#superman lore

[arson-jellyfish69]

In some superman lore, red sunlight doesn't surpress Superman's powers, it just doesn't charge them/ doesn't charge them as much as yellow sunlight.

What if the low energy output of a red sun caused all life on Krypton to evolve to latch on and store any and all possible energy (food, sunlight, some types of radiation) and during dire situations, Kryptonians could use weaker versions of their powers to protect themselves?

Kinda like when humans are threatened our bodies produce adrenaline and burn a lot of calories for like 10 seconds of unbelievable strength. Kryptonians do a similar thing +stored solar energy to occasionally fly away from threats or use superstrength for a few seconds?

[superman-the-secret-third-thing]

The Fortress of Solitude in the Bronze Age

First actual exploration of the place- we've gotten glimpses here and there, but no firm tour of the place.

Action Comics #395 "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress!" (1970) Written by Leo Dorfman and art by Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson

[ballinandcantgetup452]

What does "No Kents" in Absolute Superman even MEAN?

I’m worried that Absolute Superman’s gonna be booty cheeks and too edgy. The writer has a mixed track record. Jason Aaron is known for writing the best parts of recent Thor and he created The Mighty Thor (Jane Foster). So I think he can handle the action that comes with writing god-tier characters quite well. I’m just really concerned that Aaron’s not gonna get the spirit.

I’m hoping that this does what Henry Cavill’s Superman was SUPPOSED to be: a cynic who’s still trying his best to smile despite all the pain he’s been through because he STILL believes in doing the right thing simply because it’s good. I hope that Absolute Superman is a story about letting people in, and how Clark doesn’t need the Kent’s to be fundamentally compassionate. I suspect that if you take away the Kents, then you still have a good person, but one that’s slow to trust anybody

I just don’t know what they mean by “no Kent’s”

All we really have is the artist showing us an action scene, and the knowledge that Superman’s cape is all Misty because it’s the “ashes of Krypton” which means that his suit is purely Kryptonian in origin

Did he LIVE on Krypton? Was he in the foster system? Was he raised by a different, shitty family? The phrase “no Kents” is just really vague. “No money” is relatively easy to work around. Granted, Bruce has an inciting incident that creates The Batman, so it's not too much of a stretch to put him in any circumstance. “No Amazons” probably means you just switch pantheons (I'm partial to the idea that she's raised by the pantheon of the New Gods). But “no Kents” has borderline infinite unrelated possibilities that I don’t know what the ACTUAL premise is of the book. Perhaps you could say the same about Diana, but I'm worried for Clark because edgy Supermans are just now fading in popularity, and I don't want to see them make a comeback over a POORLY written edgy Superman.

Shot in the dark, I think each Absolute line is going to be a commentary on the misconceptions of the traditional line. Absolute Batman was about debunking the “Batman beats up poor and mentally ill people” bullshit. If that’s actually a pattern and not malarky, I don’t know what Absolute Superman would address. Thoughts?

[moonbeam-mothling]

Anyone else get immensely effed up over the bottled city of Kandor in the Superman lore?

[discountreactionimagewarehouse]

You're like Lex Luthor.

[hollis-art]

ngl im not even a superman fan. i just REALLY like clark kent,,, (thank you, Smallville, for that.)

[sully-s]

He deserves it

[themirepirate]

was reading Sherlock holmes and this popped into my head

[astriddestelle]

Batman is so funny. Every time he tries to implement his whole no metas in my city rule this is how it goes without fail.

—————————

Batman: No metas in my city

Dick: Except for Wally he’s my best friend

Batman: Fine

Dick: Oh and Starfire my girlfriend, technically she’s an alien.

Batman: …..I suppose

Dick: And I guess the rest of the Titans when they come to visit.

Batman: ....

Dick: *grins* That’s it I swear.

-----------------------

Batman: No metas in my city except for the Teen Titans

Tim: What about Superboy he’s my best friend?

