It’s a great time for Superman fans, with the Man of Steel soaring into movies, TV, animation and comics. To help us stay on top of it, writer Tim Beedle shares what's grabbed his attention and why in this monthly Super-Family column.

When it comes to superheroes, we tend to think of the idea of “strength” in pretty straightforward terms. Superman is strong. Doomsday is strong. Wonder Woman and Shazam are strong. Batman? He’s pretty strong for a normal dude, but he beats his opponents through skill, ingenuity and resources. He’s not strong like Superman is.

If we’re talking only physical strength, those assessments are correct. But physical strength isn’t the only strength out there. In fact, it’s not even the most important. Far from it.

I found myself thinking about this after watching the most recent episode of My Adventures with Superman. Titled “Vae Victis,” it’s the penultimate chapter of the show’s third season and it has plenty to say about strength and its role in society.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with the series (and spoiler alert if you don’t want to know some of this season’s biggest twists), Clark Kent lost his superpowers in a battle with Cyborg Superman and has since had to watch from the periphery as his children from the future and his cousin Kara are forced to contend with villains like Eradicator, Mr. Mxyzptlk and Doctor Poison. It’s left him wondering about what he has to offer his friends and the world at large. After all, as a writer, Clark Kent has always been secondary to Lois Lane. Now he feels pretty valueless as a superhero as well. It’s an understandable notion, but a ridiculous one.

True, he no longer has what it takes to defeat a leveled-up Eradicator, but Superman’s physical strength has always been the least important part of who he is. That’s actually true of most superheroes—their defining power or capability isn't what makes them a hero. It’s not that Oliver Queen is skilled with a bow, it’s how he uses that skill. There are plenty of other people out there in the world who are great archers, but only one Green Arrow.

Admittedly, there aren’t very many people in the world of My Adventures with Superman who possess the strength of a Kryptonian, but I’d still argue it’s how Superman uses his power that makes him the hero that everyone in Metropolis loves.

Ironically, the new version of Brainiac we meet in “Vae Victis” would agree with me that it’s how strength is wielded that matters. Only, he sees it through the lens of control. The weak should serve the strong. Kal-El’s role in the universe is that of a conqueror, and he should wield his might as a weapon to be feared. When Superman shows him that he’s wrong by beating his simulated challenge through kindness and empathy rather than brutality, Brainiac responds angrily.

And yet, when we realize who this new Brainiac is—the injured and isolated Coluan from the historical event that Kal-El was forced to reenact—it only further proves my point. The ancient Kryptonians saw strength only as a tool to subdue, and in the process, they turned a race of beings seeking aid into powerful villains with almost none of their former humanity. (Coluanity? Look, I realize they’re aliens, but let’s stick with “humanity” because I’m pretty sure you know what I mean and I don’t have a better word to use.)

“Hurting people doesn’t make you strong,” Superman says to Brainiac near the start of the episode, and he’s right. That’s because when you have the sort of physical strength that he once possessed, hurting people is easy. It takes almost no thought or effort. When you can defeat most opponents with a puff of breath or a flick of your finger, what’s hard is not relying on that to solve every problem. But it’s important because not every problem is an enemy that must be defeated. That’s what Clark’s solution to Brainiac’s challenge made clear. Have no doubt, it would have been easy for Clark to have killed the injured Coluan and defeated his scared and disjointed companions. But facing them and refusing to raise your weapon because you believe it’s the right thing to do? That takes courage.

I’d call that a much more important type of strength, and Superman—whether he has his powers or not—has that strength in droves. That’s what people love about him. He could be a conqueror, but rather than making all of us weak non-powered humans serve him, he serves us.

Of course, this sets up an interesting question. If Superman’s true strength is that of character rather than muscle, does he really need his powers back to be a superhero? Well, no, and I hope by the end of this weekend’s season finale, he realizes his value even without his Kryptonian abilities. However, I also hope he gets them back. Not to bring up a certain web-slinging box office star, but I’m sure you know what he says about power and responsibility. The flip side of that, which is often not acknowledged aloud, is that there are plenty of people with power who use it selfishly and irresponsibly. In fact, there are far more of them than there are people who act responsibly.

This season of My Adventures with Superman has been full of examples of powerful people using their abilities selfishly. Some of them, like Eradicator, have physical strength that may even exceed that of Kryptonians and don’t share their weakness to Kryptonite. Stopping a force like that is going to take all hands on deck, with everyone operating at their fullest capabilities. Superman may not need his powers to be a hero, but we still may need him to get them back if there’s any chance of defeating Eradicator.

I suspect that’s what we’ll see before this season comes to an end. After all, real strength may not be about conquest and destruction, but that’s not what this is about. This is about defending the people and city that you love. Even when the man in question is the world’s greatest superhero, you don’t attack a guy’s family and hometown and not expect him to have something to say about it!
 

My Adventures with Superman airs Saturdays at midnight on Adult Swim before streaming the following day on HBO Max.

Tim Beedle covers movies, TV and comics for DC.com, writes our monthly Superman column, "Super Here For...", and is a regular contributor to the Couch Club, our recurring television column. Follow him on Instagram at @notabard and on Bluesky at @TimBeedle.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Tim Beedle and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.