YMMV / Superman: Truth

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• Accidental Innuendo: One early issue has Superman riding the top of an airliner and looking pretty pleased about it◊.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The story was a massive financial flop, so much so that DC's sales numbers fell to their pre-New 52 levels. The followup arc, Superman: Savage Dawn, is about resetting the status quo, and DC Rebirth is aiming to get things back on track. In short, DC moved on from this decision very quickly, and looked a way to undo whatever damage it may have caused.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: The arc also teases the end of Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship. Clark/Lois fans are pleased, Clark/Diana fans are not. Clark/Diana fans are quick to point out that Lois' actions do her no favours.
  • Adding more fuel to the fire, John Romita, Jr. stated in an interview, that he doesn't want Clark and Lois to be in a relationship, ever.
  • And now as of Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #2, the ship's sunken for good... and the delivery is not really that good (look down on "Unintentionally Unsympathetic").
• Signature Scene: Superman standing with protestors against the police. As controversial as the storyline has proven to be, the moment is still fondly remembered and shared, seen as encapsulating the New 52 Superman at his best.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Truth works on the principle that all the heroism and goodwill Superman has established don't stand for much when his secret identity gets out. His powers have decreased, he has very few allies, public opinion has turned against him and he has become angsty and cynical. On top of things, he is no closer at stopping the Arc Villains than he was at the start. All of this makes it very hard for readers to get emotionally invested in this arc. Clark's astonishing take on Took a Level in Jerkass and its subtext (look below on "Unintentionally Unsympathetic") doesn't helps any. Not helping things is that the plot overall drew comparisons to what's arguably the most reviled Spider-Man story.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Perry's anger at Clark for hiding his secret identity is understandable (the Daily Planet staff was used as bait for Superman and he got shot in the shoulder), but saying that Clark is a danger to everyone he knows and that all this time he has been "pretending to be one of us" doesn't exactly earn him any sympathy points. Some may find a small Catharsis Factor in Wonder Woman getting him to admit with the Lasso of Truth that it was all because he felt betrayed by Clark after thinking of him as his friend.
  • Clark himself can come across as this, with much of his actions (enforcing I Work Alone, entering an underground superhuman Mixed Martial Arts circle "undercover") and reactions (deciding to terminate his relationship with Diana) coming across less as what his justifications are ("I Did What I Had to Do", "It's Not You, It's My Enemies", "Better as Friends", etc) and having a strong implication that Clark has some serious problems with being emasculated in any way (or even just feeling like he is, even if the person doing it not only doesn't knows he/she is doing that, but has some very logically sound reasons).
    • Add in that he put his secret ahead of the damage the villains would do with his powers. Superman really doesn't have the It's Not You, It's My Enemies excuse because Superman and Clark Kent publicly shared many of the same friends, anyway.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The "T-shirt-and-jeans" look from Action Comics (New 52) makes its return here, complete with a buzz cut. Admittedly, it was quite popular in its debut because it suited the younger, rookie Superman in those stories. The same could be said in H'el on Earth. By the time Truth hit the shelves, however, it was clear this getup had overstayed its welcome.

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