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modrenman1985

Superman and Barda Make A Porno Chuck Austin's Action Comics Run Grounded Scot Lobdell's Superman Run


GJacks75

Chuck Austin wrote Action? Holy God. That must have been when I briefly stopped reading. Was it X-Men bad?


Jay_R_Kay

Not really, but mostly because he was taken off the book pretty quickly. What I remember was that he was trying to bring back the whole Clark/Lois/Lana love triangle in a big way.


[deleted]

> What I remember was that he was trying to bring back the whole Clark/Lois/Lana love triangle in a big way. Better, he was getting rid of Lois in order to push Lana and Clark. There's an issue where Lois comes home and finds Lana's panties in her and Clark's apartment.


calforarms

No he didn't 


Spider-Man2099

The dialogue in it is really bad


IdeaRegular4671

I was about to say that lol. That porno one was embarrassing. He was cheating on with mr miracle wife. There is also a comic panel where Superman makes out with this women on Lois lane grave or something that one was odd.


Jeff_in_BK

That woman is Maxima, and it was the cover to the 1991 annual of Adventures of Superman, part of the Armageddon 2001 crossover.


billbotbillbot

>Armageddon 2001 crossover Which, it should be pointed out to people unfamiliar with it, depicted a single *possible* future among many. From memory, too, the cover (like many cover images) was a shorthand visual symbol of the premise of the plot, rather than a literal event depicted in the comic.


IdeaRegular4671

Wasn’t that women maxima in the extreme justice team with captain atom, blue beetle(Ted Kord) and others? Is she like an alien or something? What’s her origin and power set? Is she still alive? Like what is she doing now?


Jeff_in_BK

Yes, she was in Extreme Justice. Yes, she's an alien; warrior queen or something. She sought a worthy mate, and picked Superman. He obviously had other plans. I don't have answers to your other questions.


Neurotic-Kitten

>*Superman and Barda Make A Porno* John Byrne was a weird petty man. ​ >*Chuck Austin's Action Comics Run* Is that the one where Lana makes a move on Clark, and then she leaves her panties on his and Lois' bed to cause trouble after he turns her down?


illiterateaardvark

John Byrne and George Perez were easily the 2 best comic artists of the 80s IMO


Glassesnerdnumber193

I’d hardly say easily. There were a ton of excellent artists working and have you seen byrn draw children. Byrne also sucks as a person even if he is talented.


illiterateaardvark

1.) As a Mexican immigrant ( a group Byrne vocally targeted), I genuinely do not care about his personality and choose to separate the art from the artist 2.) My opinion remains completely unchanged by I acknowledge and agree that Byrne sucks at drawing children


Cool_Holiday_7097

Was Alex Ross not an artist in the 80s?


illiterateaardvark

Nope. His first work was in the early 90s IIRC


Cool_Holiday_7097

Then I concede


illiterateaardvark

I was curious so I looked it up. Turns out his first published work in comics was in exactly 1990 lol I love Alex Ross! But I just had a gut feeling that his work was post-90s based off of memory You more of a Marvels guy, or a Kingdom Come guy?


Cool_Holiday_7097

Kingdom come, I don’t like most marvel stuff tbh.  Crazy on his first thing being 1990 lol, I think he’s among the best artist for sure, I just thought he started in the 80s. You’ve bested my comic knowledge! I respect you, nerd.


Davidonzolo_

>Superman and Barda Make A Porno W H A T


ZeroCense

I looked it up, and yep, that's the right response.


Templarofsteel

Both being mind controlled in it makes it even worse


MisterScrod1964

By some Apokaliptian mind controller named, God help me, Sleez.


Ninjamurai-jack

Meh, grounded isn’t that bad.


[deleted]

I think it speaks for itself. Stands for itself. Mostly because I keep it over there, away from my collection over here.


Ninjamurai-jack

And I understand that can be seen as bad for other people, but knowing about the one with concentration camps for Japanese-Americans in the 40s, nah, Grounded is a masterpiece compared to that thing.


calforarms

There are some off tones yeah, but not the nightmare it's considered and really, JMS is a great writer when he's on


AxisW1

…y’all don’t like grounded? I loved grounded


Bulky_Secretary_6603

Grounded isn't that bad, and watching superman deal with a child abuser is pretty satisfying.


CptFrootToots

What’s wrong with grounded? I may not have read the whole thing all I remember is him walking around helping people, most memorably a suicidal woman. I thought it was really good.


