Superfans/Is There A Bad Evil Superman Story?

John and Debbie review and go over the various depictions of Evil Superman within media, but with a twist.

Video
The intro plays.


 * John: Welcome to Superfans, a channel dedicated to all things comic book, whether it be reviews, news, lore videos, and more. I'm John Townsend and I like comics.
 * Debbie: I'm Debbie Rhodes and I don't read 'em.
 * John: On Today's video, we'll be discussing the thing our fans have been asking us to talk about for ages. We will be reviewing and discussing...

John stands up and gestures at the wall behind him, Debbie also looking back at it.


 * John: ...This wall behind us. Now, I know everybody's been curious about it and--

The screen is overtaken by static. The symbol of Supefans but backwards appears on the screen.


 * Voice: And now, a message from the future overlords of the world.

A version of John dressed in a similar but legally distinct costume to Doctor Doom and Debbie with an obviously fake goatee appear, sitting evilly.


 * Evil John: Good evening, fans of this pitiful channel. I am John from the Evil Dimension and I have temporarily taken over this channel to broadcast my message to the people of your world!
 * Evil Debbie: And I'm Debbie and they're not my cup of tea.
 * Evil John: ...What?
 * Evil Debbie: Oh, sorry, I thought you said you liked comics.
 * Evil John: ...I didn't.
 * Evil Debbie: I realized that the moment I said it.
 * Evil John: ...Well, anyway. Welcome one and all to Evil Superfans!

The evil intro plays.

After a jump cut, John is once again fully in character.
 * Evil John: Tell me Debbie, what are your thoughts on Superman?
 * Evil Debbie: He is boring and only exists to pull cats out of trees.
 * Evil John: What if I told you there are evil versions of him?
 * Evil Debbie: What kind of evil versions, Evil John?
 * Evil John: Evil versions like the one and only Ultraman, of course! ...Hey, how long do I need to do this voice?

