Who has Superman been fighting for the last decade?

I haven't read a Superman comic since The Death Of Superman. I was thinking today whilst sat on the toilet about Superman and how uber he is. He can push a planet, right?

I remember it took Doomsday to down him, and Doomsday was prettytough

Surely the writers must have difficulty findig stuff for him to do every month? Can anyone who reads Superman comics tell me what he's been doing lately?

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

The animated shows really helped make Darkseid more popular, so he's been involved in a lot of the memorable story arcs over the last decade. The same goes for Lex Luthor, with the additional reason that folks have been wanting to see this type of Luthor in the movies, so they've got to get their fix somewhere. Another important story was the What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way? arc, in which Superman goes up against a group of heroes that represent a lot of the "extreme" characters that were made popular in the 90's; this group was called The Elite, and they were led by Manchester Black, who's also been involved in a few of Superman's major stories over the years.

New Krypton/War of the Supermen was fairly big.

He's mostly fighting political activists (i.e., his writers)

Oh nothing much... singing the song of life to reboot the universe... you know, the usual.

I'd say the bigger enemies he's had to deal with over the last decade or so have been familiar faces: Lex Luthor (of course), Brainiac, General Zod...

Beyond that, there's always the odd lesser foe or natural disaster/socio-political issue that crops up.

As another poster said, I think the best Superman story I've read in quite a while was "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?" Which was technically just one issue, though the new characters from that story did pop up again later on in Supes' own titles and JLA. The Elite were pretty much a shameless riff on the Authority from Wildstorm.

He's been showing superhuman patience with whiners.

The correct answer is the writers, artists, and editors...

I meant that because he's so powerful, it must be difficult for the writers to come up with foes he'd believsbly have a problem with. Lex is just a guy, right? Can't Supes just implacably walk to wherever he is, pick him up and take him to prison? Or does every villain wear a kryptonite hat nowadays?

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

For me, the drama of Superman isn't really a question of whether a villain is strong enough to beat him. It's his concern for all the other people who aren't invulnerable. Not the risk of defeat, but the risk of failure.

That said, it is really fun whenever he comes up against a foe who actually can give him a run for his money power-wise.

There was a Superman video game that came out a while back, and while it was reportedly pretty bad overall, there was one concept that seemed perfect to me:

Superman did not have a life bar, but the city of Metropolis did.

That said, if you wanted to write a combat challenge for a Superman story, there are quite a few wells to go to:

- Magic. Although a magic sword will still bounce off his invulnerable skin, it is just as easy to hurt him with a voodoo doll as the next guy.

- He's just an alien. It is beleivable and established that there are other races out there that are as powerful as the Kryptonians: the Daxamites, the Martians, the New Gods, etc

- Cheaters. Some beings the laws of physics/science themselves don't apply to, such as extradimensional beings, like Mxyzptlk. Some of the beings in the Cthulhu Mythos could probably hand Supes his cape without realizing they'd done anything.

...also, Superman's understated but inherent arrogance makes him a lousy tactician. There are a lot of people that he could just fly up to at .9c, punch into unconsciousness, and drop them off at jail before they finish their gloating monologue...

...but he won't because he's Superman.

Superman was nerfed heavily after Crisis on Infinite Earths. He's been getting steadily powered up, but nowhere near Superboy Prime (aka Pre Crisis where he could toss around planets) levels. The last time he really moved a planet by himself was in Our World At War when he took an extended dip in the sun.

Now in NuDc's Action, he's starting off more nerfed, which Morrison is on record stating. Where he is by the time NuJLA/Starts starts is up in the air. Maybe he actually needs kryptonian armor to be truly invulnerable in NuDC.

One of the problems I have with the concept is that he seems to be a super-hypocrite. Watching the recent Superman movie, tbere's this awesome s ene where he's floating in space usig his superheaing to hear what lloks like EVERYTHING on Earth, and then when he's sat in a bar being all emo, I'm shouting "surely you can hear some poor sod gettig murdered or tortured somewhere within flying distance, right now, and you're ignoring it, you massive tool?"

If he's so morally awesome, surely he should just spend every waking hour flying around the planet at superspeed saving people from burning buildigs and cave-ins and murderous spouses etc? Or else he can hear that "my baby! Somebody save my baby, please!" and he chooses to not do so, in which case if he's not really a super-b***tard then he should be either insane or an emotional wreck.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."