Sent to Earth as an infant from the dying planet Krypton, Kal-El was adopted by the loving Kent family and raised in America's heartland as Clark Kent. Using his immense solar-fueled powers, he became Superman to defend mankind against all manner of threats while championing truth, justice, and the American way!
Because KC was a great read and an epic in its own right. Popularity-wise, that's the foremost reason. Him beating Hercules with the fleece (who pretty much toyed with post-crisis Supes) showed that he is powerful, I'll give you that. But he was already popular prior to that.
@comicdude23: I can't speak for anyone else. For me the neat thing about KC Superman was that he was more like a Clint Eastwood/Clark Kent amalgamation than simply Clark Kent. He was older, wiser, and yet somehow stronger. He was disillusioned by the world and had lost his faith in it and yet he still sought to save it.
A big point though is that KC Superman seemed just a bit more human than the Superman we were used to. He was a "man" with obvious breaking points. We see the first big one when he retires. Take a moment to think of how many innocents died because he took that time off. It's a huge departure from Superman's general premise that he would place his own happiness/well being/pride ahead of the world. The second, and perhaps even more important one, is after Washington drops the bomb on the metas and Superman goes to bring their hall down upon them. He was about to commit mass murder, perhaps justified, but mass murder all the same. However, even though Superman shows to be a fallible erratic human like the rest of us, he still "pulls a Superman" and does the right thing in the end. He shows strength of character, not just of body.
But really, the reason KC Superman, or KC Batman, or the entire KC universe is so well liked is because Mark Waid is absolutely brilliant (and the beautiful art work by Alex Ross didn't hurt either).
Because KC was a great read and an epic in its own right. Popularity-wise, that's the foremost reason. Him beating Hercules with the fleece (who pretty much toyed with post-crisis Supes) showed that he is powerful, I'll give you that. But he was already popular prior to that.
@PowerHerc said:
Because he was a fresh new take on the most iconic character in all of comics and, in the story, he showed what true heroism was.
Simply because Kindom Come itself is a very popular story and rightfuly so.
The Superman in the story however isn't a character that should be popular. He is riddled with constant self doubt, gets bossed around and emasculated by Wonder Woman who uses Superman's image to gather an army and gets chewed out by Batman. He doesn't even save the day, that was a brainwashed Captain Marvel, he doesn't even score a moral victory as that's up to some random guy. If you read KC from the perpective of being a Superman story it fails utterly.
This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment