Superman will return - but how?

 

Rumours are emerging from the Warner Brothers camp that all is not well with the projected second movie of the current Superman franchise. Superman Returns was intended as -  if not a reboot as such  - then at least a reset to ‘retcon out’ the increasingly silly third and fourth movies of the previous series.

The homage paid to the Donner years in the casting of the lead role sort of worked. Brandon Routh had his Christopher Reeve impression off to a tee. By contrast though, Kate Bosworth just didn’t have that spunky, sparky presence that gave the original films their charm and chemistry.

All of that might have been fine, were it not for the inexplicable insertion of the Hybrid Superkid into the proceedings. Bearing hardly any relation to any character from the principal 70 year DC comics canon Superkid is at best a distraction and at worst a positive obstacle to the scriptwriters of the inevitable ‘Superman Returns Returns’ (or ‘Man of Steel’ as it’s likely to be called).

 That’s something that every comic book movie fan knew in July 2006. Now the suits at Warners have caught on. Seeing the stellar box office action of the grim, gritty Batman sequel The Dark Knight and then comparing the (relatively) lukewarm reaction to the family-oriented primary coloured silliness of the current Superman direction the Burbank bigwigs have realised that there might be some uncomfortable decisions to be made. Do they carry on with the present lightweight direction? Toughen Supes up a little but keep the same cast? Or bite the kryptonite bullet and start over?

If WB are ever to realise the long-cherished dream of bringing both their flagship DC comics heroes together in an all-conquering ‘Worlds Finest’  team-up movie then they need to either ‘break’ the winning Batman franchise and make it more cartoon-like (and we assume Joel Schumacher fans the world over would be thrilled to see that happen) or to dirty up their underperforming Superman property and bring Big Blue into the Nolanverse. Christoper Nolan himself would probably be resistant to the man from Krypton under any circumstances but money talks, and if Nolan walked there would be any number of hotshot directors ready to try to ape Nolan’s style on set.

Let’s not forget, too, that there’s no firm idea for a third Batman movie – although after the success of TDK we can assume that one will be made, in a broadly similar vein, at some point soon. The principal obstacle seems currently to be the choice of a worthy adversary for The Batman.

The best idea I’ve seen for remedying both the Superman and the Batman problems came from a throwaway comment on the Cinematical site: Let the US Government send Superman after the now-outlawed Batman and let them duke it out in the streets of Gotham

The main problem with the Superman movies to date is that he’s never had anyone remotely tough enough to fight against. Let him go up against the smartest, most resourceful hero in the DCU and let’s not fret too much about the property damage.

Nolan probably wouldn’t go for it, Bale might not either unless the script were note-perfect but in terms of providing huge mass-market entertainment and finally making a Superman film that wasn’t essentially a comedy it would be the biggest cinematic success of 2010. Or even 2011.

 

 

 

Comments

[Lindsay]

Ever heard of 'Smallville' packed with fun story lines and the young Superman played by Tom Welling - he would be perfect for the big screen - Wow....

[Duncan]

That would be the best way to bring superman into batman the only problem is it makes superman look like a naive twit, i think the biggest problem with superman movie was that you couldnt relate to superman. (unlike Dean Cains Clark from the tv series lois and clark) and to make people relate to him you need to make his real personality clark and superman just a part he plays, the opposite of bataman.

[Tinks]

Batman v's Superman could not work, Superman has super powers where as Batman is human, (albeit a finely tuned human) with a few gadgets. I'm sure the producers would be able to wangle it so that their fight would last 100 mins on screen but every DC afficionado would not be fooled. Also, which hero, each loved in different ways, would the producers choose to loose?

[BCB]

I have long had this theory that Superman will not work in this age.

We live in a world of degrees of separation where our biggest media icons like Batman and James Bond have been reborn as dark characters who are at war with the darkest corners of their nature to try and live up to the positive ideals they set themselves but often struggle. Superman is just too good, no matter what he does there is no way he will ever 'turn' and do anything remotely like the wrong thing unless under the effect of Kryptonite.

In many ways, the lack of believability in the absolutism of Superman as a hero mirrors the widely held perception of America as having lost its innocence in the wake of 9/11 (which also makes a superhero who never has to sacrifice anyone and will always be able to save everyone a joke). I kind of think that Superman is a great icon but the series should go to sleep for a while until the world is ready to believe in a hero who cannot be defeated.

And making a TDK emo like Superman would be calamitous. Make some other movies instead like a Wonder Woman movie and another Flash Gordon; rebooting Catwoman to not be garbage would also work!

[Charles]

Rebooting Superman by pitching him against Batman will work for 5 minutes. Even with help and Kyrptonite, the classic battle in Millar's Dark Knight Returns - ends with Batman dead.

Batman can take care of Gotham. Superman however takes care of the world.
Superman Returns was Superman Vs a big rock.
this sucked.
The problem - to completely disagree with the Superman isn't for today argument - is not that the character can't work today, it's a rather a lack of imagination by the writers - even as a kid watching the much loved Donner Movie I thought hang on Supe's struggles to catch a couple a missiles and the next scene he's accelerating back through time? PLEASE that's dumb.

