All-Star Superman/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • When Lois tries to poke holes in his claim of being both Clark Kent and Superman, she brings up the time where Superman escorted Clark to a trial. His response: Batman filled in for me. Um ok, HOW?! Superman doesn't wear a mask and Bruce Wayne is a famous billionaire. Even if everyone simultaneously forgot what Superman looked like, they'd still be like, hey what's Bruce Wayne doing wearing Superman's suit? Or vice-versa if they decided to commit perjury by having Bruce Wayne testify at the trial pretending to be Clark Kent.
    • One of Batman's sometimes forgotten talents. In addition to being the world's greatest detective, a genius technician and engineer, a Machiavellian mastermind, and a mixed-martial-arts superninja, he is a master of disguise. Recall his turn as the crazy bag lady in The Dark Knight Returns, for example.
    • Plus they did that all the time in the Silver Age. A lack of diversity has its advantages.
    • As noted on Latex Perfection, Silver Age Bruce has a perfect Superman mask. Which for some reason he wears over his cowl.
  • Why is Metallo lifting weights? I know he's a cyborg, but I don't think that involves the arms being organic.
    • Routinely making sure he's still in full working order?
    • Metallo is a human mind trapped in a cybernetic body; he has all the neural functions without the sensorial feedback, several times in the past this has driven him nearly insane. Counting repetitions of a boring excercise could help him focus on something else besides the fact that he's a freak. He can't sleep and can't "get bored" either; so his mind is left alone to wonder, but he can't get tired either; so all he can do is occupy his mind with stuff to not go crazy.
  • After Clark/Superman freezes a group of rioting prisoners who are chasing him and Luthor, the Parasite quickly comes along and shatters them. How solidly did he freeze them that they literally shattered? Didn't Superman see how close the Parasite was? While I'm on the subject of that issue, why the hell didn't he find ways to save the numerous guards and prisoners who were killed during the riot? Why did he put the survival of Lex-freaking-Luthor above the lives of all those other men?
    • Actually, he encases them in a frozen shell by freezing the water that got dumped on them by the sprinkler system he activated a few moments earlier. The speech bubbles coming from them indicate that they're still alive and just struggling to move. Furthermore, in the next panel it's clear that the Parasite took a different route, since he's crashing through walls that don't match up to any of the walls in the room with the frozen prisoners. You never see him shatter any of the frozen prisoners. So Superman didn't freeze anyone solid, he just incapacitated them, and the Parasite didn't shatter them, either.
      • Unless you're watching the movie, in which you totally see the Parasite shattering them as he rushes towards the door. Of course, you also see Clark Kent's look of shock, he um, probably wasn't expecting that.