There's a Justice League the Animated Series episode I watched as a kid where Superman gets zapped by Toyman and disappears. Everyone (except Batman) thinks he's dead, they have a funeral and everything, but actually he's alive, he's just been teleported into the distant future, where Earth has a red sun, so he has no powers.
Eventually, at the end of the episode, he gets teleported home, Batman gets his 'told you so' moment, and Superman looks like this:
And, look, I don't recall being given any actual concrete time frames, but that beard sure makes it seem like he was gone for a while. Maybe even years. Except everyone in the 21st century acts like he's been gone for a couple weeks, max.
And maybe it's just me making up stuff that didn't exist in the original source material, but with all the timey whimey weirdness going on, I reckon it's possible that both things are true. I think he was missing from the 21st century for only a few weeks, and spent years in the future, surviving in the radioactive wasteland.
I was probably 12 when I saw this. I'm 32 now. I still haven't stopped thinking about it. Like, what would that do to you? Being gone for so long, surviving alone, but when you get home only a few weeks have passed? You'd be forever changed! It would mess you up for the next 1000 years!
When the Martian came out in 2014(ish? I'm not checking, I hope that's right) I remember telling everyone 'it's just like Superman that one time' and everyone thought I was weird, but I wasn't weird, I was right, I was right! It was like Superman that one time.
Whenever I suffer a minor inconvenience, like having to clean my bathroom, I always say to myself 'I bet this is what it felt like to be Superman, no powers, in a radioactive wasteland, fighting off mutant dogs, alone, for years'. And then, when no one gives me sympathy, I'm like 'it's like I was only gone a few weeks...'
