#superman unchained

Great variant cover by Gary Frank, who has become one of my favorite Superman artists.  I missed this when it first came out because DC’s New 52 succeeded in driving me away from comics almost completely (except for Hellboy).

This cover is very evocative of the Fleischer Studios Superman theatrical cartoon Terror on the Midway (1942).

I feel that wraith serves that function better

Which leads me to ask this…how would you reinvent wraith to improve him as a Superman rogue?

He is the Americanized Superman who I feel would make a great substitute for an evil Samuel lane

Much in the same way as ultra-Humanite deposed Bruno Mannheim as the leader of the Intergang in your ideal Superman universe

Thoughts?

Anonymous asked:

Please do Wraith from Superman unchained I feel he works as a reflection of the Byrne Superman and that version of the characters rejection of his alien heritage

Jim Lee is really bad at designing Superman Rogues. He's tried three times to give Superman a "Hush" and they were all boring characters that were quickly forgotten, in part because their designs were so dull.

Wraith is a stand-in for numerous popular takes on Superman, specifically the DKR incarnation. Scott Snyder is at heart a Batman fanboy and it's no surprise that when he decides to create an Evil Superman for Superman to fight, he chooses to draw on the most iconic Batman story ever featuring a Superman who is a tool of the military-industrial complex. Certainly there's some Byrne in there in that Wraith considers himself a good American who doesn't have much interest in where he comes from, but conceptually he's influenced by the DKR portrayal of Superman as a weapon.

Snyder wants us to view Wraith as a "noble villain", a guy who while at odds with Superman ultimately does the right thing and makes a heroic sacrifice to save his adopted planet. Problem is that Snyder didn't think through what exactly he had done with Wraith background wise. We're told that Wraith's first mission was blowing up Nagasaki, which makes both him and the military look like monsters in a way Snyder doesn't acknowledge. Wraith killed a fuckton of civilians, but why? If the military had a Superman-tier operative on their hands, why didn't they just have him go over to Japan and grab all the Japanese leaders, Golden Age Superman style? What the hell could the Japanese have done to prevent that? Instead he's used as a fake nuke to intimidate Japan into surrendering, something he seemingly has no guilt over.

You don't even have the cop out of "Wraith is totally brainwashed by his handlers and won't ever disobey orders" because in Superman Unchained, Wraith disobeys orders to go murder Batman after Batman hurts his pride! Wraith is a bully and an asshole at best, a genuine psychopath at worst. I didn't feel anything when he died because Snyder didn't do a good job in making me like him before he became the full on antagonist. More should have been done with the alien civilization Wraith came from, because it's hard to even compare that with Byrne. For all his flaws, Byrne at least fleshed out what his version of Krypton was, and why Superman would reject it. Other than them being bad what do we really know about Wraith's people? Do they even care about him at all? How were they going to treat him after conquering Earth? All unanswered questions, Wraith pretty much rejects them because he's loyal to the people he actually knows and grew up with (what a shock, surprising that an advanced civilization didn't account for that). Since his first act ever was being used as a bomb against the enemy of his adopted home, which again he doesn't have much guilt over, no surprise he chooses to recreate his greatest feat against a new threat to his home. A Superman Rogue who is a literal nuke that the Army deploys at will in a way they want Superman to be is an interesting concept... but there's already a Rogue I think fits that role better.

Anonymous asked:

Do wraith Yes…wraith is completely wasted in Superman unchained But I always wanted a patriotic villain for Superman Something that oddly doesn’t exist in your iteration of the rogue’s gallery