She does an awkward evil laugh.
 * Evil John: Let us get started! The great Ultraman debuted in Justice League of America 29, all the way back in the year 1964. Before him, it had been established that the heroes from the Golden Age of comics, such as Jay Garrick and Alan Scott--
 * Evil Debbie: The garbage heroes.
 * Evil John: Indeed. But it had been established they were living on Earth-Two. Spelled out as "T-W-O" rather than a number 2. Very important, I assure you. But because of this, it was decided to dub the glorious world of Ultraman and his Crime Syndicate "Earth-Three". Also spelled out.
 * Evil Debbie: Why are these garbage writers spelling world numbers out?
 * Evil John: Because they are idiots, Debbie. Anyways, Ultraman comes from Earth-Three which the Crime Syndicate lives in.
 * Evil Debbie: Oooh, did Ultraman kill a baby?
 * Evil John: Unfortunately, no. But he did torture the son of Superman for like a few years.
 * Evil Debbie: Eh, I would've killed him.
 * Evil John: Now, there are a handful of versions of Ultraman, but the most famous one is the one from Earth-Three, like I said. Much like our home of the Evil Dimension, on Earth-Three all of the heroes are villains and vice versa. Back then though, it was the Silver Age and as we've established by now, the Silver Age was...
 * Evil Debbie: Super insane.
 * Evil John: SUPER insane. So, because of that, on Earth-Three, Columbus in that universe was an American who discovered Britain, Britain split off from America, and President John Wilkes Booth was shot by the actor Abraham Lincoln.
 * Evil Debbie: ...I don't have a joke for that.
 * Evil John: That's completely fair. Now, all of that would be retconned out with later versions, but what's more interesting about Earth-Three is that none of the heroes were nerfed and none of the villains were boosted. Or... the other way around? You know what I mean, Ultraman is just as strong as Superman.
 * Evil Debbie: Yeah, so?
 * Evil John: And kryptonite doesn't hurt him. It gives him his power. Which means Ultraman has no weaknesses. And, because of that, he and his Crime Syndicate were able to easily overthrow their governments and dominate the world! Much like I myself dream of doing one of these days.
 * Evil Debbie: You can't even take over a McDonald's.
 * Evil John: Silence wench!
 * Evil Debbie: Okay what other cool evil shit has Ultraman done?
 * Evil John: Well, there was a version of him within what is called the Antimatter Universe, which introduced him to a modern audience, but in my opinion the greatest and most evil thing Ultraman has ever done is that during the event Forever Evil, he and the New 52 version of the Crime Syndicate fought, defeated, and overthrew the Justice League. They completely dominated not just one, but two Earths! And they allowed the villains to run amuck. They even exposed the identity of the famous Nightwing to the public, which forced him to don a new identity for several real world years.
 * Evil Debbie: Impressive. Though I assume they sadly fell.
 * Evil John: Unfortunately. The New 52 version of Lex Luthor assembled a resistance of anti-heroes and villains who opposed the Syndicate's rule, jokingly dubbed the Injustice League within the story. With their help, Luthor defeated Ultraman and his people. Also, there was a plot line where Super Woman, the Earth-3 version of Wonder Woman, kept claiming different people were the father of her baby and that kinda went nowhere for years...
 * Evil Debbie: Why would Lex Luthor take down Ultraman? Villains should work together.
 * Evil John: They hated the Crime Syndicate, found them to be imposters.
 * Evil Debbie: I see those goodie two-shoes to be the imposters.
 * Evil John: Ultraman is the earliest example of an "Evil Superman" that can be found in media. Well, there is also Reign of The Superman, but I don't think that counts... But, in my honest and personal opinion, I believe Ultraman is an incredible example of an Evil Superman. Yes, his motivation doesn't go beyond "I'm evil", but I think sometimes you just need an evil bastard in a story. Like, a guy who is evil, that's it, and you have fun watching them be evil and get beaten up by good guys.
 * Evil Debbie: ...You have fun watching them get beaten up by good guys?
 * Evil John: What? Oh, uh... No. No, I definitely don't. My character definitely didn't slip for a hot sec there. Either way, I think I've done a pretty good job of explaining who Ultraman is and why you should care, don't you agree?
 * Evil Debbie: There has to be more than one evil version of that loser right?
 * Evil John: There is and now we are going to the evilest place in the DC universe. A place that causes fear, anguish, suffering.
 * Evil Debbie: Oooh Apokalips?!
 * Evil John: Not yet. I mean Russia.
 * Evil Debbie: Oooh even worse.
 * Evil John: So, in the elseworld story Superman: Red Son, Kal-El's rocket crash lands in Soviet Russia just before the Cold War. And it's found by the man, the myth, the legend, Joseph Stalin.
 * Evil Debbie: I don't.... Um... I wouldn't have called that this conversation would go in this direction.
 * Evil John: Now, in my opinion, Red Son Superman, as he's called, is probably the best Evil Superman to have ever been written. He is a genuinely very complex and conflicted character who genuinely believes everything he's doing is for the greater good. He is constantly able to justify the horrible things he does, whether it be murdering his own adopted father or lobotomizing people that stand up to him, just because in his twisted mind, he's the hero.
 * Evil Debbie: Lame!
 * Evil John: Yeah, it's pretty lame, but I'm willing to admit something is well-written. I think that Red Son deserves its own video some day, so I would prefer to give as little information away as possible, but suffice to say, this Superman is one of the best written Evil Supermen I have ever seen. And from one incredible Evil Superman to another, have you ever played Injustice, Debbie?
 * Evil Debbie: Duh! I only play as the villains tho. Makes it seem like I am conquering the world with my superior might.

