Superman: God's End

[writeofway]

From the makers of "Batman: The Deal" comes...



Superman has just gotten back from deep space, where he apparently became Space Moses.




And after declaring that sentient life with no concept of abstract thought to be the greatest thing ever, he reminisces about his life.
This story seems to take place in a world where ALL Superman had to face were natural disasters and protecting innocent people from collateral damage. There's no supervillains here. None even acknowledged to have existed. But wait, it gets worse.


Superman, the guy who decided to withhold cures for all disease and could've possibly shared technology to help humanity along its journey, decides to call the entirety of humanity evil because they wouldn't do it themselves. Gotta love that panel where he carries a baby in his arm and goes, "Who decides who lives and who dies?" This is sickening to me.


Can humans be a dangerous, rowdy, cruel species to itself and others? Yes. There's no shortage of evidence that points toward that they CAN be. Superman is stating it as though it were a scientific, verifiable, unchanging law of the universe. Not that we CAN be a cruel, wicked, evil species...but that we ARE and ALWAYS WILL BE. So confronted with the "Evils of mankind" what does he do? He blows up the planet, killing possible untold millions. (Or not because it's never adequately explained whether or not Earth is abandoned or not.)


At worst, he's become a genocidal narcissist (It's not MY fault, they simply suck at living) at best, he's become the Jack Kevorkian of cosmic entities. So, the moral of the story is humanity, as a whole, is evil, sick, greedy, selfish, irredeemable, and deserve nothing less than total and utter annihilation for the good of the universe. This is one of the worst Superman stories I've ever read. In my opinion, there MIGHT, just MIGHT have been a decent story here. But the nihilistic and cynical viewpoint, the pious pseudo-philosophical finger waving, and just outright mean-spirited storytelling is disgusting and is a horrible representation of Superman as a character and as a hero.

Comments

[silverhammerman]

You forgot to put the pages behind a cut.

[jlbarnett]

it's a good thing that young untouched planet has a powerful protector to save them from the evil, to bad humanity didn't have the same.

[zapbiffpow]

Alan Moore is Kal-El, as Clark Kent, as Superman!

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

Someone needs to rescue this artist from this writer.

[silverhammerman]

Lord yes, the artist is doing some interesting stuff, but the writing is like a bad joke. I'd kind of assume that their continued relationship means they have similarly awful sensibilities, but it would great to see this artist try working with someone who isn't a complete hack.

[starwolf_oakley]

This reminds me of a few things:

The origin for MARVEL ZOMBIES. Instead of being the Sentry (blonde hair, yellow costume) that started to Zombify the Marvel Superheroes, it was Superman (dark hair, blue and red costume) with the S-shield ripped away to avoid copyright problems.

Chris Claremont's "SUPERMAN/ WONDER WOMAN: WHOM GODS DESTROY." In that Elseworlds series, there was no Kryptonite and no supervillains other than Lex Luthor, how had died years ago. Superman, still young looking, says to a 60+ Lois Lane that he wonders if things will be easier for him "When you and Lana are... gone."

What someone on TV Tropes said about James Cameron's Avatar. He or she was hoping for Eenya "Humanity on Trial" instead of a "Humans are bad and they shouldn't be on Pandora."

[althechi]

Thinking of that trope, this comic's Superman is more judgmental than TNG's Q. Just think about that for a moment.

[althechi]

1. The cut, man, the cut!

2. Alan Moore is Superman? Here I thought he was just Rasputin, or Glycon incarnate...

3. Animals don't love or hate each other, and don't fight wars over resources? BULL F***ING SHIT. Also, "no competition"? Do you even evolution??

4. Is there anything this comic says that hasn't already been enunciated by Charlie Chaplin three-quarters of a century ago? He didn't need to blow the Earth up to make his point, either.

EDIT: Dammit, beaten to the punch (re: point 2)! Looking at my icon, it could also be James Garfield as Superman...(Then again, were that the case, Luthor could've stopped him with a Kryptonite bullet in the back - too soon?)

[writeofway]

How do I do the cuts?

[kuratowa]

They had more than enough for everybody... but they drained all of Earth's resources.

So Superman decided that even he oppressed and desperate masses of Earth that were ground down down by the 'Haves' weren't even worth protecting for saving. Great.

What Would Space Jesus Do?

[7dialsmystery]

Maybe the have-nots were dead by this time along with all the non-human species. I took it to mean that he blew up Earth to keep them from conquering the rest of the galaxy. There's a panel up there that says "Now one world is not enough" with pictures of space ships leaving Earth. I think that means the human "haves" were off to rob, rape, pillage other planets.

Superman is still a total dickbag tho'.

[benuben]

Jesus... When I first saw this post, I thought to myself "yay, another forgotten classic". I know people say his sort of thing about pretty much anything but this might as well be the worst Superman story ever made.

[benuben]

Okay, I didn't know this was a new fan-comic, I thought this just an old back-up story or something.

Well, it does have a similar themes like The Deal. It's trying give "logical" conclusions to these characters, by Batman realising just how insane and petty his conflict with Joker is (I guess..) and here by showing how alien some one like Superman would become that he would go ape shit from all of it. The thing is, whether it was the intention or not, the story is structured like if we are actually supposed to agree with Superman. The writer just doesn't offer any hints that Clark can be wrong or alternatives to his bullshit.

