Gauntlet's Guide to Electric Blue Superman.

The Bold new look for Superman

Everyone knows who Superman is. Strange Visitor born on the doomed Planet Krypton, he is the sole survivor of his race. Our yellow sun makes him more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound; in short it gives him powers and abilities far beyond that of mortal men.

And he has one of the most recognizable costumes in all history. Even more recognizable, dare I say, than Shadowman!

However, a few years back, the powers-that-be over at DC comics decided it was time for a change. No longer could his powers be so easily explained by any force of logic, they were "updated for the new millennium" to feature modern powers reflecting the new technological age.

The Story:
I don't think many visitors of this site really know anything about Superman at all, so I'll just explain the story of how ..... and (if possible) WHY his powers were changed.
It all started with a "Bottle city of Kandor" storyline. This wizard named Tolos came to Earth to steal Superman's body. He had this city-in-a-bottle where he trapped those with unique powers so he could use their bodies whenever he chose. During this story, Superman almost was trapped inside the bottle city. Naturally, he didn't get sucked it and Tolos was trapped instead. Somehow getting trapped between dimensions may have changed his molecular structure.

Then came storyline called Final Night, where the a being named "the Sun Eater" came and (guess what?) ate our sun. The world was in darkness and Superman's sun-derived powers all fizzed out (they do that without the sun to power them you know). Needless to say, the sun was restored, but for some reason never explained (I assume it's because Superman's molecular structure was already changing, even though it is not said outright) his powers never returned. So he went out to get his powers back by diving himself into the very source of his power - the sun. It worked and Superman was back full force.

A little time after that, Superman started seeing strange things happen. He started going intangible, accidentally blasting things with electricity, and the like. Lo - his new powers arrive. With some help from scientist Emil Hamilton and Lex Luthor (his archnemisis) who supplied special fabric because "Superman was more valuable to him alive than dead". And so he had a new costume and powers.

Soon after ANOTHER even happened that has been credited to the sudden change. A confusing story called "Genesis". I shall explain it as best I can. In the DCU, there is this entity called the Source which is a part of all things. The source is like an all-knowing energy being just short of being God. Well, a million years ago, it exploded with the Big Bang creating a "Godwave" that created "gods" and "demi gods" (superheroes). Now it finally reached the end of the universe and was reflected back changing powers or taking them back altogether. This was also credited to Superman's change of powers.

Of course no ACTUAL CONCRETE reason was ever given. I have all the issues, and even I don't fully know. I suppose the best bet is the "Bottle city" one, since it makes the most sense.

Red and Blue and Yellow too!The New Powers: Lemme just sum it all up by saying "on huge confusing mess". Because it is. He can go intangible, access computers (which was only used once BTW), create a "magnetic force field" and basically have general blasting powers. And during the entire time he has these new powers SOMEONE is ALWAYS explaining exactly what he's doing. No longer can a process like holding a building up be as simple as seeing it, oh no. No either A) Superman thinks about the process, B) a scientist tells everyone what's going on, C) Jimmy tells someone what Superman just did, D) the villains tells us what Superman just did, E) the person being rescued explains what Superman just did .... well, I think you get the idea.

Of course he had this one new weakness. His containment suit basically holds him together, so if it rips, it's game over, Superman. Nevermind that huge gaping hole where his hair and face sticks out. If there's a hole in his suit, he's done for. And, as luck would have it, Superman has one enemy who can control any electrical thing and manipulate it to his own ends. The Cyborg. The cyborg's powers stem from the fact that he can morph any electronic thing into whatever he wants. The best example is when a powerless Superman pulled a alien ray gun on Cyborg and Cyborg (without touching it) made his face appear on it and blew it up. Now you'd think with that KILLER WEAKNESS ELECTRIC BLUE HAS that Cyborg would just inhabit his suit and rip it to shreds. But no. Cyborg knows that this is a comic book and that Superman would survive the attack. So, instead of doing the logical attack of inhabiting his costume and ripping it apart, he traps superman is an elaborate cage (with help from the Toyman, naturally) and succeeds only in creating 2 Supermen - Superman Red and Superman Blue.

The Titanic Tale of Superman Red and Superman Blue:
They were essentially the 2 halves of the Man of Steel. Blue was logical, deductive, but cowardly the thinker. Red was couageous, daring, but reckless. They were finally recombined in a contrived "Millennium Giants" storyline and their powers were stored when their "energy as purged" (I thought they WERE energy now). Well, by this time the story gave everyone migraines so no one voiced any arguments.

"But everyone wanted my costume changed ... right?Why did it fail?:
The creative team had great intentions with this one. They really did. And, despite the fact that the costume is simply *not* Superman, the simple fact is the entire thing was poorly written. I hate to say that because of their prior work which was stellar, but it must be said. No one can say for sure what the cause of his change was, and there are so many unanswered questions and unexplored probabilities:
- Why did Luthor save Superman in the first place?
- How would the two Supermen work together??
- Use of bad villains (the Millennium giants were LAME).
- How could Superman change into Clark Kent as a normal human?? This was never answered well.
- Why the heck wouldn't Cyborg at least try to rip Superman's suit to shreds. even once!?
- Little development in other, more interesting stories such as Lois working at Lex Corp (under Luthor), or Clark being unemployed. Instead we get a less-than-interesting Intergang, a story where Jimmy Olsen is chased by Intergang only to be saved by a bad Strange Visitor didn't last long at all.plot device, introductions to uninteresting new villains the team Mainframe and their pretty standard "take over the world" scheme. Not to mention the Scorn character who advanced the main story very, very little.

Now a savvy storyteller would have been able to spot these faults before the story occurred. I suppose years of writing the same character made the creative team of the time ..... lose their edge. Were it my story, I would have cleared up all those plot holes. I would also have added a cape to the new costume. Unsessasary, yes, but ...... Superman needs a cape, dangit! And, naturally, I'd like to explore just WHY Lex friggin' Luthor actually helped Superman! Not to mention the ender of the story had the forgettable "Millennium Giants" in it. Couldn't they have done something with more established characters? Maybe a finale with Cyborg or Braniac......

Well, in the end, The Eclectic Blue costume was wiped away never to return. Although it was shortly worn by the heroine Strange Visitor, she died and all traces of the costume have vanished. It's a pity really.... when Spiderman did something similar he at least got Venom, but maybe simply forgetting this badly executed idea is for the best.

I am Gauntlet and this has been Gauntlet's guides.

Affiliates

Blyka's Door
E-Can Factory
MMAyla
MM BN Chrono X
MM PC Website
Protodude's RM Corner
Reploid Research Lavatory
RM AMV Station
RM EXE Online
RM EXE Zone
RM:Perfect Memories
Sprites INC