Evil John reaches over for his copy of Irreedemable and flips through it.
 * Evil John: Your evil laugh needs work.
 * Evil Debbie: Shut up!
 * Evil John: So, have you read the Injustice comics?
 * Evil Debbie: I have not.
 * Evil John: Again, something that probably deserves its own video so I'll just focus on the Superman of the story. I personally think the comics are better written than the games, following Superman as he slowly descends more and more into villainy. And it all began when Joker set off a bomb, taking out Metropolis. And, not just that, he tricked Superman into killing his own pregnant wife.
 * Evil Debbie: Wicked.
 * Evil John: I concur. After this though, Superman shut himself off from the world and wallowed in misery, bombarding himself with constant horrible news from around the world because he just couldn't focus on anything else. And then he breaks. He does something Superman swore to never do and uses his power to force a dictator to stop a war and dismantle his own weapons, enforcing his own will on a foreign country. But, just like with Red Son, in his mind it's all in the name of a greater good.
 * Evil Debbie: Ugh, another "greater good" one?
 * Evil John: There is a surprising amount of them. But, as the story progresses, he begins doing things he can't justify. The first big one being that he accidentally murders Green Arrow, which causes the hologram of Jor-El to lock him out of the Fortress of Solitude. But it isn't until the game itself when he officially crosses the line into villainy. I don't remember the order they occur in, but he murders two of his own allies. A heroic Lex Luthor and Shazam. The latter of whom, as a reminder, is a little boy.
 * Evil Debbie: Finally! Child murder!
 * Evil John: Yes, that is pretty wicked. Now, this next one... doesn't... count. But I know people will bring it up if I don't mention it. The elseworld comic Superman: The Dark Side features a version of Superman whose rocket got intercepted by a Boom Tube, which caused him to crash land on Apokolips.
 * Evil Debbie: Apokolips!
 * Evil John: Don't get too excited. Because, yes, Superman: The Dark Side is often listed on Evil Superman lists, but it's actually a redemption story, following Kal-El, son of Darkseid, as he comes to Earth and slowly realizes how much he loves it.
 * Evil Debbie: Ugh, we better get some actually evil Supermen soon or I'm gonna lose it...
 * Evil John: I know, but Evil Superman is actually surprisingly a far less straight forward trope than people make it out to be. On Twitter, they'll have you believe that it's just making Superman evil, but most of the time the stories are way more morally gray than that. Hell, even Ultraman, the most evil one so far, had a heroic moment where he sacrificed himself during Crisis on Infinite Earths. Evil Superman as a trope isn't just taking a good character and making him bad, it's actually examining what would cause someone like Superman to be like that or how Superman would react to growing up in certain environments.
 * Evil Debbie: WHAT?! At-at least companies that aren't marvel or DC must have made a Superman parody who is straight forward evil, right?
 * Evil John: Well... depends on your definition. See, the next on the list is The Plutonian from the series Irredeemable. Tony, as he's called--
 * Evil Debbie: Heh, PluTONIan.
 * Evil John: Yeah, that one took me a while... But, anyway, Tony in this story started... pretty messed up. He kept getting tossed around from foster home to foster home and the experience kinda messed his head up. But, when he grew up he tried to be a hero. Just a straight-forward, regular ass Superman. Only one problem. Plutonian, when he first showed up, promised to always been listening to the world's issues. So, he was always using his super hearing to listen for robberies, murders, and so much worse, and the whole thing was getting to him. So, one day during a stressful argument, he just flies to the moon and stops listening. Then when he comes back, he finds out he missed a crime that ended in the death of an entire elementary school.
 * Evil Debbie: Lotta kid death in this one.
 * Evil John: More than you'd expect, right?
 * Evil Debbie: Yeah, I mean I'm not complaining but it is a pretty sizeable amount. Alright how has he gone evil? I wanna see how much evil this dude is.
 * Evil John: Well, he realizes that because of that mistake, nobody's gonna forgive him. He's irredeemable now. So... he kinda just... decides to embrace it. He blows his entire city sky high, he burns his own sidekick's brains, he's trying to track down and murder every member of his time, so on and so forth just because he thinks there's no point anymore. There are hints that this has always been who he is though. Like, uh...

