10 Terrible Mistakes That Almost Ruined Superman For Everyone

3. All The Superpowers!

The relaunch of the Superman character in John Byrne's eighties Man Of Steel miniseries wasn't just about giving him an ill-advised mullet; the update to modern times also meant a total reboot of the character's powerset and weaknesses which, during the goofy, fancy-free, throw-things-at-the-wall-oh-wait-everything-sticks days of Silver Age comics, had grown significantly huge and silly. Did you know, for example, that there ended up being like a dozen different kinds of Kryptonite, each with a different effect? Red-Green Kryptonite made Superman temporarily grow a third eye on the back of his head! And Pink Kryptonite made people gay. Did we mention that the Silver Age was also crazy homophobic?

Ridiculous as those were, they didn't really break the character. They were usually just plot devices for whatever silly story the writers had dreamt up for that month, usually the week before publication. What came close to ruining the character was the insane amount of powers he'd accumulated. He wasn't even supposed to fly at first, the leaping tall buildings things was literal! then you throw in telepathy, self-duplication, shapeshifting, and the ability to turn back time, and you've got a Superman who's essentially omnipotent and impossible to come up with credible threats for. Which is probably what all the Kryptonite was about. Thank the maker for Byrne ripping all of that up and starting again.