DuneMuadDib
Sr Member
So being almost the last survivor of your planet is not enough to make that pain unique?? What more could you want?
Martian Manhunter has him beat, he's the last Green Martian alive. There's also Miss Martian, a White Martian.
Kryptonians they've got Superman, Supergirl, Zod and however many cronies are in the Phantom Zone, H'El, the population of the Bottle City of Kandor. One could also count the Daxamites (Mon-el's people) as their society was founded by Kryptonians and somehow grew to find lead more toxic to them than Kryptonite is to Superman.
Marvel's mutants have him beat on the fitting in with an alien culture thing (sorta). They're super powered beings who are outcasts in a world that hates and fears them. Not all of them have the luxury of looking like an ordinary human like Superman does.
Superman's got two sets of dead parents though, birth and adoptive. Pretty much every last superhero has at least one, many have two, Spider-man has 3 and change (counting Ben as adoptive and the change is for the numerous times May has died but not really died).
There are other "last of their kind" heroes besides Superman, so he's not unique there. Nearly every superhero has at least one dead parent, so he's not unique there. Plenty of superheroes have wrestled with having the power to kill and making the choice not to and the necessary restraint it requires to not kill, so he's not unique there. Now with his marriage to Lois Lane rebooted with the New 52 he's not even among the few who are happily married.
If you really, really want to you can argue that not one single superhero has anything unique about their emotional pain or however you want to phrase that. That's not my point and never was my point but if I'm going to be quoted out of context so be it. What I said was that Superman's a tough nut to crack since he's boring if he's an invulnerable boy scout as what I would expect is his characterization to a layman. If his powers are reduced to the point where he's actually in physical danger people complain or it just creeps back up anyway so it never goes anywhere. If they change his personality TOO MUCH to become relatable then the fans cry character assassination. DC has to walk a very fine line to make Superman interesting with the corner they've written themselves into with him.