Batman: Fine

Tim: Oh and Bart he’s my other best friend

Batman: ......Alright

Tim: Wait, I can’t forgot Cassie and the rest of Young Justice

Batman: *scowls*

Tim: *puppy dog eyes*

Batman: *crosses arms* No metas in my city except the Teen Titans and Young Justice

----------------------

Damien: *raises eyebrows*

Batman: And Irey West and Collin Wilkes, Or Ace West and Jon Kent (depending on continuity)

Damien: Thank you

---------------------------

Batman: *Looks at Jason*

Jason: *shrugs* Don’t look at me, I died at thirteen, I don’t have any friends.

Batman: That's concer-

Jason: Though Bizarro and Artemis were pretty cool…

Batman: *Adds them to the list*

—————————

Alfred: Aren’t you forgetting someone?

Batman: Who

Alfred: *Gestures to the entire Justice League most of who are the parental figures of the kids his kids have play dates with*

Batman: Clearly this rule isn’t working.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Clark: On krypton there was a vigilante called "Nightwing." His family didn't want him to be a superhero-

Dick, just fired by his dad: His family didn't support him, you say?

[neilsbeloved]

what do you think Clark and a super bossy girlfriend would be like??

MMHHHMMMM clark is alr used to being bossed around soo it wouldn’t be much change 🥴 (mild 18+ @ the end)

for context: clark grew up surrounded by women with a variety of personalities (martha, lana, chloe, alicia, lois among others) so i personally think clark wouldn’t mind having a super bossy gf especially when he’s used to following a woman’s every word down to the letter

clark with a bossy gf… knows how to shut up with just one look. a glare, or a narrow of your eyes, yep… he’s shutting up before he gets on your bad side. fuck winning an argument, he’d let you win all of them. (almost all, he usually wins 1-2 of em)

clark with a bossy gf… is definitely the laidback type when it comes to dates. as much as clark loves planning lunch dates and movie nights, it doesn’t hold a candle to when you email him a literal itinerary for a four-hour evening date after work; or when you show him a powerpoint of destinations for a road trip he mentioned while the two of you were cuddling in bed

it overwhelms him, yes, but he’s staring at you with lovesick puppy dog eyes every time you drag him on a date you planned

clark kent with a bossy gf… is your personal therapist. being bossy probably has way more downs than it has ups, clark knows that very well from watching you. so when you don’t have much friends to let your feelings out to, clark is more than willing to hear every bit of happiness, sadness, randomness, and even frustration that you have about your stupid co-worker michael. best believe clark listens to every word too

clark kent with a bossy gf… gets shy when you ask him to try on a piece of clothing in the middle of the store. you love him and all his flannel-wearing but god help you if you had to take one more day seeing a big red flannel longsleeve on your boyfriend’s buff body. literally fifty percent of clark’s new clothes is from you taking him on a shopping spree with your new paycheck.

clark thinks you do it for him but really you do it for you. like, clark kent wearing a fitted white tank top? yeah, the store can take every penny

clark kent with a bossy gf… wakes up to a fully organized kitchen with plates of pancakes and bacon, or to you just arriving after a quick drive to the market to get him some breakfast. either way, you always make sure he’s stuffed and full before going to work. of course, on occasion, you serve him his favorite breakfast too. you

clark kent with a bossy gf… is the biggest baby and it’s your fault. you make sure to always have everything prepared and ready. he doesn’t even need to think about anything else when he’s with you because whatever’s happening, you’re already on it.

as much as clark’s this big strong red-blue superhero, to you he’s just your journalist-slash-farmer boyfriend who’s too nice to tell a diner server that they gave him the wrong order

in the bedroom… clark’s still letting you boss him. only this time he has a lot more leverage especially with you being a pillow princess and everything. every word, every whimper, every request—he’s doing it all. whatever and however you want, clark’s already on it before you can even do so much as catch your breath.

the only downfall you have inside the bedroom is that clark wants you to tell him. he wants you to tell him every nasty single detail you want him to do to you before he actually does. sounds easy, right? not when he’s fucking you hard enough that your words slur and you can’t even string a proper sentence together.

yep… balls deep into you and clark’s in your ear, asking you: “how’d you want me baby? c’mon, talk to me, should i go faster? harder? tsk i can’t give you what you want if you don’t tell me baby.”

so i say yummy for clark kent with a bossy gf 🙂‍↕️

[bonebrokebuddy]

I get that this is due to people not read comics but, if you want a fun lighthearted batfam dynamic, I cannot recommend enough putting your story and characters in the Silver Ages. I see so much fanon material that would fit in this setting perfectly and it pains me that it’s not more popular or well known.

