Things don’t always come as easy to Superman as people might believe since the guy does still have emotions, feelings, and a moral center that wars with his decision-making process at times. But the big thing about Superman is that he has a lot more responsibility than a lot of other people and as such his decisions come with a whole laundry list of potential problems since in the past it’s been seen that his enemies can figure out how to make him pay for the decisions he makes and the ones that he doesn’t give enough thought to. There have been some truly tough decisions that he’s had to make in the past, and some that have had rather dire consequences. Others that he’s made have been extremely controversial since his emotions had a tendency to take over, making him commit acts that were more than a little reprehensible to many people. The man of steel isn’t beyond reproach if there’s any honesty in the comics, but his decisions have definitely been far tougher than those that many people might face.
Here are some of the toughest decisions that Superman has had to make.
5. He obeyed his father and let him die.
People still have a lot of issues with the way that Jonathan Kent went out since it felt like a giant copout that the writers came up with to try and avoid looking like they were being lazy. In truth, though it still makes Clark look kind of bad since not saving his father did save his identity and the revelation of his powers, but it made him give up one of the most important people in his life simply to make life a little easier on him. That’s what parents try to do in order to protect their kids, but this feels as though it could have been retconned and people might not have cared quite as much.
4. Traveling back in time to save Lois might still count.
Let the woman you love stay dead, or turn back time because you have the power to do so and can bring her back? The Avengers might argue that time doesn’t really work this way since just causing the earth to rotate backward might not be enough. Plus, what in the world would that do to the world in general? It doesn’t feel as though it would really do much other than seriously screw with peoples’ sense of time and turn day into night and vice versa in reverse, while still leaving everyone that had been touched by the devastation just as dead, injured, or otherwise, but with a new wrinkle to deal with thanks to Superman’s efforts.
3. His decision to leave earth for a while was a big one.
A world that relies on a superhero to solve all their problems sounds like a very needy one, but considering that Superman was able to do so much during his time on earth it does feel kind of odd that he would simply take off and seek out his homeworld when it was already established that it was gone. But this decision he made to leave was one of a personal nature and it’s very easy to side with Supes on this one since the people of earth were taking care of their own business before he showed up and appeared to become kind of dependent on him for a while, so it was better to just see him gone for a while to make sure that people could deal with their own issues.
2. Killing Zod wasn’t an easy decision.
It wasn’t easy to snap Zod’s neck in Man of Steel, from a physical or moral stance, but when one considers all the damage that Zod was doing and the fact that he and Superman were laying waste to the city with every impact, his decision should have been a little easier since the point that Zod was making was clear: he wasn’t going to stop. So valuing life over death, Clark really needed to make that decision quickly, no matter how hard it was, since last Kryptonian or not, he really needed to stick to his guns when it came to saving human beings since Zod was completely bent on killing as many as he could.
1. Fighting Batman he looked pretty reluctant.
The thing was that he knew he could annihilate Batman, but he also knew that despite his misgivings over how Batman handled himself, he was still a hero that had a purpose in the city of Gotham. Plus, killing just isn’t Superman’s thing since it’s so horribly easy. He even said he could have ended the fight early, so holding back was actually easier to do than knocking Bruce out with one punch. Sometimes you’ve just got to shake your head at the idea that anyone is this noble.
Superman is a hero and all, but man is he uptight sometimes.
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