History Main / BewareTheSuperman

->''"[I]n any event, I never said "The superman exists and he's American." What I said was "''God'' exists and he's American." If that statement starts to chill you after a couple of moments' consideration, then don't be alarmed. A feeling of intense and crushing religious terror at the concept indicates only that you are still sane."''\\

* Three mini-series WarrenEllis wrote for AvatarPress fits this trope. ''BlackSummer'' starts with one of the superheroes announcing he just murdered president of the United States, ''NoHero'' is about superheroes that went crazy because of drugs that gave them superpowers while their whole existence send the world at the edge of nuclear war, and ''Supergod'' starts with whole city burning because of actions of heroes with inhuman definition of good and evil.

* A major theme in Frank Herbert's Dune novels.

And then you have these settings. The world's not better for having superhumans. [[WorldHalfEmpty It's worse]]. The government has no safety net to deal with rogue supers, and it seems like there ain't nothing but rogue supers [[GoodPowersBadPeople terrorizing]] {{Muggles}} or [[PsychoForHire freaks on leashes]]. And that's just the so-called heroes, who are usually [[DesignatedHero anything but]], being all-too-aware of their [[WhatMeasureIsANonSuper superiority over the rest of the human race]] and [[{{Darwinist}} a little too keen]] on [[SmugSuper arrogantly flaunting it]]. Maybe the crisis hasn't happened yet, but the way supers seem to be developing, it's only a matter of time until one of them [[TheNewUniverse blows up Pittsburgh]] and the rest go absolutely nuts. Not that they're exactly [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity mentally-stable to begin with]]; many will gleefully [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers screw the rules with their powers]], but it's almost guaranteed that at least one of them is developing a [[AGodAmI God-complex]] as a result of their powers, and that they're only one bad day away from trying to [[TakeOverTheWorld enslave]] or [[OmnicidalManiac wipe out]] all of humanity (which they could [[PersonOfMassDestruction easily do within an afternoon]]).

* {{Naruto}} raises this to an art form. While the governments actually do have safety nets to deal with rogue ninjas, words do not exist to describe how [[UnderStatement incredibly inadequate]] these safety nets actually are. The people in charge of taking out rogue ninjas are [[NominalImportance Nameless]] FacelessMooks while said rogues are, almost without exception, THE strongest ninjas in the world. A bunch of never-battle-tested newbies fresh out of the academy have more success fighting them than the people whose actual job it is to fight them. The heroes never go out of their way to find, or even mildly disapprove of, these rogue ninjas, with the only attempts to actually do so not happening until said rogues attack one of their friends and when one of their own becomes a rogue ninja himself. And yes, there is a token baddie who believes himself [[AGodAmI deity]]. There's BewareTheSuperman and then there's Naruto.

** Nevermind that the final act of the story features ''[[spoiler: Superman]]'' going into a blind rage at the governing powers. Just ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Imagine]]'' that guy deciding to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against ''society''.

* TheDarkKnight has Batman turning the crminal/justice world upside down for both good and ill. The Joker lampshades this in the interrogation scene. Subverted in that Batman doesn't have powers.

Any hope for a HopeSpot in such a dire scenario may involving calling the CapeBusters.

* The orginal ''SquadronSupreme'''s limited series also toyed with this theme, with the superheroes taking over their world after it's trashed by a villain... [[KnightTemplar all for the "greater good", of course.]]

* Another one happens in ''{{Irredeemable}}'', where another Superman anologue, the Plutonian went crazy, started to kill people and acting in a way that would make most of supervillains in history jealous. This comics is written by the same man who wrote ''KingdomCome''.

** The pilot episode has one of them give their motivation as seeing the Commonwealth as having BETRAYED THEM by signing the treaty with the Magog after the wholesale slaughter of several Neitzschean worlds (it's never explained HOW exactly a treaty was created with the AlwaysChaoticEvil generally mindless bezerker Magog species).

** Sparks are also able to... "persuade" some people to help them. For example, Agatha's command voice is so strong that if used, she can make pretty much anyone she want her assistant. Without them even realising this before it's too late.

* ''DoctorHorrible'''s nemesis Captain Hammer is an anti-intellectual ass who shoves the people he rescues into garbage and whoes only use for women is sex.

*** There is reason to it. Whether the effect of one bad day or brainwashing, it had happened before. [[spoiler: Superman, being Superman, was too strong to trust as having a reason.]] The question is, Warhawk had the where with all to get out of his armor prior to the event. With him coming back, you would think they'd throw him in suspicion too for being too genre savvy. Faking his death to throw off suspicion.(What's the trope for that?) Shouldn't they be wary of him?

[[caption-width-right:330:"His truth. His justice. His way.
And there's nothing anyone can do about it."]]

[[caption-width-right:330:"His truth. His justice. His way."]]

* ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' had an episode where Lois Lane went into an alternate reality where Superman had set himself up as a benevolent dictator.

* SupermanTheAnimatedSeries had an episode where Lois Lane went into an alternate reality where Superman had set himself up as a benevolent dictator.

** Sparks are also able to... "persuade" some people to help them. For example, Agatha's command voice is so strong that if used, she can make pretty much anyone she want her assistant.

* The original version of [[RobLiefeld Rob Liefeld's]] {{Supreme}} was essentially an incredibly arrogant, ruthless version of early GoldenAge activist Superman. He killed terrorists, villains and (in one particularly notorious case) government-sanctioned teams with impunity and gore.

[[{{Irredeemable}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/irredeemable1.jpg]]
[[caption-width:330:"His truth. His justice. His way."]]

->''"[I]n any event, I never said "The superman exists and he's American." What I said was "''God'' exists and he's American." If that statement starts to chill you after a couple of moments' consideration, then don't be alarmed. A feeling of intense and crushing religious terror at the concept indicates only that you are still sane."''
->-- '''Prof. Milton Glass''', "Dr. Manhattan: Super-Powers and the Superpowers," ''{{Watchmen}}''

->''Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that lightning, he is that frenzy!''
->-- '''{{Friedrich Nietzsche}}''', ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''

* Ellis's {{Supergod}} takes the position that superhumans, all created in the lab, turn out to be inhuman, unguessable engines of destruction. Their motivations are unknowable to humanity because they just aren't human.