# Most overrated comic book hero? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 19, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220 "2010-07-19T14:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/21 "2010-07-19T15:34:19Z")
The Hulk. Dickhead isn’t a super power. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/22 "2010-07-19T15:40:00Z")
The list doesn’t include Wolverine, so I abstain. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/23 "2010-07-19T15:41:49Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Dickhead isn’t a super power. You’ve never met my brother-in-law. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/24 "2010-07-19T15:45:31Z")
> [@Garula](#): > > I hate Superman. I find him to be one of the most boring characters ever created. He’s so incredibly powerful that I fail to see any drama associated with anything he does. In order for a character to be interesting, in my opinion, they need to be constantly pushing up against and challenging their own limitations, something which Superman seems not to have unless the plot arbitrarily calls for it. There’s a quote I’ve seen attributed to Orson Welles, “if anything is possible, then nothing is interesting.” I have yet to find an authoritative source attributing it to him, so if I have done so incorrectly please correct me, but I think it’s true. If Superman needs to be strong enough to move the Earth himself, he can be. If he needs to be fast enough to exceed the speed of light, he can be. If he needs to have the super-hearing and super-brainpower to hear and process everything happening on Earth simultaneously, he can have it. Without limits on his abilities, he can do pretty much anything, and therefor there’s no real drama. Pretty much everything he does seems like a deus ex machina to me. Yes. He can do all of these things and his only weakness is… a green rock.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/25 "2010-07-19T15:56:14Z")
Superman might have been a more interesting character if they had stayed with the [original concept:](http://davidszondy.com/future/man/superman.htm) > [@](#): > > Everyone is familiar with the character of Superman, if only as an allusion in political cartoons or figures of speech. Most people know the bare bones of his story; that he’s a visitor from another planet who comes to Earth, where the peculiar conditions make him faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. > > But what many people don’t know is that the name “Superman” isn’t just an affectation given to a chap with magical powers. When Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel created Superman back in the 1930s they conceived him as a literally superhuman creature-- and probably as neat an encapsulation of the popular idea of the future of man as there could be. > > Today the back story is that Superman came from the planet Krypton, a world of high gravity and a red sun, and that the low gravity and yellow Sun of Earth endow him with his marvellous powers. But in the original version of the story, Superman’s Krypton was a world where evolution was millions of years more advanced than on Earth and whose inhabitants were possessed of superhuman abilities as a matter of course. The early Superman’s powers didn’t include anything magical such as flying or heat vision. Instead, he was an idealised and exaggerated version of desirable human abilities. He was incredibly strong, fast, impervious to anything short of a direct hit from a tank round, incredibly intelligent, and could see through solid objects because his senses were more developed than those of ordinary mortals. > > Small wonder that one of Superman’s nicknames is “The Man of Tomorrow.” They were originally going to call him “The Man of Later This Afternoon,” but that was regarded as a bit silly. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/26 "2010-07-19T16:23:59Z")
The problem with Superman and Batman is not with the characters, it is with the writers. When they’re written well, they’re great – Morrison’s _All-Star Superman_ and now his _Batman & Robin_, Johns’ and Busiek’s “Up Up And Away”, the animated Timmverse Batman and Superman – all those prove that with good writing the characters are not a problem. WOLVERINE, on the other hand… deathly dull. Boring, boring, boring. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/27 "2010-07-19T16:58:41Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Yes. He can do all of these things and his only weakness is… a green rock.:dubious: That gives his enemies cancer, if they try to use it against him too much, if I recall correctly. Also, abstaining due to lack of Wolverine. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/28 "2010-07-19T17:34:11Z")
The Hulk. Never understood the appeal. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/29 "2010-07-19T20:40:44Z")
The Hulk. I only like him as a cannibalistic, raping villain, like the Ultimate Hulk. Get back to those Mr Hyde roots. Otherwise? Too booooring. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/30 "2010-07-19T20:48:29Z")