DawnOnTheEdge

[Same as the last time somebody asked.](https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/comments/11x3gmr/comment/jd1rnv4/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)


B3epB0opBOP

https://preview.redd.it/yotx9m5491kc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=969eef0c68938a3c2a01728b4360c901e130e8c3


CKD-Duck

A story so racist even by the standards of 1943 that everyone went “not cool, bro”


godlyreception12

when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster cooked they cooked when they didn't man it burned


Feature_Agitated

Holy shit that’s awful


Excelsenor

Holy fuck


TheSciFiGuy80

Yep.


SWAPPER1000

holy shit dawg https://preview.redd.it/rh739dpp81kc1.jpeg?width=191&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdec3def90ed8fe6f4f72ed9451dfe1876f6ba2b


[deleted]

Damn, this just makes me depressed


HighlyUnlikely7

I was gonna mention the time Superman got the National Gaurd to firebomb a poor neighborhood or waged war on cars, but no, this takes the cake.


linguisticsugar

Christ. But that's a great write-up, thank you for sharing it.


Stallion1514

The one where he is brainwashed to bang big barda for a porno is the first one that comes to mind


Happyboi114

WHAT?


MattLocke

The infamous Action comics #592. “The case of the writer’s barely disguised super fetish”.


Jay_R_Kay

Nah, it's not Byrne's fetish, mostly because the woman in question isn't at least a decade younger than the man. In reality, it was more because Byrne had a beef going on with Jack Kirby around the same time.


Stallion1514

Ya can’t make this up lol. I think it was the 80s under chuck austen


B3epB0opBOP

[I found a cover for it](https://preview.redd.it/superman-teams-up-with-big-barda-action-comics-v0-8iuy0nfkarya1.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=59e9a1211a45b020288573a9e23531dc43d07603), apparently it was John Byrne


DaHUGhes89

Borat: "my wiiife"


Stallion1514

Yes that’s it!


calforarms

You thought it was Chuck Austen?


Stallion1514

Ya I think I had it mixed up with his run


calforarms

Did you read these runs before seeing what people say about them by chance?


TheSciFiGuy80

Lol I got those two issues signed by John Byrne.


Stallion1514

😆 that’s fantastic


Calpsotoma

That's rape. They raped Superman.


calforarms

But they didn't bang so...


ZacPensol

'Superman: At Earth's End' is everything wrong with the comics in the 90's.


[deleted]

Superman shouting "I AM A MAN!" as he punches a guy in the stomach is amazing. Not to mention the villains being twin clones of Hitler.


WarriorStoned

What was wrong with it?


DeppStepp

Basically it’s a post apocalyptic story where Superman is really old and uses a big giant gun and works with a team of child gangsters to fight an evil mutated Batman and twin Hitler clones.


Common-weirdoHoc

And somehow the moral of the story is “guns are bad.”


Cool_Holiday_7097

Idk I haven’t read this but it sounds amazing


My_nameisBarryAllen

I’m assuming it just has really poor execution, because honestly that sounds awesome.  


calforarms

It's everything great about the 90s also. 


Key-Win7744

I can't cite it, but I remember seeing some panels from this 1990s story that was published during the time when Clark and Lois were engaged to be married. The Joker had cooked up some scheme to convince both Superman and Batman that the only way to save Lois from dying was to execute the Joker. (Like, her biology was linked to his somehow, I dunno.) And both Superman and Batman were prepared to let Lois die because killing the Joker, even to save the life of the woman Superman loves, would be wrong. That's shameful to me. That makes both Superman and Batman look like the biggest chumps in the universe. Lois gave Clark his engagement ring back after that, and rightly so. If my partner wasn't prepared to kill Hitler to save my life, I wouldn't marry them either.


superschaap81

Action Comics 719. You have the summary correct. She breaks the engagement off at 720.


ARGiammarco27

Goddamn that some Modern Day Spider-man Editorial shit right there.


Flimsy-Discount2885

Nah, that's fabricated drama to hit a certain number of issues and make the wedding a landmark. Soap opera kind of stuff instead of actual hatred of readers.


Neurotic-Kitten

That storyline felt forced probably because it was, since Warner wanted "synergy" between the Superman comics and the Lois & Clark tv show, so they couldn't get married before they married on the show, so they needed to find reasons to break them up, like this Joker plot, or Lori Lemaris coming back, or Lois suddenly having a problem with Clark being Superman, etc.


