Superman was the character who kicked off the DCEU with his eponymous film Man of Steel. It was this movie that introduced DC Comics to the silver screen in the 21st century, and it was Superman who blazed the trail for the films to follow. However, Clark Kent, for all his Krpytonian strength, is still just a man— and men are flawed.
He makes mistakes that he must learn from, and sometimes, these mistakes gain traction in an attempt to destroy his life. As the Snyder cut of Justice League will soon be released, fans are eagerly waiting to see if Clark Kent will be more in character in the director’s cut of the film. In the past, Superman has made a few decisions that make it obvious he is his own worst enemy.
10 Terrified By His Own Powers
As a child, Clark Kent was, at first, seemingly unaware that he was tremendously different from other children. At one point, he accidentally burned a comic book in his hands with his heat vision, but it wasn’t until Clark was nine years old that his enhanced senses truly whammied him.
At such a young age, it was nearly impossible for Clark to handle the powers as they rapidly manifested. He lashed out against other students and his teacher. It was only when his mother, Martha Kent, came to the school and helped him that Clark was able to gather himself, setting him on a long path to learning how to control the abilities that would forever torment him.
9 Difficulty Concealing The Truth
Martha and Jonathan Kent feared for their son as any normal parents would, but they had an extra reason for concern: Their son had superpowers. By the time Clark was thirteen years old, he was struggling to conceal the truth about his powers from his peers.
When he was on the school bus, and one of the tires blew out, causing the bus to crash into a river, Clark Kent doesn’t waste time: He swiftly saves his classmates’ lives. Jonathan Kent tells his son that people can’t know about his gifts if he wants to be safe, even if it means harm will come to others. Clark will forever struggle with this, always unable to ever really internalize this instruction.
8 Could Have Saved His Father
Towards the end of Clark’s childhood, the lesson his father had attempted to teach him at the age of thirteen was put to the test. When Clark was only seventeen years old, Clark Kent and Jonathan Kent try to help people as a tornado sweeps across a highway in Kansas. Jonathan is killed while Clark can do nothing but watch, even though Clark knows he could have saved him.
Jonathan believes the sacrifice is worth it to keep Clark’s powers a secret, but Clark will forever regret this action. He knew he could have saved his father, and still he didn’t; he will never be sure he made the correct decision on that day.
7 Tormented Himself For Years
After losing his father, Clark Kent decided he needed to be punished. He felt such an immense guilt that, for many years after his father’s death, Clark Kent wandered the Earth, never really living a human life.
He just floated from place to place, never truly joining in with society, skirting along the edges of civilization and helping people as needed. Every time he gets too close, he knows he needs to move on. He purposefully keeps himself from human relationships and a happy life for many years as a punishment— and as a quest, in a way.
6 Always Gets Involved In The Smallest Fights, Even As Clark
While Clark Kent seems to believe that he can stop being Superman any time he wants, this could not be further from the truth. Clark is incapable of not helping; he has to get involved in every little altercation or skirmish that he comes across.
Even watching a fight between a trucker and a waitress, Clark Kent feels the need to step in and get involved. His complete inability to stay out of situations that have nothing to do with him will forever follow him, always getting him involved in things he doesn’t need to be involved with.
5 Turned Himself In To The Military
After so many years operating as a solitary vigilante, Clark Kent sees fit to turn himself in to the United States military after he becomes Superman. As Clark has gained the ability to fly, among other skills, he doesn’t want to put any more people in danger, and he sees no other choice.
General Zod said that he would destroy the people of Earth, forcing them to suffer his wrath, if Clark is not turned over to him. Clark is the one who turns himself over, willingly sacrificing himself to Zod and the military as asked.
4 Ensured He Was The Last Kryptonian
One of the most tragic elements of Clark Kent’s character is the fact that he feels so alone. A child of two worlds, he feels that he truly belongs to neither of them. He is the only Kryptonian he knows; he lives among Earthlings, among humans, but can never truly be one of them. In finding General Zod, he finds that he is not alone in this universe, that there are still others like him out there.
Unfortunately, though, General Zod has a very different idea of their future, and Clark has no choice, ultimately, but to kill Zod. He may have felt it was the only option, but Clark is still the one who ensures that he is the last Kryptonian (that he knows of).
3 Couldn't Protect Jimmy Olsen & Lois Is Often At Risk
Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen may be human, but they mean more than the world to Clark Kent. They are his best friends, and audiences know this. Even if Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent didn’t get any time together in the DCEU, fans still know how much the two mean to each other, and that made it all the more shocking and devastating when Jimmy Olsen was swiftly killed in the DCEU.
Clark Kent struggles with the loss of humans in his protection, especially when Lois Lane is threatened. He loves her more than anything, and her continuously being at risk haunts Clark, even if it is partially his own fault.
2 Superman Is Viewed As A God
Clark Kent is a man, or so he says; in reality, he is more than human, even if he was raised by humans and seems to think like them. Other people realize that Superman is beyond humanity, and they begin viewing him as a god.
In doing so, Superman becomes more than a superhero; people start to question him and what he stands for, as well as the choices that he makes. Clark can only do so much, but the image he cultivates for himself ultimately ends up backfiring on him, as people struggle to trust someone they can’t understand.
1 Lets Lex Luthor Manipulated Him Against Bruce Wayne
As Clark Kent’s story starts to become interwoven with the other founding members of the Justice League, he seems to be shocked at the fact that there are others like him. He has felt so alone for so long that the discovery of other metahumans, even just strong humans like Bruce Wayne, seems incredible.
However, Batman and Superman are quickly pitted against each other, as Lex Luthor manipulates them into not trusting one another. Clark Kent nearly dies at Bruce Wayne’s hands because of how far this manipulation goes. Ultimately, though, Clark Kent is also his own hero— He saves himself and the world, though he does die in the process.
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