If Superman were to exist, would he be loved or hated?

I just rewatched Batman v Superman. I despise that movie but it did bring up a thought provoking question: must there be a Superman?

That gots me to thinking. How would he be viewed if he existed in today's world? I have no faith in humanity whatsoever and I have not a single doubt that he would be hated by the majority of the world. Humanity is too stupid, too ignorant, too hateful, too selfish, and too self defeating to realize and appreciate who Kal El is and all the good he would do for the world.

Humanity doesn't deserve Superman. He's too good for us.

He would be hated and feared. With such great power comes great destruction. You cant ignore all the death he causes.

Both. Some people would love and even worship him, others would despise and try to destroy him. If you combine peoples feelings about immigrants and nuclear weapons, that's roughly how they would feel about Superman.

I would on the team of we love superman. I think the inherent power of superman like @iandaemon mentioned is he would be like a god among men which many people would hate and fear him. It's one of those things where you would hope he would be the best of humanity and keep himself and everything in check but you will never know.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I could ever have peace of mind knowing I lived in the same world as a being who could destroy our entire planet on a whim. I think a lot of people would fear him and hate him.

Edit: I wonder if some people would start to worship Superman as a god-like figure?

Trump wouldn't let him in the country

Both I'd imagine, though the more particular group who will hate him the most would probably be the powerful or "elite" among men....

I found it really patronizing that Russel Crow sent his son to our planet, and that because of his supernatural power, or race, he somehow automatically becomes something we are suppose to aspire towards rather than human saints, be it religious or scientific and what not with the same limitations who do what they can.

More to the point, it was his fault the super evil aliens cave to earth and created 911 times a thousand, and that Lex Luther created that thing from Lord Of The Rings.

Thanks for that?

As others have said it would be both. Personally I'd be on team Superman.

Same. The Mutant Registration Act bad guys in the X-Men universe might be bad guys because of HOW they further their agenda, but their agenda is entirely justified. In Captain America: Civil War, the government is entirely justified in trying to keep tabs on superpowered individuals when people like The Hulk or Vision can cause unimaginable destruction. This is ESPECIALLY true in a universe that has magical mind control powers that enable the bad guys to hijack a good guy's brain and turn him into a monstrous killing machine (for example, Hulk in Civil War).

Did anyone forget that in X2 the bad guys hijacked Professor X's brain (or that other mutant, it's not really important) and nearly killed off 90% of humanity?

That is not to say that being born super-powerful automatically justifies HATE. However, peace of mind requires TRUST. And it's hard as hell to automatically trust super-powered individuals in a universe in which there are bad super-powered individuals who are constantly trying to wipe everyone the f*** out. You'd think that any rational super-powered person would realize that they have to EARN peoples' trust.

His mere presence would have an earth shattering effect. To study something that apparently can circumvent physics in so many ways, our world would never be remotely the same, not to mention the myriad societal impacts.

@GalvatronType_R:

Ultimately, I think humans around the world would force themselves to love Superman because they would be fearful for their lives to ever try to defy him. The religious will think he's a god send or probably even god in carnate. You have to remember that Superman's power is absolute and just one tiny showdown with military forces would convince world leaders that Superman would be a dangerous enemy!

If he says he wants to protect you then be damn well glad for the opportunity. Rather not want to piss him off! It would take some time for people to adjust but once they see that Superman means no harm, they'll accept him. Like I said, he's not the kinda guy you wanna say 'no' to.

As a DC fan, I'll have to say is, he'll be treated with fear, just like my favorite Man of Steel movie, hated and fear by Humans. Humans have always wanted to define God and Superman is no different.

And also this!

We would nail him to a kryptonite cross.

They would probably think he was the antichrist.

A white male with unlimited power? Yeah that doesn't go over well in this country.

The question comes up later in this video and is pretty amusing.

-Byshop

The world would fear him because while his intentions may be good, they don't know what they would do to stop him if he went bad. Batman v Superman had Superman get hit by a nuke in space and he was as good as new after a few minutes of sunlight.

Outside of us finding some Kryptonite, how would we defend ourselves against him if he went Injustice on us, or defend ourselves from Zod if he won instead of Superman?

Maybe it would be like how the rest of the world looks at the US, with us having the power to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal. They are willing to accept our help, while plotting how to take us out if we went nuts.

In several versions of Superman, everyone that isn't evil or paranoid is happy with Superman and what he does, but they keep Kryptonite weapons on standby just in case.

Feared.

I don't know...how do people feel about God now? Having Superman living among us would pretty much be like having a god live among us.

He'd ignore most of us, answer some of our prayers.

He'd favor some, not favor most

He'd probably make questionable decisions that we "shouldn't question"

etc, etc..

My personal feelings? If Superman were to be like he was in the comics, I'd be 100% OK with a real-life Superman. You know why? Because in that reality, the world is in the crosshairs of a whole lot of bad people and we need him. It's not Superman that's causing the collateral damage, it's the other assholes.

I would have taken the same stance as Batman, until I find out what Superman's agenda is, I see him as a threat.

this is the kind of stuff they should have tried to tackle in the movie but they just made a complete mess of it. civil war did a much better job. such a shame....i really hope the DC movies get better. please wonder woman...dont be crap. just be not crap..PLEASE!!

it would be a mixture of everything ranging from worshipped as a god to villified. some would try to control and influence him. other would want to destroy him. others again would even want to see him take control.

One thing about Superman and collateral damage: imagine if General Zod or Lex Luther or Doomsday were around and there wasn't a Superman? Life would SUUUUUUUUCK without Superman.

Also how is it that people assign blame for collateral damage to Superman but not to these dooshbags?