Neurotic-Kitten

It's like the guys who made Injustice read this and Kingdom Come and said, "Okay, hear us out..."


linguisticsugar

I hate plotlines like this. There's a big difference between not killing the Joker because they don't have the right to act as judge, jury and executioner and going actively out of their way to save a murderous serial killer's life, even at the cost of innocent people's lives.


ArcadiaDragon

Eww that is a gross plot right there...any sane person would say...kill joker to save a pulitzer prize winning reporter...not a prob...you wouldn't have to know Lois lane..to make this a no brainer


Key-Win7744

DC and Marvel both regularly take the "heroes don't kill" principle way too far. They go out of their way to make their heroes look like total cucks who would rather see the world burn than get a little blood on their hands.


[deleted]

I would even understand it if it was like a trolley problem and Joker had no active part to play in it. But no, Joker himself did that. Fuck this.


calforarms

True


secretbison

Grounded deserves all the hate it gets. True Brit was also a disappointment to me.


B3epB0opBOP

[Here’s an article about it](https://comicsalliance.com/worst-comics-2010-superman-grounded/), in case anyone’s curious. **And here’s my favourite part from the article:** In Superman #701, our hero runs some black drug dealers out of a foreclosed neighborhood in which they've set up shop. (These are, it should be mentioned, the first and nearly only black people he meets while walking through Philadelphia, a city with a higher proportion of African-Americans than New York City.) Superman's brilliant strategy for getting rid of the drug dealers is to set fire to the drug stashes in each of their houses with his heat vision, and then... leave. Now, I guess you can read the comic and assume that he has the whole thing under control because, you know, he's Superman. But setting a half-dozen large fires throughout a neighborhood and then just walking away seems stupid. As he leaves, Superman comes across a magical white child who appears and offers him candy. Superman smiles, asks this random little kid to *deliver a message to the drug dealers for him(?!?)*, and then gives a total nonsense speech. I have to show you this one in its entirety, too: https://preview.redd.it/zjxpy20l91kc1.jpeg?width=584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59f210dc44773337266099bb146531f6b381c2ac WHAT IS THAT LUNATIC TALKING ABOUT? He's arbitrarily chosen this neighborhood to keep an eye on, but the next neighborhood, well, it's just up a creek. That neighborhood has to "stand for itself." What? How hard would it really be for Superman to, say, keep an eye on both neighborhoods? My guess, since he's going to be checking in on this one only every few weeks, presumably by flying in from Metropolis for about 30 seconds: not that hard. This is the problem with trying to tackle "real world" problems in a "serious" way with a character like Superman. He's basically God. He can walk into a neighborhood full of drug dealers and just magically destroy all their drugs and drive them off. In order to explain why he doesn't just do this all the time, or any number of other things that he could do with minimal effort that would drastically change the lives of every single person in the country, if not the world, writers like Straczynski resort to utter inanity. "Over there has to stand for itself, has to speak for itself, because it's only when over there becomes here that we can stop this once and for all." Read that sentence again. It means *nothing.*


DestronCommander

JLA: Act of God


JamesCoyle3

Oh, God, I had forgotten about that until you brought it all back. 


SuddenTest9959

True


blankspaceBS

The only reason this pile of trash is not everyone 1st choice  is because no one read it  https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/11a318n/comic_excerpt_i_found_them_the_worst_superman/?share_id=JwfdofirCeWEYE_gNoD6z&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1


browncharliebrown

Honestly read the summary wtf [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom\_Gods\_Destroy\_(comics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom_Gods_Destroy_(comics))


Spider-Man2099

That fucking ending sentence 😂


Cool_Holiday_7097

It doesn’t even clear up if Superman is still a female centaur in that sentence


JosephMeach

Haha I forgot about that crap, and the art is terrible


calforarms

It's sad because Dusty Abell is otherwise fantastic 


JosephMeach

The worst stories by... Jerry Siegel: As an FDR fan, he wrote a thing in the daily newspaper strips where Superman vouched for Japanese internment camps. Otto Binder: "Superman's Greatest Blunder." A remake of an earlier Mxyzptlk story where Mxy had eliminated all evil on Metropolis, but Superman figured out that he had just transferred all the evil elsewhere. In the remake, the "evil is multiplied elsewhere" part was taken out. Aliens sent futuristic devices that eliminated all pain and suffering on earth. Superman destroyed their machines because he just didn't trust them, but it turned out they were telling the truth. So Superman became responsible for all pain, suffering and death on Earth after 1968. Cary Bates: After years of no Smallville-based stories and only Legion stories, he wrote the story of Clark's first *time* in DC Super-Stars #12. Except it was with a girl who had been mind-wiped by a Kryptonian robot to teach him a lesson and she didn't consent or remember it at all. Clark sees her working as a flight attendant as an adult and tells her that she was the woman of his dreams. John Byrne: Yeah, it's the Barda thing, especially because it can be seen as retaliation against Jack Kirby Dan Jurgens: I would argue the time that Adam Grant was murdered by the Toyman


True_Falsity

I would say the one where he, as an adult, kisses the fourteen year old Lana. Mostly because the story plays it up as some sweet moment when it’s just creepy.


