8 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Superman For Everyone

Big, big qualifier here first before I get stuck-in: 'Evil Superman' stories can and absolutely have worked before, and there's obviously still a place for them in the wide array of different DC comics told every single year.

Two of the best DC works of the previous decade - Injustice: Gods Among Us and Justice League: Gods and Monsters - revolved around Supermen of varying not-so-good morality, and serve as proof that 'Bad Superman' absolutely is a worthwhile interpretation of the character that can co-exist alongside the more traditional incarnation.

Unfortunately though, as more audiences have bought into the cliche that Superman is "boring" or "old-fashioned" or "unrelatable" or whatever else, 'Evil Superman' has become a regular feature of various DC works. Injustice opened the floodgates in that regard, leading to a decade of darker Superman stories which saw the Man of Steel go evil on numerous occasions, whether that be via mind-control, or some other kind of multiverse-related shenanigans.

These evil depictions of Superman have gradually bled into the character's mainstream self, with the New 52 version, both artistically and narratively, taking a leaf out of Evil Supes' book. The evil looking glowing red eyes Superman shows up again and again, while other writers have felt the need to "ground" the character by making him angrier and more impulsive.

It works for Elseworlds, but let's maybe leave the "WhAt If SuPerMaN... bUt BaD??" stories alone for a while, yeah?