Warning: SPOILERS for Batman / Superman: World's Finest #11Not even the Man of Steel is completely infallible, because Justice League's worst mistake. Years ago, the League tried to take justice into its own hands by manipulating supervillains' minds. Now, Superman nearly did something just as bad to someone far more innocent by trying to remove a young man's superpowers.
The dissolution of the Justice League.
Though Superman was unaware of his fellow heroes' radical actions in Identity Crisis, he still almost makes the same manipulative mistake to someone far less deserving of punishment in Batman / Superman: World's Finest #11 by Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Steve Wands. The latest story arc has focused on David, A.K.A Boy Thunder—a survivor from a doomed planet in an alternate dimension with unique solar powers. Superman, feeling a deep kinship with the boy, takes him under his wing. But David, being young and untrained, is angry, and doesn't have a great deal of control over his powers. When he nearly murders the Joker after being tortured at his hands, Superman decides to invoke his own contingency plan—completely take away David's powers using a device in the Fortress of Solitude. David protests, saying he'll be "nothing" without his powers. Only at the last minute does Superman change his mind, allowing David to keep his destructive abilities despite his temper issues.
Superman's Comion Means He'll Never Make the Justice League's Mistake
Even though this situation is eerily similar to Identity Crisis—a powered individual misuses their strength to harm others, so an even more powerful entity decides to take choices away from that individual—the fact that Superman refuses to go through with his contingency for David is proof that he is the shining example of an ideal superhero. The Justice League's mistake was in taking someone's choices away from them, no matter how terrible that person may have been. Superman believes in second chances, and he believes in helping people—especially the young. By deciding to help David instead of taking his power away from him, Superman steps up as truly the best hero in the DC Universe.
Superman's choice in this moment may come back to haunt him, as it's suggested in a previous issue of World's Finest that David ends up becoming Superman's enemy Magog. But that's a risk well worth taking for someone like Superman, who will always believe that even the worst people can change for the better. The Justice League, in being so various, may not always believe in humanity, but Superman definitely will.
Check out Batman / Superman: World's Finest #11, available now from DC Comics!