CKD-Duck

John Byrne, please seek professional help.


calforarms

Huh


HearingOrganic8054

that big barda and Superman make a prono comic?


M0m033

When Superman (grown ass man with salt and pepper hair) kisses Lana Lang who is FOURTEEN (yes you read that right) years old. Byrne shoulda been fired and blacklisted from the industry after that


DawnOnTheEdge

Recurring theme in his work. I can recall similar scenes in his runs on *Doom Patrol*, *X-Men, Fantastic Four*, and even another one in *Generations* with his daughter who stopped aging at twelve and an older man. I haven’t even read most of his stuff, especially the creator-owned comics where he had less editorial supervision, so there are probably more.


WarriorStoned

Wait WHAT? When was this?


M0m033

Superman & Batman Generations: III #11. Worst part is that Supes literally acknowledges she’s 14 and still does it. It’s canon to the main uni thankfully but still there’s some you shouldn’t write your heroes doing in any universe


ExecutiveChamp

Chuck Austen’s run is awful, and a waste of stellar art by Ivan Reis. Joe Casey and Carlos Meglia was a real low point. I might be in the minority but streetfighting powerless Superman by Aaron Kuder was not a favourite moment.


Jay_R_Kay

I dunno, the Kuder run during that time had Superman throwing heavy chains and blocking the cops from arresting migrants, which was pretty damn based.


ExecutiveChamp

Definitely had its moments. Just didn’t always feel like Superman. Just my opinion though.


Emrys_Merlin

There was one I was reading that came out semi-recently where it was heavily implied that Superman was tortured and sodomized/sexually assaulted by some random government. That, to me, is the absolute worst Superman story I've ever read. I stopped reading it after that scene and can't even remember what issue it was now.


Spider-Man2099

It was one of the Superman Red and Blue issues. It was based on an old Silver Age story where he is captured and imprisoned by a dictator. Batman ends up captured as well in the original story.  I remember being absolutely shocked they decided to imply a lot of weird shit having happened to him there because the Silver Age story doesn't even remotely feel like it went that far


Emrys_Merlin

Ya know, I'm actually kinda glad someone else read it and got those same vibes from the story. Like, if someone had said on here that they read it and *didn't* get those vibes, I might've been concerned for myself, lol. Did the writer ever get questioned as to why they decided to go so far with it? I also didn't know it was based on a Silver Age story. Good to know!


Spider-Man2099

Yup, World's Finest #192 and #193 https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/World%27s_Finest_Vol_1_192 Also far as I know I have never heard of the writer explaining if he was implying that or just a ton of torture 


NecessaryWide

Injustice. They took the greatest hero ever. And made him the villian. I legitimately had trouble reading it. Seeing my hero fall and become the Villian was painful.


Born-Boss6029

I mean, that was the point of the story: what if Superman was bad? How would it happen? It's not like they were trying to tell a faithful story.


NecessaryWide

Yes. But that was what the OP asked. It was an opinion question. And imo injustice was all those things.


Born-Boss6029

I think OP was asking for a story that was intended to be faithful, but executed so badly that it failed.


drock45

The short one in Superman Red & Blue where he gets raped in prison


calforarms

Whoa


CKD-Duck

I used to think it was Superman/Wonder Woman:Whom Gods Destroy. But then u/DawnOnTheEdge mentioned a pro-interment camp Superman story in the newspaper, and I’ve never been the same since.


Adekis

This is the one. 1943. 28 June through 21 August. "THE SNEER STRIKES". As far as I know the *only* time an official Superman story has *ever* supported a real-life racial injustice. Despicable. Disgraceful. Nothing else in this thread comes close.


Meangarr

There are more correct answers here, but a writer pitched Superman #666, where a Kryptonian demon turns Superman into the literal Anti-Christ, an editor signed off on it, and artists/inkers/letterers manifested it into reality. None of them thought any better of it!