Siegal & Shuster's original character *was* a grittier hero, who quickly because it worked and people liked it - powered up to where he could shrug off atom bombs.

Both Donner and Singer's movies were less successful as soon as they moved on to the main 'threat'. The best bits IMHO, were both when Supes saves Lois - ie catches the helicopter and Plane - respectively.

Honestly Luthor isn't a good movie villain - the character works in the comics due the lengthy story arcs, as a thorn in the side, but Luthor is just another smart guy with gadgets he's no more a real threat to Superman than Batman. In fact he's really an anti-batman, more an evil Bruce Wayne ie human, smart and rich, he's not a 'super' villain.

My take on a post 911 story would be an alien attack on earth, metropolis endures it's 'twin towers' moment. Superman takes the war to Alien homeland, gets sidetracked (you could blame Luthor for this one) and deposes an unrelated but albeit wicked dictator, but the real villain hides from him until a climatic end piece where the alien superpowered bad guy dukes it out with the man of steel. two worlds are saved...

Something like that any way.

This way we get to keep the real superman, not the crappy powered down version which nearly ruined the comics - get some serious sci-fi action with star wars like alien armadas and real threats to the hero.

[Superman forever]

Yes we do live in a different time when morals are more gray to alot of people than black and white, but i think this could work in supermans favour. Restore his cape to bright red dont try and make him dark make him nice, bit shy farm boy but stil confident. like dean cain in lois and clark and youv got urself a charcter people like and will want to emulate, i actually believe it would be very positive to thrust such a character back into the limelight ina time when our culture seems obsessed with the dark, loose moralled (sexually), and the current drinking culture is abysmal. Give people a hero they can relate to and look up to. It shouldnt be hard theres 80 years of story to choose from and just carbon copy supermans current personality from the comic book.

[Michael]

Something that I should have mentioned in the article is that any attempt to 'Nolan up' Superman should definitely be informed by Tom Haven's excellent, if little-known, Superman novel.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dTHgKDYZdsIC&dq=superman+tom+haven&pg=PP1&ots=ayWzYBtBCL&sig=Rx-NOBeVBMVXzsq9WLGWL5UMFnM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

[Owen]

Or they could just stop making endless comic book films.

[James G]

The Doomsday storyline would be perfect. Doomsday proved more than a match for Superman - indeed he killed him in an epic battle with lashings of collateral damage. The multiple reincarnations were fun too.

[Charles]

Thanks Michael for the link - as it happens when the talk on the web began negatively contrasting batman - 'begins' with superman 'returns', - and the argument started about a reboot. I really felt that a "Superman begins" movie would be most interesting as a period piece, beginning in 1938 with Superman coming to metropolis, with a short even and simple acknowledgment to the alien origin story - just as a background to the opening credits, as it was in the Action Comics first story.
Here Superman should be the less powerful early version, just leaping and not flying - at least at first, then powering up just as he did up to and including some WW2 action.
whilst operating more as a urban myth - against corruption and gangsters - again more like the comics of that era

but with the dawn of the nuclear age, following the defeat of hitler and truth of death camps, my imagined story ends with Superman wondering about his role and origin ( failing to prevent the Holocaust and the a-bomb is a more realistic personal crisis for a demi-god than the one singer gave us in 'returns' )

this would then see Superman leaving earth in search of who he is (again the Siegal Shuster Superman didn't really know about Krypton - his relationship with Lois would have developed naturally as he learned of kyrptonite, which was to be called K-metal in see the unpublished "K-metal from Krypton")

This adventure would be the second movie - a sci-fi spectacle introducing say Mongul and Daksied etc alien characters - these bad guys prevent Superman from getting home to earth, until he wins of course

third movie - Superman returns to earth - time has passed thanks to relativity and space travel and stuff. In so much that it's now the present day.
Superman of WW2 has been written out of history, so have aliens ala Roswell - this time the internet and media mean Superman is a world sensation. no longer a myth - although the myth of Superman has inspired other heroes (see I've written in the rest of the JLA just there) - but this time we've got a more Kingdom come/all star superman like character - older, (but not that you can see it) confident and incredibly powerful - assured of his role as defender of the earth against super beings and alien invaders.

Of course this is all wishful thinking, but you never know someone might be reading this....

[Jack]

Of the superman movies the best one was the second one where he fought three criminal rivals - bringing in Aliens super women - having supergirl in it - having Kandor in it - Doomsday - having Amazon women in it - like Wonder woman - Maxima - or having it take place in space where superman is weak (red sun) then strong - all are great ideas. Having a sidekick superman from a small world not as power as superman but just as dominant in his home planet - all great stories from supes 70 year old history.

[Charles]

Warmers confirm Superman Reboot.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Like the recent Batman sequel -- which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far -- Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as "The Dark Knight." Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as well.

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development."

from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936107614461929.html?mod=googlenews_wsj