Supermans mortality in the new 52

I believe that in action comics #39 his fear shows that he is possibly immortal. because it shows him living until the end of earth.

Τhat was always the case with Superman. In one possible future he dies almost normally, in the other he is immortal.

I think his "fears" about the future don't count as evidence that he will live for centuries. Although knowing Superman, the concept will be brought up a lot. A concept that I am quite fond of.

@squalleon: thought you didn't like 39 because it was hope-less.

I wonder where I might've recently seen a big brawny bearded hero with a prosthetic arm, the last standing superhero that witnessed the death of his beloved planet Earth...

Darth Vader?

Though I suppose that's only if you consider tragic villain the same as hero...

This was a plot point in Unchained as well.

No, Superman's Marvel counterpart ie Thor

@the_kidd: and it was badly done there. Pak did it right

I remember reading this.

I thought it was interesting that he had Stargirl's staff. And then i looked closer and it looked like he has Atom's belt and hawkmans arm

@saint_wildcard: So is AC back to being good, gave up during Doomed.

Exactly, it is one of his fears, visualization of it. So we can’t talk about New-52 Superman’ possible immortality basing it only on AC #39.

Another instance of possible Kryptonian longevity was in Unchained book, when Wraith hinted that Clark will outlive his human friends. Considering strange similarity of Wraith and Supes’ physiology, we can guess that Wraith knew what he was talking about.

I didn't? But I don't think that has anything to do with what I posted.
I like the concept of the immortal Superman and Superman struggling to come to terms with it. I don't see what that has to do with AC.

That's pretty standard in Superman's mythos. One of his fears is that his human life is not sustainable and that he'll outlive all of his loved ones. It was explored pretty heavily in Superman Unchained.

It's a common theme in Superman stories as mentioned above though the circular time period Superman is kept in kinda erases this fear. Still, I do like how it's been explored in the past as the kind, caring and humanistic alien has to outlive everyone and everything he's ever loved. Superman Unchained #5 had a pretty creepy analysis of this plot point in the Superman mythos and the last page is quite chilling too.

neat that he has stargirls staff, I would expect batmans belt, but her staff? not so much

I must admit this was quite sad. It always shows Superman's mental strength that he has to live with the fact that he'll outlive everyone. Some of his best friends and family (even though ma and pa kent are dead). Yet through all this he keeps going even as far as forging long lasting friendships with the "mortals" he lives with.

Superman mortaliy most be without a doubt one of his greatest fears in the long run. And not because he fears he's gonna outlive everyone and everything, but that he'll have to witness the end of it all.

That sooner or later mankind is gonna go too far, and humans themselves are gonna destroy themselves, and he's gonna be helpless to stop it.

And like humans anyother species would eventually meet the same fate, and that in some way, he'll always be alone.

It's an understandable fear, but one I don't actually believe, because he's not actually alone. He's got his cousin, all the Kandorians, and even those that are gonna arrive from Earth-2. So in a way he'll never truly be alone.

It's been explored multiple times during the pre-flashpoint Era.

I believe one was during the time after Batman "died" after Final crisis.

I think a more optimistic note of that subject was introduced in a Kingdom Come story, where Superman grew up to be an old man and has seen his legacy. Also, in the DC one million storyline.

What about Superman's immortal friends like his current partner for example? I wonder where she went.

In AC he also thought everyone he loved would die, including WW.

Died one page earlier :P

No seriously those are Superman's fears that everyone he loves will die and he will be left alone, it also showed Batman, Lois and Lana. Please don't take this as an insult to the character.

DOn't ask for the impossible

I'm not offended, I was thinking that Pak forget her again or that she perished and Superman is of course the last standing superhero. Superman rarely comes across as genuine to me because they really shove in your face how kind and compassionate he is, it doesn't feel natural. Just because it's him, I'm questioning whether this is a bona fide scene of tenderness or just Superman being the best, in this case outliving everyone. Admittedly, I see Superman as a fat high-maintenance baby and Wonder Woman as his unloved, malnourished, emaciated sister so that probably clouds my judgment a little bit. Nonetheless I think Aaron achieved this with Thor a lot more successfully, it was subtle and really gorgeously illustrated by Esad Ribic

You need to read issues dealing with his upbringing. He is the way he is because of who raised him and because of the friends he made along the way.

