Despite being arguably the most iconic superhero of all time, DC Comics' Superman is yet to receive a video game that's actually good, with some even going so far as to say that the character's powers make doing so impossible. The Man of Steel has been the subject of a number of terrible video game releases, with the most infamous being Superman 64, and many other Superman games have been canceled during development. Superman games that have been released since Titus Interactive's Nintendo 64 bomb have fared little better, with most struggling to make the character's flying abilities or other powers enjoyable to use. Playing as the Man of Tomorrow should be incredibly exciting, but it's often proven anything but.
Superman is considered one of DC Comics' most important heroes, forming a central pillar of the company's 'Trinity' alongside Batman and Wonder Woman. Out of the three, though, only the Dark Knight has experienced a successful history in the video game medium. There have been pitfalls on the way, but Batman has had both a more successful and prolific video game career than his DC cohorts, with Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games having set a new standard for comic book video games since the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009. While Batman has gone from strength to strength since, Superman has languished in the periphery, featuring in the LEGO titles from TT Games, and as an evil dictator in NetherRealm's Injustice series.
Because of Superman's bad gaming track record - as well as the absence of a fully-fledged solo title over the last decade - the idea has emerged that the character's abilities don't naturally lend themselves well to the video game medium. Superman is largely considered to be a quasi-impervious character, an indestructible demi-god impervious to harm, and given most games depend upon risk, health bars, and the threat of death, it's easy to understand why some may think the character is antithetical to them. This is a very narrow approach to Superman though, and one that ignores the character's broader comics history. Superman hasn't always been invincible, and the reason why previous games featuring the Last Son of Krypton failed - like the hilarious Superman 64 for the Nintendo 64 - isn't because of the character himself, but because they were just poorly constructed.
Why Superman Isn't "Too Powerful" For Video Games
Superman is one of the most powerful characters in DC's library, but that isn't the reason why the vast majority of his games have failed so badly. The main thing all bad Superman games have in common is that they've portrayed each of the character's abilities extremely poorly. Superman 64 - and most subsequent titles featuring the Last Son of Krypton - made flying clunky and slow, when really it should be fast-paced and elegant, like controlling a fighter jet in the Ace Combat series, or even like web-slinging in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man games. Other abilities, like super-strength, have also fared poorly, with games either failing to convey the character's actual strength, or providing never-ending waves of faceless robotic enemies for the character to fight instead, like in Superman: The Man of Steel. The end result is almost always the same - a game where the character's abilities feel frustrating to use.
Superman should be one of the most freeing characters to play in a video game. If gliding around Gotham as Batman in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City is enjoyable, then flying around Metropolis as Superman should be even better. For all its other faults, Marvel's Avengers made flying with Mjolnir as Thor easy and fluid, with players being able to switch seamlessly between a hover mode and full-on flight during exploration and combat. This illustrates that the same could be achieved with Superman, and that the fault lies not with the character's powers, but rather the execution of them in his previous video games.
The idea that Superman's powers are an obstacle to a good superhero game also ignores the character's fluctuating strength since his initial creation. While it is true that Superman has achieved godlike feats as a superhero both onscreen and in the comics - even to the point of going toe-to-toe with Doctor Manhattan in Doomsday Clock - arguably his most compelling adventures have come when the character was at a lower power level. Superman can't be Batman in a video game, but there are ways to make the character feel more vulnerable. John Byrne's Man of Steel comics from the 1980s post-Crisis on Infinite Earths did just that, stripping the character's arsenal of powers to its core components, and making it so that his super-strength had limits. This interpretation later informed the iconic Superman: The Animated Series from the 1990s, which showed Supes tackling some threats with ease, and others with great difficulty.
This is the key behind making a truly great Superman title. By not only looking to the Man of Steel comics and Superman animated series in terms of the character's powers and strength, any Superman game must also execute those abilities competently. Moreover, it's also the case that the majority of depictions of Superman have dwelled on the character's violent aspects, most notably in NetherRealm's Injustice DC fighting games. It's impossible to make a superhero game without action, but Superman's primary mission is to help others first and foremost. This will mean fighting numerous villains, but it also should entail saving people from dangerous situations, or maybe rescuing a cat from a high-up tree. This was one of the best elements of Spider-Man 2's movie tie-in game, which saw Peter Parker rescue New Yorkers from perilous situations, and even return wayward balloons to crying children. There needs to be a balance, but unfortunately for Supes, most of his games have been way more concerned with punching things than tapping into the character's more uplifting aspects.
DC Needs A New Superman Game (And He Can't Be Evil)
One of the more frustrating things about the absence of a solo Superman video game over the last decade is that it's coincided with the rise of the 'evil Superman' trope. Stories and video games where Superman is a villain can be interesting, but it gets a little tedious if that's all there is to the character. Evil Superman will again feature in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but the game that really kicked this trend into gear was Injustice: Gods Among Us, which saw Superman become a tyrant after he accidentally murdered Lois Lane. These Elseworlds stories have always served a purpose, but evil - or at the very least, more "moody" - depictions of Superman, have proliferated since Injustice's release, all bearing the same visual hallmark of a menacing-looking Supes with glowing red eyes.
Superman can be compelling as a villain, but it's a shame that most of his recent video game appearances have focused on that depiction over the character as a hero. Just because he was extremely unlucky before doesn't mean that heroic Superman games are all destined to be terrible. Rumors indicate that WB Games Montréal may be developing a Superman game after Gotham Knights, which if true, should hopefully readdress this balance and depict Superman as the hero he is.
DC games as a whole are starting to catch up with Marvel now. Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are both set to release in 2022, and a Wonder Woman game by Middle-Earth developer Monolith Productions was recently announced at The Game Awards 2021. Superman features in one of these titles as a mind-controlled villain of Brainiac's, but hopefully, with any luck, games will stop treating the Man of Steel as a villain to overcome, and instead as a hero to embody.