(AP Photo/DC Comics)
Ever since Superman was created over 80 years ago, the writers and artists who bring us his adventures have faced the same recurring problem: How do you make this guy interesting? He can do basically anything, after all. How do you challenge him? In the early days, they kept readers coming back by ramping up Superman’s powers. At first he just bounced bullets off his chest and leapt tall buildings in a single bound, but over the years he became so unstoppably mighty that he could fly under his own power into the heart of the Sun without even mussing his hair. Then DC Comics came up with kryptonite, the only thing that could weaken him, which kept him on his toes for a while. Then in the ’80s, they tried de-powering him. Then they killed him. Then they brought him back to life. Then they gave him a mullet. Then they turned him into, I dunno, some sort of electrical being? I stopped paying much attention after that, but you get the idea. DC has cranked out multiple comic books with this character every single month for the better part of a century, and they’ve tried just about everything to keep the money rolling in.