If you don’t know what the silver age of comics is, I’d recommend checking out this article!

And here for the 1956 Comics Code Authority.

It might not be in continuity anymore but the silver ages were such a large era of comics that defined the characters. And the format & restrictions of the silver ages allows you to easily bypass several common issues folks have with plots. In modern comics, there’s constant interpersonal drama because there has to be, if you resolve all those issues then you can’t sell more comics & they lose a lot of tension.

But due to the Comic Code Authority that is no longer an issue!

Randomly ignoring a dark past that makes connection between characters difficult [the poor aging of Jason’s bag of heads making it difficult for him to reunite with the rest of the batfam, for example] because it doesn’t fit with the theme you want?:

Comics are episodic in this era. Think of it like a early 2000s TV show. Things that happened in past comics/episodes often won’t affect the current story at all as the setting resets to default at the start of every comic. Additionally, literally all gore, torture, or explicit descriptions of murder is banned due to CCA restrictions, so you can choose to have it simply never have happened!

Characters that don’t fit at all in a story but you want a crossover for?:

The Silver Ages had SO MANY crossovers of heroes solely bc it sold comics. How compatible they are doesn’t matter in the slightest. The thinnest of reasons why they met works perfectly. You can even just have the characters know each other already and go “I know who can help me with this case! [Insert character you want here]! I met them in my last trip to Antarctica!” You only need maybe one sentence, two if you’re feeling frisky, to explain why they met and then you’re free to run wild.

Want a character to randomly acquire a superpower or meet a long lost cousin they have for one comic and then it’s never mentioned again?

I cannot state how frequently this happens. Silver Age comics were pretty much written cover first. Meaning the cover was made and the story was written after with the philosophy of “if my comic cover is more bizzare and eye catching then kids will buy it!” Like, there are multiple comics where Superman’s head got turned into an ant and Batman gets powers practically every other World’s Finest issue. Like it’s not even an “au” to do these things. That’s just what the Silver Ages were like.

Comic science and comic physics run rampant as well as bizarre villains! You can have so much fun with this!! Heroes often play the straight-man in bizarre scenarios with over-the-top villains in this era, making that aspect shine brightly can make for an inherently funny plot. You could either keep it fun and light or turn it into a psychological horror as the characters realize they can’t disobey the CCA code and have to follow a specific plot.

Also the restrictions of the CCA at the time would also help create some fun and unique plots if you wanted to keep the plot time-period accurate.

There’s a lot of restrictions but there are still many ways to create conflict in your fic! Plenty can come from the CCA directly!

Canon or HC LGBT+ characters could be pressured to not come out or face tremendous backlash. Time accurate homophobia, essentially.

McCarthyism and paranoia ran wild. Oh no someone suspected your blorbo of being a communist/socialist and now it’s ruining their life!

Characters dealing with how the CCA’s restrictions/their reality is inherently bigoted and can’t be themselves. (See: comics on topics of racial & religious prejudice aren’t allowed, characters can’t speak in “slang” or “vulgar language” and “good grammar” is emphasized (often targeting minorities), and the sanctity of family must be respected (no divorce, no queer people).

Also! Crazy over-the-top villains with deadly stakes are played with a lighthearted tone. Play it straight and suddenly your comic changed genre into horror if you think about it for more than a second.

Characters that used to be antihero’s are just straight up villains now or suddenly wake up with massive gaps in their memory and no one else can tell them why. There is no grey with the CCA. Just good and evil. Because that would make the villains sympathetic and we can’t have that!

If you want to just have a fun, campy and lighthearted tone however, that’s the Silver Age’s bread and butter. While keeping the CCA’s code in mind is good to keep a Silver Age story feeling time accurate and Silver Age-y, it’s definitely not necessary to follow each and every rule.

Here’s some more links to free silver age comics and places you can go to find information on silver age comics if you want to learn more that aren’t fandom wikis but rather made by nerds with a passion to catalogue and share their interest to others.

Your local library has a decent chance of having an omnibus of 50s-70s comics or you can order one from a nearby library if your local one doesn’t carry them.

