Popverse's top stories

• X-Men star Magik teams with brother Colossus for healing, horror, and halva in new 2026 Marvel Comics series
• Here's how to watch all the New York Comic Con 2025 panels
• Watch Game of Thrones' George R.R. Martin spotlight panel from NYCC 2025

Superman is perhaps the best-known superhero in the comic books for two reasons. First is his long publication history, which predates most other popular heroes. The second is his dazzling and sometimes vexing array of powers. He is super in almost every way, but the upcoming storyline from DC Comics, DC K.O., seems to imply that Superman’s new nemesis won’t be someone who can match his power, but the realization that he doesn’t use his godlike power enough.

During an interview, Scott Snyder, the writer of the DC K.O. storyline, explained that this new moral dilemma comes from an exchange between Superman and Lex Luthor as the pair wrestle with the idea that winning the tournament would give them the power to fight a Darkseid with the power of a god.

“Luthor makes a really cogent, in my opinion, argument to (Superman) in issue two coming up where he’s like, ‘I used to hate you because I thought you did too much for humanity and you killed our own heroism by saving us all. But what I’ve realized in these times is that you do too little. People want you to take over. They want you to help cure cancer, and they want you to take down corrupt dictators, and they want you to fix everything. But you don’t, so you do too little, and I think you’re a coward. And I’m going to do it.’”

The idea that Lex Luthor, of all people, is calling Superman out for not using his powers to the fullest, for not solving humanity’s greatest problems in a way that only he could, is an interesting development. How Superman reacts to this is probably going to be what defines not just the outcome of DC K.O. but the DC Comics universe in the coming years. Will he finally be tempted to use all that power to its fullest?

"Ultimately [DC K.O. is] about Superman being in a competition where the only way to win is to become the thing that you hate," says Snyder. "But if you can do that… and on the other side, you and your friends and the people you care about could dictate the rules of the entire universe, unchallenged forever? Is that what you want? It's about him being tempted by all of these other heroes and villains in particular."

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time.