2011. The publisher strolled up to comics readers with all the gusto of Steve Buscemi in skater garb and proceeded to ask, "how do you do, fellow kids", introducing brand new designs for its roster of characters in a bid to get in touch with a new audience.

The problem, however, was that in attempting to reach new readers, DC editorial lost sight of what made their comics unique in the first place. The new tone and aesthetic divested from classic DC and a few characters in particular suffered dramatically, with Superman - once again - stuck in the middle.

Supes was a frequent target of DC's critics and tended to be seen as the visual embodiment of the publisher's supposedly dated characters, and so it's no surprise he bore the brunt of the reboot's retcons, starting with his costume.

The trunks were gone, a more armoured look was introduced, and the suit was given a bunch of random lines and accents because... detail, I guess? Either way it didn't work, and in five years' time the entire New 52 experiment came crashing down.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.