Posts Tagged ‘superman’

Bryan Singer has reportedly signed on to do another "Superman" movie, due out in 2009 or thereabouts. I'm guessing he's jumping at the chance to cram in all those Christ metaphors he couldn't quite find room for in the first one.

"Critically, "Superman Returns" was disparaged for lacking in action. Singer has said he would address this concern in the follow-up."

No word on whether the great gaping holes in continuity or, you know, logic would be addressed. Maybe those will be in the third movie.

That said, I know I'll still go see it. After all, the entire 154 minutes of "what the heck is he doing" was worth sitting through just for the plane-saving scene. Give me another of those, back off on the oh-so-subtle metaphors, and for Superman's sake let him punch something.

Last night I went to an early showing of "Superman Returns," the first time the legendary Man of Steel has been on the big screen in almost 20 years. Or over 25 years, if you forget about Superman III and IV, and I strongly suggest you do. I have. And with this return we've finally received what we've all been waiting for: yet another new version.

Reviews have been mostly positive, but some loyal fans have objected to some of the movie's surprising new revelations. I won't spoil the surprise by mentioning Lois' shocking new lifestyle choice (cannibalism), but I have to wonder; exactly which Superman are these fans worrying about changing?

Every new incarnation of The Man of Tomorrow has brought us something new. In the last 70+ years Superman has been powerful, all-powerful, powerless, cocky, polite, naive, and insightful. He's had different costumes and different powers. He's been an old man, a teen hero, a super-powered baby, a reporter, a news anchor, a novelist, married, and dead. There have been short ones, fat ones, tall ones, skinny ones, even Supermen with alien chicken pox. There have been multiple Supermen at the same time, and even more on different Earths/dimensions/whatevers.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is going to be the summer of Superman, might as well jump right in.

Just about every televised version of Superman there ever was will get released on DVD this summer, including re-releases of the original movies. I'm sure there will be graphic novels and comics and tie-in books and everything else they can think of, but I want to mention some unsung treasures.

Elliot S! Maggin's Superman novels, "Last Son of Krypton" and "Miracle Monday." They came out the same time as the first two movies, respectively, instead of movie novelizations. And they're wonderful.

They're definitely dated. These were in and of the 80's, and it shows. Not just because of the pop culture references, but because this was Superman before John Byrne rewrote him at a manageable level. This was a Superman who could fly through time, duck into the sun, and brilliantly solve an inpenetrable scientific problem while composing a sonnet in Kryptonese. All the unbelievable powers that hack writers gave Superman over the previous decades to get themselves out of plot corners — super-ventriloquism, super-breath, microscopic vision, etc — were still very much in play here. At this point in his history Superman's writers couldn't deal with this powerful a hero, with such a complicated mythology, and they decided to downsize him into something they could dramatize because frankly, after all those years they were running out of ways to menace a hero who could push the moon back into orbit. It was a good call and it resulted in a more believable Superman, one that could be threatened by something less than a god.

But these books prove that, in the hands of the right writer, even the megapowerful Superman could be a compelling character. He could do amazing, even ridiculous things, but he couldn't do everything, and he knew it, and it humbled him. Here Lois is a powerful woman in her own right — where most of the TV and film versions of Lois are strident, whiny, or neurotic, this one was worthy of a Superman. Here was Lex at his wildest and funniest, purple and green flying suit and all. Here were nods to the backstories and Superboy and the rest of the DC universe. And here we get a real sense of how the Kents, by being good and kind people, gave the world a Superman.

An example of this, which also describes what Superman was like in the years up to Byrne's restart, is this quote from the first book:

The Kents were well past child-rearing age when they found that rocket ship near the old farm. On a vacation they both contracted a rare virus over which even their son had no power. They died within a week of each other, Martha Kent first. Jonathan Kent, on the last day of his life and without his wife for the first time in twoscore years, asked his son to stand next to his bed.

Superboy long ago had learned the story of his origin. His power of total recall accounted for most of the story. He was able to fill in most of the blanks by flying at many times the speed of light through space and overtaking the light rays that left Krypton the day it exploded. In this way he actually saw the drama of his infancy reenacted. He knew that he was Kal-El of Krypton, the son of Jor-El, and possibly the finest specimen of humanity in the galaxy. He had broken the time barrier, he could speak every known language on Earth, living and dead. He had been born among the stars and could live among them now if he so chose. He had more knowledge in his mind and more diverse experience to his credit than any Earthman alive could ever aspire to.

Yet he stood at the deathbed of this elderly, generous man whose last Earthly concern was his adopted son's happiness. Superboy listened, because he believed Jonathan Kent to be wiser than he.

Most of all the books are about a being granted more power than nearly anyone else ever born, who believed to the very core of his being that there is a right and a wrong in the universe and that that distinction isn't very difficult to make.

The books are out of print for some stupid reason but you can read them for free here, and you really should.

Now here's the way to spread the word about your new movie. Don't crack down on fansites: arm them!

The official movie site for Superman Returns! is making it easy to get the word out; they've got a webmaster program that allows you to put just about everything off their site on your own. They provide the code and the updates, you just include a link back to them. Expect to see more of this, and a good thing, I'm thinking.

Warner Brothers recently dropped the prices of many of their TV show DVD sets to $19.99, enabling me to pick up some sets I coveted but couldn't justify at $50. Such as, say, Smallville. We just finished watching the first season and I have been forcibly reminded why I loved the show, why I stopped watching the show, and why I consider it one of the most wasted opportunies in the history of television.

Smallville, if you've missed it, is the story of Clark Kent before he became Superman. No cape, no costume, no flying (mostly). Just an American boy growing up in a very weird small town. Clark discovers his emerging powers, fights ethical and moral battles within himself, tries to act normal while secretly using his powers to help people, and wends his way through the tricky avenues of friendship, loyalties, and love.
I'm not going into a synopsis of the show – that's available elsewhere online, in much better detail.
But I tuned in avidly, one of the very few shows I bothered to remember to watch, and I was excited at the prospect. I love the Superman character. He's the quintessential American hero. Thanks to a careful upbringing among honest, honorable people Clark simply doesn't see the point of using his gifts to benefit himself over others. John Byrne, whatever his faults, captured this perfectly when he retooled the entire Superman comic series back in the 80's. The movies, whatever their faults, at least started out with the right idea. And in the hands of talented writers and artists Superman becomes admirable not just for what he can do, but for what he chooses to do and why.

Read the rest of this entry »