I chose Batman. I really like him as the dark Knight but I’m very tired of him battling villians that are far more powerful and managing to come out on top becuse he’s clever. Sometimes in a down and dirty fight, clever ain’t enough. Haven’t followed comics in a long time but I always wanted to see a story where Batman lands a series of ineffective blows and they knock him the fuck out with one of theirs. Solve that msytery Bats. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/31 "2010-07-19T20:55:23Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The list doesn’t include Wolverine, so I abstain. “Those pigstickers may scare the rubes, but to me they’re a joke!” _\_ A satisfying moment from _Secret Wars_. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/32 "2010-07-19T21:24:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > “Those pigstickers may scare the rubes, but to me they’re a joke!” _\_ > > A satisfying moment from _Secret Wars_. I don’t remember that. {and I had secret wars}I remember one confrontation between them when Spderman was pounding Wolvie in the face repeatedly but Wolvie’s admantium bones and healing factor left him unharmed. What bullshit If someone with superhuman strength is pounding flesh agasint metal, repeatedly, what’s gonna happen to the flesh? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/33 "2010-07-19T21:27:36Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > I don’t remember that. {and I had secret wars}I remember one confrontation between them when Spderman was pounding Wolvie in the face repeatedly but Wolvie’s admantium bones and healing factor left him unharmed. It’s the scene where all the X Men try to stop Spider Man, and he easily evades or swats them all aside until Professor X zaps him mentally. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/34 "2010-07-20T00:58:02Z")
Spiderman has had some bad story arcs, that’s for sure, but they haven’t been as consistently bad as Superman’s, imho. I really can’t stomach anything with Superman anymore. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/35 "2010-07-20T01:27:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s the scene where all the X Men try to stop Spider Man, and he easily evades or swats them all aside until Professor X zaps him mentally. Somtimes I wish they’d start an online archive of the classics. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/36 "2010-07-20T01:29:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Batman. > > Let’s face it: he’s just a guy with a cape. Sure he’s smart, and sure he’s tough, but a hero without superpowers has no business operating in the same universe as someone like Superman. I think this makes him even greater. He is one of the top heroes in a universe with someone like Superman. Also, he’s [crazy prepared](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyPrepared), such as always carrying kryptonite with him in case he needs to fight Superman, and one of the top martial artists in the DC universe. Edit: After reading **Tengu** ’s post… ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/37 "2010-07-20T01:30:37Z")
I have a question. Didn’t they remake the Superman legend a few years back so that he wasn’t quite as powerful. Couldn’t juggle planets. Fly through airless space etc. Is that still the case or did they power him back up. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/38 "2010-07-20T02:16:42Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > I have a question. Didn’t they remake the Superman legend a few years back so that he wasn’t quite as powerful. Couldn’t juggle planets. Fly through airless space etc. Is that still the case or did they power him back up. Both. When Byrne rebooted Superman’s continuity after Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was some serious powering-down. Needed air to breathe in outer space, that sort of stuff. Definitely couldn’t push planets around. Since then his power level has increased again – but no where near as the crazy high it was back in the Silver Age. Someone (Morrison, maybe?) had him haul the moon around in the JLA. And a few years back in “Up Up And Away” he got a little more back after recovering from being depowered in “52”. But still not pushing planets around, or super-weaving, or anything like that. Now, Superboy-Prime (or whatever he’s calling himself nowadays) _does_ have all the old Silver Agey powers – including his own Punch Time thing he did. Power creep sort of comes with the superhero territory, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/39 "2010-07-20T02:22:41Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > Someone (Morrison, maybe?) had him haul the moon around in the JLA. With the help of J’onn J’onzz and Wonder Woman, FTR. I can’t remember why the moon had been knocked out of its orbit, but I remember that image pretty clearly - J’onn, Clark, and Diana, all holding chains (and wearing breathing masks, but that could simply have been forgetting J’onn’s telepathic and needing a way to communicate), hauling it back into place. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220/40 "2010-07-20T02:28:19Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s the scene where all the X Men try to stop Spider Man, and he easily evades or swats them all aside until Professor X zaps him mentally. Well, the X-men are the Superhero equivalent of the law of the [Conservation of Ninjitsu](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu?from=Main.InverseNinjaLaw). I have some of the Essentials, and they get their asses handed to them by: Arcade The Hellfire Club The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Magneto Sentinels Dr. Doom Dracula Brood etc. etc. etc. Then, the last surviving X-men goes nuts and saves everybody else, or Xavier saves the day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overrated-comic-book-hero/547220.md?page=3)