What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow’s Video Games?

Since 1986, there have been nearly 40 games on major operating systems and consoles that have featured Batman predominantly, if not in name than in spirit. Whether it was the original isometric Batman game for the proto-consoles to the recent Gotham Knights (where yes, Batman dies, but arguably that doesn’t detract from how central the character is to the plot and the overall aesthetic of the game), the biggest interval between Batman game releases have never exceeded more than 3 years at most in recent years, with the current 4 year gap between Batman: The Enemy Within (2018) and Gotham Knights (2022) being the longest in the IP’s history. Conversely though, Superman (aka the Man of Tomorrow), arguably an equally iconic character with just as much source material to draw from, has not had such luxury. The first Superman game came out in 1976 on the Atari followed by a 6 year gap before the next game on the Commodore 64, a slew of games in the early 90s that culminated in Superman: The New Adventures in 1999 largely heralded as one of the worst games ever created, and then a scattering of games in the early 2000s. In fact, the last specifically Superman games consisted of one educational game in 2005, a loosely based movie pairing in 2006, and a handheld TV game (also in 2006). Superman has shown up in other DC ensemble games such as DC Universe Online, the Lego Batmans, Injustice, and Multiversus, but has never been graced with his own current generation game since the forlo…