# How would the world react? (A Superman scenario) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054 "2015-04-07T18:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/21 "2015-04-08T13:51:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > So, he can’t just travel back in time? Every time he did, he’d undo the other good things he’d done. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/22 "2015-04-08T17:10:46Z")
I don’t know about the rest of The World, but here in Amurka he’d be inundated with frivolous lawsuits. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/23 "2015-04-08T18:40:57Z")
Thanks for the answers everyone! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/24 "2015-04-09T15:06:25Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Every time he did, he’d undo the other good things he’d done. Not if we go by the movies. Everything he did before spinning around the world still happens, which is why he has time to rescue Lois. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/25 "2015-04-09T16:48:05Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > You’d think fooling Supes into thinking he’d accidentally killed someone or actually getting him to do so would make Supes exile himself to the furthest Gold K asteroid…but I just read yesterday a 12 center where Superman and Lex Luthor go hand to hand under a red sun. After just one punch, Lex conks his head on a statue and manages to simulate his own death. > > You’d think Superman would be all, “My God, what have I done!” But when Luthors admirers attack Superman (this was on Lexor) all Superman does is sputter, “It was an accident.” > > No remorse. No self-recrimination while sitting in his cell. No admitting guilt to manslaughter. Just “Hey, it was an accident.” Weird memory: is that the story in which Superman is on Lex’s planet and unpowered, and when discovered pretends to be a statue? He’s carried away and one of the carriers remarks about his apparent body heat only to be told it was because he was out in the sun? If so, why the HELL would I remember something like that 😕 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/26 "2015-04-09T19:54:58Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Yeah, “a few years” is way more than enough time to have gotten this figured out… either people accept that he’s got a finite number of things he can get done in any given day, or he gets pilloried every time something falls through the cracks. Even if most people accept reality, there will always be the Righteous Outrage types, so I’d say that the unrealistic friends & family of the people on the plane will be pissed, and others will be more philosophical, even if Superman was just sleeping. He does sleep, right? He does sleep. As I understand it, if he doesn’t occasionally let his brain go into REM, he gets a little nuts. This was actually a plot point once. I didn’t read the whole arc, but I think he was not sleeping, and trying to use his powers in the most maximally effective way. But the longer he stayed awake the more obsessive and weird he got. I think Lois had to talk him down. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/27 "2015-04-10T02:30:25Z")
Get in his face and ask if he cares more about the “blue people” than… no wait, thats for a stupid GL scenario…never mind ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/28 "2015-04-10T11:53:24Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > He does sleep. As I understand it, if he doesn’t occasionally let his brain go into REM, he gets a little nuts. > > This was actually a plot point once. I didn’t read the whole arc, but I think he was not sleeping, and trying to use his powers in the most maximally effective way. But the longer he stayed awake the more obsessive and weird he got. I think Lois had to talk him down. If it’s the story I recall (Bronze Age) he snapped a little and decided he needed to kill off Clark Kent to free himself. Set up some nifty deathtraps that would have done the job if Clark was really just humna. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/29 "2015-04-10T15:34:28Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Get in his face and ask if he cares more about the “blue people” than… no wait, thats for a stupid GL scenario…never mind Yeah, John Stewart was quite a bit more militant in the beginning than he is now. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/30 "2015-04-10T15:40:17Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > If it’s the story I recall (Bronze Age) he snapped a little and decided he needed to kill off Clark Kent to free himself. Set up some nifty deathtraps that would have done the job if Clark was really just humna. Nowadays, it is the convention that deep down he is Clark Kent, and Superman is a persona that he assumes, as opposed to Batman; in his mind he IS Batman; it is Bruce Wayne who is the persona. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/31 "2015-04-11T00:16:42Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#): > > Yeah, John Stewart was quite a bit more militant in the beginning than he is now. Wrong GL. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/32 "2015-04-11T00:51:54Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Wrong GL. You’re right. [John’s not even in this story.](http://welcometotripcity.com/2012/07/neal-adams-denny-oneil-in-conversation-at-housing-works-nyc/) IIRC, John wasn’t introduced until a few issues later. I guess I need to go polish my Power Battery. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054/33 "2015-04-11T01:25:19Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Funny you should link to that guy’s strip. > > It’s more likely to work out like [this.](http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3637) This essentially the premises of [Red Son](http://www.comicvine.com/superman-red-son/4050-10943/) wherein Supes start a Stalinist totalitarianism. Everyone becomes fed up with his Big Brother complex, and Luthor stops him a note comparing him to Brainiac. “Why don’t you just put the world in a bottle” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-the-world-react-a-superman-scenario/717054.md?page=1)