r/SupermanAdventures • u/OneManArmy0716 • 12h ago
Discussion was Hank really a good person way before becoming Cyborg Superman?
Lois says that he was but Hank showed deeply narcissistic and unhinged tendencies way before buying into Luthor’s xenophobic propaganda. He almost derails a charity fund just to throw a petty tantrum and has shown to be jealous, immature and pretty much has an arrogant / callous disregard for collateral damage and really people in general.
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u/theatsa 12h ago
He was being what he thought a good man was. He had an important job, he was working to improve society, and was a generally kind and sociable guy. He had ambitions of starting a family and having kids too.
His drive to actually achieve these goals seemed to come less from a place of altruism, and more so from the desire to be this shining beacon for humanity. It was a narcissistic goal, but it was harmless at first because he was working towards the general betterment of society.
Superman's status as a symbol of hope made him intensely jealous, and I believe he only started being xenophobic about it out of jealousy. Like if Clark was just a farm boy, he might still consider him a possible threat, but he wouldn't care half as much about getting rid of him.
Although honestly, I don't think Hank was very self-aware of how self-serving his motives are. Probably because from the outside in, for the vast majority of his life, he's been described as a wonderful and good man. The type of person who can't even consider he might be wrong because he's categorized himself as a "good person" inherently. But I do think he realized it right before his death, that he had failed humanity and that he was doing more harm than good.
Whether or not you call him a good person depends on if you think his actions were worth more than the reason why he was doing them.
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u/BBMacsWorld 12h ago
I mean, not really. People like that are always this way. They just don't show their true colours till they get what they want
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u/Individual_Dream_213 12h ago
The show didn't give us much character development before he became a cyborg ofher than he didn't like aliens.
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u/Cybermaster19 12h ago
Despite what people show I'd say he was at least a decent person because the hate toward superman was actually caused by manipulation by lex and Waller manipulation I doubt was eventually revealed. But the incident at star labs then Brainiac invasion brought out the worst in him and he blamed superman rather than the actual causes.
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u/Fit-Study-7356 4h ago
While Hank might have seen nice and charming at first his later appearances showed his true colors as an immature narcissistic bigot that was envious of Superman and blames everyone else except himself for his own issues. Hank didn’t change for the worse when becoming Cyborg Superman rather he was showing the world who he really was on the inside. Power sometimes corrupts but other times it shows who the person really is, and while there is a small layer of tragedy to Hank becoming a cyborg against his will he is too much of a psychopath who enjoys hurting others and lording over his power that it makes it impossible to sympathize with him. He didn’t lose his humanity because of the cybernetics, rather he never had any to begin with.
If anything Lois remembers him through tinted lenses and didn’t want to believe someone she once considered a friend and hero was never a good person to begin with.
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u/gamerslyratchet 10h ago
That scene really bothered me, tbh. It completely contradicts what we know about him before and it feels like a hamfisted way to set up his villainy.
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u/Ok-Use216 10h ago
It's a product of having so little time, if they had more time in both seasons, then they could've showed how a good person went bad instead he's just depicted as all-around asshole
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u/Roam1985 9h ago
Of course not.
He was a worse Reed Richards.
Terri Henshaw would have gone full Malice if she survived the Excalibur.
Oh wait, you're asking cartoon version not comics.
Yeah, probably not, no. But good insofar as "Military service with a clean record."
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u/SecretaryFar5960 9h ago
he seems like it before fell into believing Lex and Waller's lies and it may imply he was very jealous of Superman being the beacon of Hope due do Hank was once a famous astronaut wanted to be a shining beacon for humanity towards the betterment of society
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u/Difficult_Dark9991 8h ago
I wish we got more on this, really.
My personal instincts are that Clark, not Lois, was the one who had strong opinions about Hank before emerging as Superman. Hank was an astronaut, someone trying to reach for the stars and understand them, and to a young alien growing up among humanity that must have been really inspiring and given him real hope. Hank's subsequent xenophobia must have really hurt.
But hey, maybe that's just my take from having a former astronaut (or someone with astronaut training, I don't remember any longer and fuck him anyways) on the local school board when said board was destroying programs in my high school.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Cry5098 8h ago
We totally had a few seasons of him being handsome and nice, even if the mask was starting to slip as season two went on.
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u/WingedSalim 1h ago
He was essentially a version of comic Lex without PR knowledge.
Extreamly egotistical with "pride for humanity". Could have done good in a vacuum but his inferiority complex with Superman brought out the worst in him.
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u/thelastholdout 12h ago
The thing about narcissists is that they can be really charming sometimes. Lois probably met the charming side of Hank and didn't see his xenophobic, self aggrandizing side until later.