[silicondream]

So Superman's power increase still further, he's got technology that can transform human biology and medicine on a global scale, and yet the only solution to humanity's problems that he can come up with is "kill every living creature on Earth?" This story makes the Silver Age Superman look like a paragon of common sense.

[benuben]

If you want to be REALLY generous, we can assume there are no people there anymore and this is just symbolic gesture or something.

[captainbellman]

Ugh, it's the same team from "Batman: The Deal", right? The pretentious idiots who think they're being reeeeaaaallll clever when they use a superhero to explain their tenuous bullshit philosophy.

[nate_abril96]

You know bearded idiot, perhaps if you stayed and tried to guide people to do what was right, inspire them to help others in need, and honored your parents who gave you a strong moral compass to help other people, then you could have been like that awesome superhero, Superman. You know Superman right? Really nice guy who never gives up, shows empathy for all living creatures, is always there to help people and do what is right, and never solves his problems with cold-blooded murder. Real swell guy. You should really get to know him. Perhaps he could have saved you and your adopted world. Guess we'll never know.

[benuben]

Now that I think about it, is there any good story where Superman has a beard? I would go so far to say the amount of beard is directly proportionate to the quality of the story. Stubble - For Tomorrow, Beard - JLA: Act of God, Longer Beard - Distant Fires , Santa Beard - At Earth's End, Super Beard - this.

[arbre_rieur]

Oh boy, can't wait till they do Wonder Woman next. Imagine the possibilities!

[cypherfdp]

beep boop, humans bad, executing protocol nine (blows up fucking planet)

Mod Note - Please sort out the cut

[icon_uk]

Hi there

We appreciate that this may be your first post, but please put this post behind a cut immediately.

Thanks

Re: Mod Note - Please sort out the cut

[icon_uk]

I should also add that this the post has been here uncorrected for several hours now.

I am prepared to wait for another hour or so, but if it is not put behind a cut by the, it will, in line with community policy, be deleted.

[jeyl]

This is one of the funniest comics I've read in a long time. Supes stumbles across some emotionless bugs who don't care about anything and now believes that the best thing in the universe is the non-existance of hate and love. Gotcha. Now let's see the now enlightened Superman go on a hate filled rant about how bad humanity is and commit an act of global genocide so they don't continue to bug him with their mere presence.

This is why stories like this are so funny. They try to make characters enlightened by giving them a sense of looking at life outside the box, but all it does is turn them into insufferable jerks who think they know better and anyone who doesn't conform to their viewpoint are scum.

[sadoeuphemist]

This thing was posted like eight hours ago and it's still not behind a goddamn cut!

[richardak]

And this is why I root for Lex Luthor. Also, Superman was always Space Moses; where do you think Siegel and Schuster got his origin story from? Also, this really should be behind a cut by now.

[mrstatham]

So you root for the bad guy based on a hilariously butchered take on the good guy? This has absolutely ZIP in common with any take on Superman that I've ever seen, and you can brand Superman 'space Moses' all you like, but it's not quite the same, and... Y'know, that bible story never said 'humanity as a whole are depraved, desolate fucks, kill 'em all, Moses'.

[thatnickguy]

I never understand how someone can post without double checking if everything went through. Me, I'm editing it long after I post, most especially for cuts (which I tend to screw up quickly and why I don't post much on here myself outside of comments.)

Seriously man, like someone else said. It's been 8 hours. Put this thing behind a cut, for cripes sake.

[superfangirl1]

So when Superman grew more depress with mankind, he started to grow a bread?

Also nice action at the end man of boy scout with being a complete genocidal asshole. Mr. have no hope so must destroy the earth.

[writeofway]

Sorry the cuts and everything has been taking so long.

[midnightvoyager]

I love how incredibly this writer misses the point of every superhero they do stories about.

[servant_iskandar]

I agree, wholeheartedly. Here, it comes up as egregiously off the mark, IMHO: one of the focal points of Superman has always been hope. There's no way this bearded guy would have been raised by Ma and Pa Kent.

If the authors are attempting to make a point come across with stories like Deal and this one, it seems to be about steamrolling all over the characters, their histories and what makes them relatable, for the sake of shock value (look, it's Alfred-in-a-box! Look, Superman just blew his adoptive home up!), with a seasoning of nebulous nihilism for good measure.

Again, this is my opinion, but... I am under the impression that it isn't working that well.

[beoweasel]

I really, REALLY don't want this guy to write another comic. They're just so...so...mind numbingly bad.

It's just grim-dark layered with pseudo-philosophical bullshit in an attempt to make it profound, which makes it even worse.

[masterdick161]

So I take it this Clark was raised in an orphanage and not by loving Martha and Jonathon? They would never raise such a prick! If he can't give them a cure for disease because he has "no right" then he should in turn have "no right" to destroy them all. Though he was all about balance? Horrible...

[7dialsmystery]

Lex Luthor is probably gloating at this and saying, "See! SEE!!! I told you the alien was bad news!"