Well, calling it “a well-done horror movie” is fair to an extent: there are unmistakable horror elements in it, and Moore was writing his pre-Vertigo SWAMP THING at the time. I just disagreed with you calling it “sadistic” particularly when the overarching emotional resonance was one of loss and final endings and it ended on such a hopeful, high note.
I think you could make a case that “For The Man Who Has Everything” was more sadistic than “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?” Myxlpltyk was always pretty capricious imp. What Mongul thoughtfully and maliciously attempted to do with the Black Mercy was a piece of work: he wreaked havoc on both’s Superman’s actual on Earth while setting the stage for planetary genocide and forever tainting Superman’s fantasy life on an unexploded Krypton.
You could. I couldn’t. The motivations of the villains are non-issues - I’m not talking about what Mxyzptlk and Mongul did, I’m talking about what Moore did. But, on that note, Mxy has, with only one exception that I can think of - a Legion of Superheroes story, which ended up being explained as Mxy’s decendant, also named Mxyzptlk - never been a killer outside of WHttMoT. Mongul had had few appearances before FTMWHE, and in them, he was already a brutal bastard.
But, back to my point:
FTMWHE, I read with mounting sadness. WHttMoT, I read with growing horror.
WHttMoT opens with Bizarro murdering hundreds of people, claiming to have blown up Bizarro World, and committing suicide. This is in the first four pages. And it just keeps getting worse. Culminating in Superman being forced to take a life, and punishing himself by taking away his powers. The ‘they lived happily ever after’ epilogue hardly makes up for the brutality of the rest of the story.
FTMWHE opens with Superman trapped in a fantasy. Eventually, it falls apart, when he realises its not real, and the others try to remove Black Mercy. It’s gut-wrenching, not horriffic. And Mongul’s punishment is being trapped in a fantasy. Nothing Superman feels he needs to punish himself for inflicting on him.