Some of the most engaging comics stories take beloved characters and turn them on their heads. Alternate reality plot lines, like Flashpoint, often become instant classics. Maybe that's why comics have been presenting "what if Superman were evil" storylines for decades.
The "evil Superman" trope has gone through all the stages of life. It began as a cool thought experiment. Then it went on to spawn some pretty exciting and original comic books. Now it's been getting a second life on-screen. Like many things in the world of comics, the screen is where the "evil Superman" trope has gone to die.
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There are only so many ways to tell a story. Evil Superman has been done in every way imaginable. Original films have taken up the concept. Shows have adapted comics that famously played with the trope. Zack Snyder's DCEU movies even paid lip service to the idea. It might be time to retire the trope, but first, here's a look at some of its standout takes on screen.
2019's Brightburn was the first and least subtle on-screen version of an "evil Superman" story. A spaceship carrying a baby crash lands in Brightburn, Kansas. Tori and Kyle Breyer take the baby as their own and name him Brandon, but they decide to hide the truth of his origins from him. Over the course of ninety minutes, Brandon discovers the truth, turns evil, and starts destroying the world around him. The film, which clearly hoped to earn a sequel, ends with the world in chaos as Brandon unleashes his fury upon humanity.
Unfortunately, Brightburn didn't fully exploit the promise of its premise. What it showed might have felt new for some audience members, but anyone familiar with comics could see Brightburn's twists and turns coming from a mile away. The feature-length film hardly had enough depth to fill a twenty-six page "What If?" comic. The movie got by on its cool factor, but it didn't do anything to develop the superhero genre or its own characters.
The next time an evil Superman figure showed up on screen, it was in Amazon's hit series The Boys. That show is adapted from a Garth Ennis comic of the same name. In The Boys, superheroes are real, but managed by a giant corporation called Vought. Vought's top hero is Superman parallel Homelander.
Homelander as a character had more going for him than Brandon Breyer. The Boys set up Homelander as the main antagonist of the series. Because of that, the show spent plenty of time developing his backstory and motivations. Viewers leave The Boys knowing quite a bit about Homelander. He's somewhat sympathetic, entirely repulsive, and utterly hate-able.
He's also, without a doubt, another stab at the "evil Superman" trope. In fact, Homelander is almost the exact opposite of Superman in every way. The only thing that prevents Vought's golden boy from constant murder sprees is his need for public adoration. Amazon nailed their depiction of the public hero/private villain dynamic at play within Homelander. Of course, they also had the help of Antony Starr's acting prowess and seventy-two issues of Garth Ennis material.
The best way to tell if a trope is overdone is to see if it's already been done to perfection. Invincible, another Amazon Prime show, is the perfect take on the evil Superman trope. The figure in question is called Nolan Grayson or Omni-Man.
Omni-Man came to Earth from the planet Viltrumite. He was supposed to be Earth's sole protector, and while ingratiating himself with humanity, he fell in love with a woman named Debbie. The two of them have a son who grows up to be the hero Invincible. Much of the show's first season is spent learning about Omni-Man's family and developing the bonds between those three main characters.
It's the Nolan Grayson side of Omni-Man that sets Invincible's run at the trope apart. Knowing that Omni-Man has a wife and son who he loves makes it all the more confusing and painful when it's revealed that he isn't Earth's protector at all. Of all the on-screen versions of the "evil Superman" trope, Invincible is the only one that asks what it costs for Superman to become evil. What is the toll taken on the people he loves? What is the toll taken on himself?
It's time to stop bringing out evil Superman stories. Many people enjoyed Brightburn, but it likely won't ever get a sequel. Soon The Boys will charge into its third season, and Homelander's character is beginning to evolve. The formula reached perfection with Invincible, but that show's source material is almost twenty years old.
Shows and movies are understandably enticed by the idea of an evil Superman. It certainly makes for dramatic, violent spectacles. Audiences have seen it all at this point, and they deserve better. Instead of using the evil Superman trope to explore why people can't really trust their heroes, maybe a new movie should give people a Superman they can believe in once again.