So here’s a CLotU sheet for Christopher Reeve’s Superman, from the 1978 film and its sequels.

Name: Superman

Easy part. I don’t own Superman; DC Comics does, of course.

Class: Paragon

The Paragon class is 100% based on Superman – in various versions – and so that applies here.

Approaches

This version of Superman isn’t a big problem solver; he’s more likely to just yell at Lex Luthor than out-think him.

(One of the features of the Bronze Age Superman in the comics was that by that point in time, Superman was basically unchallenged when it came to the physical arena – his super-speed and invulnerability meant that nothing could really harm him, but his super-strength and code against killing meant that very rarely would he actually punch anyone, including Brainiac. Comics have always had a weird “it’s okay to kill sentient androids” rule.

Consequently, most of Superman’s Bronze Age stories take for granted that he could defeat Luthor in a fight, but he had to out-think his opponents. In CLotU terms, this means that Superman was using the Detective or Adventure Approaches often – or sometimes Mystery for subterfuge – to complete the Outwit goal. Bronze-Age Comics Superman would have a higher Detective score, while the Silver Age version was bigger on Mystery. For someone who “never lies”, he sure spent a lot of time deceiving both his enemies and his friends, with Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane in the latter category.)

So here’s a first pass at Approaches:

• Action 4 (This makes more sense for his high stat.)
• Adventure 2 (Clark wasn’t that great at reacting to changing situations.)
• Detective 1 (Honestly, Reeve’s Clark could be pretty clueless.)
• Mystery 1 (Kent, you really suck at keeping secrets, including your secret ID.)
• Suspense 2 (Awareness of his surroundings doesn’t really describe him, even though he has super-senses)

Those add up to 10, which is the right number – each Approach starts with a score of 1 and you have an extra 5 points you can distribute as you wish.

Power Words

From the Paragon class, Kal-El gets these Core Power Words:

• Core Power Words Powers, Abilities

He also gets to choose 7 Power Words from the Paragon Personal Power Words list:

• Alien
• Blast
• Breath
• Cape
• Cold
• Energy
• Flight
• Heat
• Indestructible
• Punch
• Speed
• Strength
• Thoughts
• Vision
• X-Ray

Most heroes only get to choose 6 Personal Power Words, but Paragons get an extra Personal Power Word from another list – that’s just them being special.

So I’m going to choose these, to reflect the main powers he displays:

• Personal Power Words Alien, Breath, Cape, Flight, Heat, Indestructible, Speed, Strength, Vision, X-Ray

And from the Speedster Class Personal Power List, I’m picking:

• Personal Power Words Blur

Superman also gets to pick Nova Power Words, that unlock once he’s marked all of his Ideals. I could go with a Nova Power Phrase like this:

• ~~Nova Power Words Man, of, Steel~~

But I want something else to reflect the wider array of powers he displays, especially in later movies where he can blank Lois Lane’s memories with a kiss or rebuild the Great Wall of China with his eyes.

So the Nova Power Phrase for Reeve’s version of Superman will be based on the R.E.M. song “Superman”:

• Nova Power Words I, Am, Superman, And, I, Can, Do, Anything

A Nova Power Phrase should be between 3 and 6 words. Technically, any pronouns (such as “I”), any conjunctions (like “And”), and forms of “to be” (“Am”) and “to do” (“Do”) aren’t necessary, as you can add those into a Power Display, Stunt, or Combo for free (gaining no bonus dice) so I’m going to allow Clark’s Nova Power Phrase to be 7 words.

Ideals

You get 5 Ideals; if your Ideal applies to a roll, you can add 2 dice and mark off that Ideal. Once all 5 Ideals are marked, you unlock your Nova Power Words and your Might resets to its maximum value.

Here are Ideals for Superman 1978:

• Ideals Humility, Justice, Respect, Safety, Truth

Skills

Paragons get two skills of their choice; in CLotU, a skill represents something you could do professionally.

The list of skills is:

• Academic
• Artist
• Bureaucrat
• Criminal
• Deputy
• Engineer
• Explorer
• Hacker
• Historian
• Investigator
• Journalist
• Lawyer
• Mystic
• Performer
• Physician
• Pilot
• Politician
• Scientist
• Socialite
• Spy

Of those, Superman-in-the-movies clearly has Journalist. The Superman-in-the-comics of the same time would have a number of other skills, including Scientist and Historian, but the Bronze-Age Comics Superman was … something else.

Let’s give Clark these skills:

• Skills Academic, Journalist

The former is because on his rocket trip from Krypton to Earth, he is given “the total accumulation of all knowledge, spanning the 28 known galaxies” as Marlon Brando’s Jor-El intones in a recording.

Volume

At the start of Superman: The Movie (1978), Clark is a relatively new hero, having just arrived in Metropolis. Unlike the Bronze-Age Superman in the comics, he didn’t have over a decade of experience as Superboy in Smallville and the Legion of Super-Heroes’ 30th Century; therefore, he’s a Volume 1 character.

(I would count each major motion picture as a “Volume” in CLotU terms, so the “Superman II” (1980) version of Kal-El who fought Zod would be Volume 2, and the “Superman III” (1983) would be a Volume 3 hero. Superman in “The Quest for Peace” would be Volume 4.)

• Volume One

Abilities

Prime Ability

As a Paragon, Superman gets the following Prime Ability common to all Paragons:

My One Weakness!

Before Volume One, pick a weakness for your hero, like a substance, energy or radiation type, or other physical effect.

Once during a Crisis, instead of making a move, you can declare your weakness is present. Your Might drops to 0 and you can’t use any Power Words. Each later Hero Phase that you don’t make a move, add the Volume to the Teamwork Pool.