A local comic shop or bookstore. Silver age omnibuses & “50 year anniversary/best of” type collections are usually present and have a good variety of silver age comics.

Jenny Blake Isabella (the creator of Black Lightning) has delightful reviews of the Batman Silver Age Omnibus on her blog that add context, critiques, and overall are a delight to read

Takes some hunting but this Silver Age Comic blog has a bunch of single issue reviews of Silver Age Batman comics.

Want a specific issue to read? Here’s super brief summaries of soso many issues curtesy of The Comics Archives blog.

The Internet Archive also has a few:

Batman & Superman world's finest. The Silver Age. Volume one

Justice League of America, the Silver Ages volume 1

Batman: the dynamic duo archives. vol 2 (I cannot find volume 1)

A good tip to find legal and free comics decently intact is to search [comic run title/character hero name & issue number if you have it] + “blog” + “review”.

There are so many in-depth reviews of comics in blogs by comic fans out there that practically share most of the comic panels in the post while giving context to past issues while the poster adds personal insight and opinions on the comic. Is it going to give you the whole issue unfiltered? No. But it allows newbies to get insight from old fans and old fans to get a new perspective on a comic they’ve already read. Blog reviews are such an underrated way to get new fans into comics considering how great of a resource they are! Don’t know if you’ll like a comic run? Read a bunch of reviews on it from different blogs! It’s truly so underrated.

I see a lot of dc fans that don’t read the comics because they don’t like the violence and dark tone of modern comics or don’t know where to start. Simple solution: Why are you reading reading modern comics then? Give the Silver Ages a try! They’re utterly corny and campy & I love them dearly.

They fit all of those bills with the CCA. Plus, with the episodic stories of that era, you can just pick up an omnibus, open it at a random issue and start reading. Hell, you can toss a stack of silver age issues in the air 52-pickup style and read them that way and you’re still be fine. You rarely, if ever, need knowledge from previous comics as they’ll often directly explain what happened to you. If you really need previous context, just like modern comics, they’ll directly tell you which issue(s) to read first.

Lastly.

It’s good to keep in mind the “By it’s time. For its time. Of its time” rule of comic analysis when reading old runs. Comics are: relevant during their time of publishing, for its intended audience (in this era, young american boys with a non-nuanced worldview) & with little care of how it’ll age, just that it’ll sell.

How history ties itself to comics is fascinating but also it’s good to be a little “👀👀 uh zoinks scoob that was a bad narrative or character decision that didn’t age well” and not dismiss it because that poor interpretation does have historical value as how it shows the moral, social, and political conflicts of the time in a neat little bow. Even if that bow is like, puke green.

Writers of comics will follow the misogynistic and racist ideals along the historical & social conflicts and ideals during the time of the comic’s publishing date. It’s uh, just kinda something ya gotta deal with when reading a lot of old comics runs. Most collections of silver age Batman/best ofs don’t often have comics that aged super badly but if you end up encountering any, it’s good to keep this in mind.

If anyone is inspired to write something based off of this, please tag me so I can read it!

[opalsaverem]

Maybe I'm just old, but can we stop calling slice- of- life episodes filler? Canon material meant to show what life in a setting is like so that the setting and its people matter to you when the lore happens isn't filler!

[genericpuff]

oh btw, that "girlboss with parental issues talks shit about how awful men are all the time" trope that rachel relies on like crack is in her official wonder woman comic too-

"someone you know" is superman. they're talking about american boy scout superman. he is an arrogant muscle bound thug for no reason other than because he is a man. and he looks like hades here. i'm so tired-

[superman-the-secret-third-thing]

Silver Age Superman Biography

Interesting to contrast that against our modern mythos of Big Blue.

Source: Superman #225 (1970)

Differences from the modern era.

-Kal-El spent time on Krypton as a toddler and as such remembers it.

-Mild Clark Kent is a fake persona, and the real one is Superman

-He's strong because earth has lower gravity, and the yellow sun gives him his other super powers.

-both of the Kents died when he was 18

-Any object from Krypton can harm him, not just Kryptonite (which is the deadliest because it's basically uranium) in addition, nearly every object from Krypton is indestructible under the yellow sun. Kryptonite is an exemption.