I think I have a pretty good understanding of why Superman became such a good-hearted man.

Oh Zod and Faora killed Wonder Woman in his little dream wee hee

Well his cells only age him to maturity and then he stays the same as long as there's yellow sunlight to absorb. So essentially, he can live forever as long as he finds a yellow sun.

That's what happened in DC One Million.

@foamborn: Thor isn't Marvels superman, that would be Hyperion

@z3ro180: Sure, Thor's too good a character to be compared to Superman anyway

Yes, and all Wonder WOman's good for is having Superman's babies

Well then you wouldn't be doubting the sincerity of his feelings of outliving everyone. Immortality isn't all that great, and to someone like Superman, seeing everyone you love die is a nightmare times 10.

I understood what the scene is supposed to convey, but to me this partly came across as another demonstration of superiority because I guess I'm too aware of what male chauvinistic dreams Superman represents. Thor on the other hand is endearingly flawed, well fleshed-out and part of a character collective that's frankly more structurally horizontal, his emotions seem genuine to me. I'm not sure if it's the Earth blowing up behind him, he's not weeping or even looking at it, the agony he's suppose to be feeling doesn't come through at all. He's just standing tall as the Earth's last standing Superhero because ultimately that's what Superman's all about.

well his gf is immortal so if he is too he won't have to worry about being alone.

His girlfriend unfortunately is totally mediocre compared to him so when Superman wasn't there to "protect her" his villains killed her eh eh

Took out the first part cus it's just saltiness and personal preference.As for this part, well this is just flat out wrong. He is clearly shown on his knees in front of Metropolis. This gets the point across that he's already lost everything, Earth blowing up was most likely natural and took a long time. Thinking he's standing tall as if it didn't affect him is just wrong. He doesn't need to cry in every panel to show he's sad when he already did after he lost everyone.

Also, stop adding "eh eh" at the end of things.

You're wrong, Kuder is just not as good as Esad Ribic. Have you even seen the scene where Galactus comes to devour the Earth and Thor refuses to let him do so though at that point the Earth was a deceased planet deplete of life and hope that Thor loved deeply nonetheless. That's beautiful and those panels are SUBLIME. As per usual, you see things the way you wanna see them

So to counter my fact about him kneeling in front of Metropolis and him stating that he's mourned Metropolis, you counter that with an opinion.... seems legit.

Absolutely, new scientific studies show that women's brains are not built for logical-thinking and Sargon of Akkad reckons that the female brain was designed to perform basic functions like spreading the legs and laying a chicken breast between two slices of bread

It's just that the chauvinistic fantasies that Superman represents don't really jibe with the fact that he's supposed to have feelings other than pride and power-lust

YOu go with that. I'd hate to see things through your eyes Archi, your world sounds horrible.

You bet, the truth can be burdensome, reality is ugly

Some would call what you see truth, most would call it nonsense

Fantastic, I'm very perceptive and not everyone can keep up with me

@primebonnick:

Only problem being that in Future's End they're no longer together.

So either the super-couple will really breakup, or this Convergency thing will alter those events and they'll stay together.

Time will tell.

@heavenlydarkdragon: Well the title survived the convergence cut and FE is not a sure thing any way.

I always hated the idea of a long life being a reason to be depressed if that was the case Odin must be ready to jump from a cliff or Zeus or Thor. More time to fight the good fight or make love or travel and explore. Breath in deep and seek out adventures and more room for epic tales. Sooner or later we want more in depth stories. A Superman whom is 3 dimensional not a cardboard cut out. Life would have so much to show such a character.

The difference is Odin has others like him in at home, Clark doesn't. He's the only one that could really be totally alone at the end. Plus all those characters have been around for centuries already but we have never seen them coming to terms with who they are like Clark. I think this was a good look into his mind.

Man after reading up some more I realize I'm still astonished at how much people can b!tch about nothing.

Its what we do. We like to keep the forums interesting.