Evil Debbie doesn't reply.
 * Evil John: This page of it has always stuck out to be as demonstrating how Tony's kind of always been crazy.
 * Evil Debbie: What's it say?
 * Evil John: I can't find the page, but basically, this world's equivalent of Batman is talking about how he's always been scared of Plutonian ever since a day when they were playing cards. I don't remember what the line was exactly, but he says what scared him was Tony saying something like "how's Deborah". And the Batman guy replies "she's fine".
 * Evil Debbie: And... that scared him...?
 * Evil John: Yeah. And, just to paraphrase what the Batman guy says, he says something like, uh... "I had conversations about my wife with him. He knew I was married and he'd always ask questions about her. But, after we were done playing the game, I realized that through all the years that we had known each other... I had never used her name."
 * Evil Debbie: Ooooh! That is some good evil stuff! I wanna try that. Your dog's name is Cornelius!
 * Evil John: I don't even own a dog.
 * Evil Debbie: You don't yet.
 * Evil John: Plutonian's story eventually ends though with him kind of redeeming. Like, he saves the world, but he knows nobody's gonna forgive him, so he's turned into essentially a living idea. Like, he was a bad person, but they hope that the idea of him will inspire more good.
 * Evil Debbie: Damn it, another one who turned good!?
 * Evil John: I'm sorry Debbie, but Evil Supermen are just way too complex. Even Homelander is... He's... Hm... Nevermind, I can't think of a single redeeming quality Homelander has.
 * Evil Debbie: Oh...?
 * Evil John: Well, that's not fair, a lot of people have claimed Homelander has no depth in the comic. He does, but the issue is that his depth doesn't become clear until the literal end of the book. Up until then, he's just some asshole who does horrible things for the sake of doing horrible things. But, during a big breakdown at the end of the book, you finally get to see another side of Homelander while confronting James Stillwell, the man he views as his father.
 * Evil Debbie: JAMES Stillwell...?
 * Evil John: Yeah, in the show they made Stillwell a woman. But in the comics, he's this cold, emotionless businessman who will do anything to sell his product. I think in the show they gave his role to the owner of Vought though. I don't know, I've only seen season one.
 * Evil Debbie: Yes they did, Stan Edgar.
 * Evil John: I see. But moving on, yes Homelander confronted his father figure, James. During this confrontation, Homelander threatens to murder Stillwell, and Stillwell, without missing a beat, tells him to do it.
 * Evil Debbie: Jesus, so he was just willing to die?
 * Evil John: No, actually, he knew Homelander wouldn't do it.
 * Evil Debbie: What? How?
 * Evil John: Stillwell had raised Homeander since childhood and, according to him, Homelander underneath all of his malice and all of his hate is just a little boy with some serious daddy issues. He wants Stillwell to be proud of him, even though he knows Stillwell just views him as a tool. That contributed to his eventual insanity, not helped by the fact that Billy Butcher was blackmailing him, claiming that he had proof Homelander was a murderer, rapist, cannibal, and more. Homelander didn't remember doing anything the pictures showed, but they were enough to drive him over the edge. All Homelander had was his image, so when that was put on the line he decided to just do whatever he wanted. In my opinion, we can all learn a lesson from Homelander. You should always be yourself. Even when you're a horrible person.
 * Evil Debbie: Is there an evil Superman that is not secretly a complicated person?
 * Evil John: Yes actually, and he is also from the Boys. Black Noir.
 * Evil Debbie: Black Noir is an evil Batman silly.
 * Evil John: Well yes but no. See, the big plot twist of the comic was that Black Noir was a failed Homelander clone. Who... kinda went nuts. Like, you know those pictures I mentioned just now?
 * Evil Debbie: Yeah?
 * Evil John: Those were Black Noir when he was first created. He just went around, ripping dicks off and eating babies.
 * Evil Debbie: ...What?
 * Evil John: Those were actual pictures.
 * Evil Debbie: ...Uh.
 * Evil John: Yeah, Black Noir's a little too evil even for the Evil Dimension.
 * Evil Debbie: Yeah... way too evil. Ummm is there an Evil Superman who is evil but not THAT evil?
 * Evil John: Jesus woman, you can't be satisified, can you?
 * Evil Debbie: Look, I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
 * Evil John: He bit off more than we can chew when he ate those babies!


 * Evil John: ...What?

The screen fills with static again and the actual John and Debbie are shown. John is adjusting the camera.

She sighs as the video ends.
 * John: Okay, I think I got control back now.
 * Debbie: What even happened just now?
 * John: I think the camera got high-jacked and started recording a different dimension.
 * Debbie: Does that mean the viewers missed our wall review?
 * John: Yeah. Shame too, that was probably our funniest video yet.
 * Debbie: Should we reshoot it?
 * John: No, I think the moment's gone. All those incredible and objectively hilarious jokes are only funny when they're real and not rehearsed.
 * Debbie: Shame. Well I guess we should end the video then.