For The Man Who Has Everything: Alan Moore’s Favorite

For the Man Who has Everything is one of the most notable episodes of Justice League Unlimited. But how many know (or care) that it’s from an Alan Moore comic? How many know that this is the one adaptation of his body of work that the occultist actually likes?

Welcome to Adaptations Done Right, the segment that looks at media and how it improves the original comic story. Today we’re going to look at how to properly put Superman in a dark place. It’s all thanks to the examples by Alan Moore.

Introductions Please

Alan Moore is one of the most prolific comic writers of all time. He’s probably best known for giving familiar things a new perspective. Whether that’s making Jack the Ripper an existential thriller or for making anarchy look cool without losing its nuance. Fans might know him for Watchmen but he prefers if you remember V for Vendetta or Promethea. Mainly because he and Frank Miller practically introduce the Iron Age of comics. This era was meant to appeal to more mature audiences by making comics more literary and reflective. Unfortunately, the publishers push more for the looks with some superheroes becoming anti-heroic, pessimistic, man-children.

Alan has more in the DC vault besides Watchmen though. Not least of which is Superman, a character most people think is too simple to be interesting. Everybody knows his origin and that he’s practically invincibility. So how does Moore make him more than a power fantasy? By showing his vulnerability and humanity over his identity.

Out of the Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? collection, For the Man Who Has Everything is the most existential.

For the Man Who Has Everything: Down Off Earth

Moore makes this one story a tragic comedy. The title alone can be a sick joke on every character in it. Two of Superman’s closest friends Batman and Wonder Woman struggle to get him a gift. They practically see Superman as so perfect, a present would be a redundancy. So when the intergalactic warlord Mongul manages to get one over them, Superman looks more isolated than ever. Because there’s nothing that Superman would want more than to live and die a fulfilled nobody on Krypton. But Kal-El has no idea what life on Krypton would be like, so instead of a perfect world, it’s a reflection of Earth’s political instability. Something that Superman himself is powerless to stop.

But this fake Krypton makes that powerlessness a little easier to deal with. Here, Kal-El doesn’t have to carry the weight of the world. And he can have a nuclear family as his extended one falls apart. 

No Matter Where

The rest of DC’s trinity give Superman that love. Like how Batman went to great lengths to give Superman a tribute to Krypton. Because if Superman couldn’t have the planet, he and Supergirl could keep its memory going with a plant named after it. Only for a darker version of his gift to twist and wreck it For The Man Who Has Everything. Then there’s how the Dark Knight interacts with this Black Mercy. It’s not much but imagine waking up from this after Thomas Wayne put up resistance in Bruce’s fantasy. Does that make Batman want to love his parents less?

Wonder Woman meanwhile gets too much talk on her fight with Mongul. So let’s ignore power scaling’s stupidity and focus on her gift. Her replica of the Kryptonian city of Kandor replaces Superman’s. Since the illusion didn’t have that, it helped get the Man of Steel out. Plus, it shows that Superman would rather make new memories with Diana and Batman than indulge in a past he never had.

Funnily enough, Moore wanted to use Supergirl in Wonder Woman’s place. Probably would’ve fit better too. But she was marked for-

Blare!!!!!!!!

You know what; let’s move on.

For the Man Who Has Everything: The Tragic Animation

The Justice League Unlimited episode has Moore’s formula; but it gets rid of the suicidal fantasy. Honestly, I think Moore prefers it that way with how much he complains about his grim-and-gritty rep. Besides Superman’s known for his optimism so of course his Krypton really isn’t bad at all. He even sees his father Jor-El rebuild his reputation, showing that Kal-El admires the man who encouraged him to be Superman. Besides he gets to work with Jor-El to help prevent a catastrophe rather than allow it to happen.

This makes Kal-El’s revelation that everything is fake so much worse. I mean when you really look at the details like the farm Kal-El lives on, his wife, the dog Krypto, and his son are things Clark Kent wished he could have. All of which are based on little things from past episodes of Superman: The Animated Series. In Laymen’s terms, it’s AI generated programming trying to give Superman everything. Even something that current AI can’t do, a feeling of pride and joy when Superman experienced his son’s birth.

So great a sensation, Superman actually tries to kill Mongul when he wakes up. He would have if it didn’t mean wrecking his parents’ statues. Makes me wonder what would’ve happened if Wonder Woman didn’t fling the Black Mercy on Mongul. Especially since this episode uses the age rating’s restrictions to its advantage to create darker and sometimes more compelling narratives. Enough to leave it to viewers’ imaginations on Mongul’s prison.

Overall Quality

Alan Moore does NOT like having his works adapted, especially by Hollywood. Most of the time they try to double down on either the grounded realism or the dark spectacle. That’s not even including DC’s history of backstabbing Moore. But For The Man Who Has Everything is the biggest exception. For one, the show-runner actually gives him credit. And makes the for TV episode’s darker bits more of an implication than indulging in it. Bonus points for AI generation decades before its time.

Both mediums deserve a 9/10, nearly perfect in their own ways that play to their strengths with one flaw. The comic because it missed an opportunity out of Crisis On Infinite Earth’s executive mandate. The show for making Batman feel a little more like an extra.

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