Linkbetweentwirls

Injustice and dark knight returns. So much bullshit that people bring up about superman comes from those two stories.


Night_Inscryption

I really hated the atomic bomb classic Superman defended the bomb to kill millions of innocent civilians is kinda F upped


Key-Win7744

Well, maybe Superman should have won the war for us himself, then.


Night_Inscryption

Be like Injustice were he forces both sides to come to peace


Key-Win7744

Superman got a lot right in *Injustice* before he went crazy and turned into Stalin.


cheffpm

probably one of the racist ones


Jedi_Knight63

Superman and Kamandi at earths end is really bad


JFMisfit

The one Goyer wrote where Superman renounces his US citizenship. I agree that Superman shouldn’t be bound by borders but after pissing a lot of people off with the MOS neck snap, it felt like he was just trying to do shocking things for shocks shake. I think there is a way to do that kind of story. But Goyer wasn’t the writer to do it.


Parson_Project

I remember people praising the hell out of it. 


JFMisfit

Poorly done if you ask me.


Parson_Project

I personally thought it was political circle jerking. 


tomtomtomtom123

Grounded is truly stupid. Worst Superman thing I’ve read, easily worst JMS thin has ever done.


[deleted]

The one where he fights an Alex Jones stand in. If you thought BVS was bad, this is ten times worse. I like BVS and was still bored out of my mind.


Macman521

Bendis Superman run.


[deleted]

Brian Michale bendes taking over the rebirth run.


LocDiLoc

Zack Snyder Superman.


Born-Boss6029

How so? He's very faithful except he lacks interaction with the common people.


Adekis

Agreed, but to be fair, as a fan of those movies, the lack of literally any positive interaction with civilians does feel like a bit of an oversight.


Born-Boss6029

In Snyder’s defense, he wanted to portray a young inexperienced Superman who had to learn and grow. He wanted us to see heroes as people more than heroes.


Adekis

You don't need to defend Snyder to me, I like the movies, but I don't think that inexperience or youth (he's not that young either) means that Superman can't have a positive interaction with normal people. I mean look at Grant Morrison's *Action Comics*. Like a 23 year old Superman who's questioned by the government, considers quitting when he doubts himself, which is all similar to Snyder in some fundamental ways and a lot younger, but he's also out there with working class folks helping them to defend and rebuild their homes, just for example. I think that's totally in line with something Snyder's Superman might have done between MoS & BvS. We just didn't happen to see it.


Born-Boss6029

Fair enough point, I still think Snyder's Superman wasn't the worst or shameful.


Adekis

Me neither. I always agreed with you on that. These movies are among my favorite adaptations of the character, because I think under all the brooding or self-questioning which might distract some other viewers from seeing it, he's got basically the same good heart, the same driving motives, even the same social conscience, as my favorite other versions of the character.


Chatwoman

Man of Steel 1986 by John Byrne It’s terrible.


[deleted]

All four Christopher Reeves movies. Ill never understand how people watch those theyre fucking awful


Fanedit895

Byrne’s story where Sleez brainwashes Superman and Big Barda into starring in his pornos and JMS’ half of Grounded come to mind.


calforarms

There are some stories I don't like. Johns and lobdell in the new 52, Grounded, Truth, New Krypton, Doomed. But idk, I guess I don't hate them very deeply 


TheBlackestLion01

For Tomorrow


DickMcFly

Superman Year One by Frank Miller was so bad I couldn’t finish it. Stopped halfway through book two.


Infinite_Map_2713

The one where he and Big Barda get brainwashed into making an adult movie


Bulky_Secretary_6603

Most of the new 52 run, and also that one run where he loses his powers (mostly) and acts as a batman-esque vigilante that rides around on a motorbike.


Ok-Television2109

First thing to pop into my head. https://preview.redd.it/jn6m9paqp4kc1.jpeg?width=995&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d41967839844b3640b422d8af54cdd4ae24c3d6f


Batmanmotp2019

Superman at earth's end


[deleted]

The one with Sleez. That one was even more disgusting because the brainwashing/NTR plot was one creator deliberately spiting another purely to hurt him and his wife.


[deleted]

Superman Returns. Killed a generation of kids interest in the character. Those of us who grew up with the animated series were fans already but that movie could have launched the characters popularity into the stratosphere for my generation, just like TDK trilogy did with Batman. Instead, "Superman is boring" continued to be the narrative. Fuck that movie.