-Superman is an honorary member of every nation in the UN, allowing him to freely cross borders. Supergirl also has the is privilege.

-Superman can travel into the past or future by sheer speed alone.

-His brain constantly demands new challenges and new problems to solve. When he isn't on a mission he does research and painting and sculpting.

-He has vowed to never kill, and if he does, he'll retire.

-His secret identity is known by Batman, Robin, Supergirl, the Flash, Lori Lemaris and Pete Ross.

[peepreadscomics]

So... 90s Kon's nightmare in YJ98 01??

Confusing. I've read a bit of Kon's 90s solo comics as well... but maybe I just don't get it?

Pls someone who's read Kon's 90s comic solo chime in. LIKE HELP.

it's supposed to be considered horrifying to Kon! He wakes up with a scream AND the box narrator is like, "The horror..." but I can't really see how this... would be horrifying in a meaningful way?

Im gonna TRY, but... it's not gonna be good.

Kon's back abruptly bursts out with fiery wings as he flies around metropolis alongside Superman.

He exclaims in confusion, only for Superman to chastise him.

It was inevitable, Superboy. That's what happens when you're so holier than thou...

....

So. According to nightmare Superman, Kon's fear is connected to being holier than thou. In comparison to who? And in what way? How does he try to prevent that fear???

And how are the wings a representation of fear? Is it using Icarus imagery? Or phoenix imagery?

It being icarus imagery is a lil weak...Because the wings are made of fire, not ON fire or melting from fire. But if it is,

Rather than a nightmare, it feels more like a weird dream for Kon but foreshadowing for the readers, especially when compared to Bart and Tim's nightmare.

With Icarus symbolism combined with the "holier than thou" expression: Kon is PLENTY prideful. He tends to think that his way is best, especially when it comes to what he considers "his specialty" when he deals with aliens and metas.

This is kept up throughout the next issues until the Apokolips—where his pride and ambition ARE LITERALLY his and his team's downfall via planetary crash. (Superboy 91, his letter to Sterling hurts so much, don't look at me)

So maybe his fear comes from confusion? Because he doesn't understand yet what this means for him.

Still... would that merit the narrator box to say, "the horror" and have Kon waking up in sweat with a shout in the next panel? CLEARLY, this dream stuff caused him horror!

Young Justice

Although... I guess his expression could also convey some confusion.

The phoenix imagery is shaky too, but maybe this one is more about his own fear of his place in the world?

He doesn't even have his own actual name yet. I'm referring to him as Kon right now, but at this time... he hasn't even been given that name yet! And in-universe, he's been in the outside world for at LEAST a year now.

He can't even age any older with him being stuck at 16.

Even more...

With pheonix being symbolism for the natural cycle of life and death... at times representing a break in that cycle by also being a symbol for immortality...

Maybe this is alluding to that one scene in "Mother of all Battles" where he half dreams slowly becoming alone with even his shadow leaving him. There he quotes peter pan, "to die would be an awfully big adventure." (Don't look at me I'm so sad)

He came to be as a replacement in the case of Clark's death. He was supposed to be the second stage of Superman, the one that comes after Clark kicked it. But Clark is alive, and Kon is here. He was Superman for a little bit, but now he'll never fulfill the purpose of a new reinvented Superman leaving him stranded outside the natural cycle of life and death, doomed to never age or change.

So what happens to someone like him stuck in limbo? What happens if he develops this holier-than-thou attitude that will keep him from relating to those around him when his existence is already SO out of the ordinary?

He'll burn. He'll be betrayed by his own attitude that is slowly becoming more and more isolating.

All that being said...

None of it FEELS RIGHT? Pull any thread here, and it ALL comes undone.

And I know it's just a comic and writing slips a lot, but I want a through line for Kon's character development in my brain. The closest to that though, would be him outgrowing his pride, i guess? I didnt read core four's Titans run fully or the issue where he dies, so I know I'm missing things here.

He seems much more careful and subdued after Apokolips, but I'm not sure if that carries into Titans/the Superboy Prime deatg.

TLDR: I dont get what Kon's nightmare means. Help.

Tim's Nightmare Analysis

Bart's Nightmare