If one of your teammates uses their move to remove the source of your weakness, your Might and Health are immediately restored to their maximum values.

This is, blatantly, Superman’s kryptonite weakness. This is the Prime Ability for the Paragon class because of how frequently green-K shows up in Bronze-Age Superman stories.

Unlike some other games, the presence of kryptonite is not determined by the GM (or Lex Luthor), but by the player of the Paragon hero deciding “there’s kryptonite here!” This ties in with the Harmony Drive concept of “Difficult Choices” – do you choose to be immobilized by your “one weakness!” this round and provide a bonus to your team? Or act and punch something?

Ultimately the Paragon class is about providing a boost to your teammates – yes, Superman is a member of a support class in this game – which is why if you’re playing a Paragon, that weakness is going to turn up as often as you want it to.

Class Abilities

Before Volume One (i.e., as a starting character), each hero gets two Abilities from their Volume One Class Ability List.

The Castle of Quiettude is an obvious Ability choice, named for Superman’s Fortress of Solitude – but it’s Volume 3. So instead I’m going to pick one off the Generic Abilities List:

Hero Cave

Prerequisite: You can’t have another Hero Cave Ability. You have a hidden location that is your personal base of operations. Add 2 dice whenever you make a skill roll while in your Hero Cave. Choose two Scene Power Words from the Hero Cave Scene Power Words List.

This is called a Hero Cave Ability and you can have only one Ability of that type – meaning that Superman can’t have both a Fortress of Solitude and a Batcave. (Which would be silly. ~~We’re not going to talk about the Night-Cave in Kandor.~~)

Here are the Hero Cave Scene Power Words list:

• Alien
• Analysis
• Archive
• Arsenal
• Beds
• Cell
• Communication
• Computer
• Costume
• Crime
• Database
• Dark
• Defenses
• Dinosaur
• Dock
• Entertainment
• Exit
• Extra
• Fountain
• Garage
• Globe
• Hangar
• Hidden
• Kitchen
• Laboratory
• Library
• Map
• Medical
• Memorial
• Observatory
• Passage
• Penny
• Portal
• Repairs
• Reinforced
• Robot
• Secure
• Secure
• Secret
• Sensors
• Shelter
• Shielded
• Statue
• Storage
• Studio
• Toys
• Trophy
• Tunnel
• Underground
• Wealth
• Weapon
• Zoo

Many of these would be perfect for the Bronze-Age Fortress of Solitude in the comics, but the movie version of the Fortress is made of big diagonal crystals and doesn’t contain a giant penny or an alien zoo.

Here’s what I’ll pick for this version of the Fortress:

• Hero Cave Scene Power Words Alien, Archive

For a second Volume One Ability, I’ll give Clark this:

Boundless Fortitude

You are amazingly hard to hurt. Increase your maximum Health by 5.

If you can’t find something thematically exciting for a hero, you can usually pick a bonus to Health and/or Might.

Health and Might

Both Health and Might start at 10. With the Boundless Fortitude Ability, Clark’s stats are:

• Health 15
• Might 10

Fighting Style

Your Hero’s fighting style reflects how they address Crises through violence. Each Hero gets one fighting style. The full list of fighting styles is:

• Acrobat Reduce by 1 the cost to counter a Crisis move targeting only you.
• Ace Add 2 dice when you use a Vehicle power word to roll to advance any goal.
• Brawler Add 2 dice when you use an unarmed attack to advance the Smash goal.
• Controller Add 2 dice when you use a Power to advance the Outwit goal.
• Demolisher Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Smash Goal.
• Find Weakness Add 2 dice when you roll with Suspense to advance the Smash Goal.
• Frenzy Add 2 dice when you use any Personal power word to advance the Smash Goal.
• Guerilla Add 2 dice when you use a Scene power word to roll to advance any goal or add to the Teamwork Pool.
• Interceptor Reduce by 1 the cost to Take the Hit for someone else.
• Inspiration Add 2 dice when you roll to add to the Teamwork Pool or advance the Allay goal.
• Harrier Add 2 dice when you use a Flight power word to roll to advance the Outwit goal.
• Jester Add 2 dice when you use humor to advance the Outwit goal against someone less funny than you.
• Martial Artist Add 2 dice when you use an unarmed attack to advance the Outwit goal.- Makeshift Weapons Add 2 dice when you use a scene power word to advance the Smash goal.
• Meteor Add 2 dice when you use an unarmed attack to advance the Smash goal against someone who is slower than you.
• Mediator Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Allay Goal.
• Medic Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Rescue or Allay goals.
• Non-Combatant You aren’t skilled at fighting, but somehow manage to avoid the worst of a fight. You can spend 1 Might or 1 Success from the Teamwork Pool to counter any Crisis Move affecting only you.
• Rescuer Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Rescue Goal.
• Sharpshooter Add 2 dice when you use a ranged Weapon to advance the Smash goal.
• Submariner Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Smash or Outwit goals while underwater. If you don’t already know how to breathe underwater, you do now.
• Tactician Add 2 dice when you roll to add to the Teamwork Pool.
• Warlord Whenever any hero rolls to add to the Teamwork Pool, they increase the effectiveness of their roll by the Volume as long as they can see or hear you.
• Weapon Master Add 2 dice when you use a melee Weapon power word to roll to advance the Outwit goal.

Most of these, such as Sharpshooter or Weapon Master, clearly don’t apply to Superman. Instead I’ll give him this one:

• Fighting Style Rescuer (Add 2 dice when you roll to advance the Rescue Goal.)

He spends a lot of time rescuing people, and then telling them that despite the danger they were just in, air travel is still statistically one of the safest ways to travel. When fighting Zod and his cronies in “Superman II”, he seems much more interested in saving people from danger than in punching anyone in the face.