NEWS: Superman Gets A Reboot

CULTURE: Superman Gets A Reboot

by A.J. Focht

Superman has been slated to return to the silver screen for quite some time now. It’s been nearly six months since Zack Snyder (Watchmen) signed on to direct the Kryptonian's next blockbuster. There has been a slow trickle of information about the movie, but none of them have been as substantial as the latest news.



While Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns was careful to keep to the movie canon, Snyder is looking to reboot the series. His Superman movie, which has a working title of The Man of Steel, will serve as a fresh start, taking none of the past movies into account. Snyder is still determined to keep to the Superman canon, but he wants to take his movie the way of Batman Begins and not have it tied down to the events or style of previous movies.

The film is scheduled for release in December of 2012. Currently, those on the cast list are mostly the stuff of conjecture, but Henry Cavill (The Tudors) has been cast as Clark Kent/Superman and Diane Lane (Untraceable) has been confirmed as Martha Kent. There has also been considerable speculation that Kevin Costner will be playing Jonathon Kent and that Viggo Mortenson will be cast as General Zod, but, as of now, these reports are just the product of a very active rumor mill.

It seems Snyder is being given a unique opportunity to reshape the iconic man in the red and blue spandex suit. If all goes right, Henry Cavill, not Christopher Reeves, will be the face of Superman for the next generation.

They want to reboot, without taking past films into account, but the rumors are about General Zod? Is the goal to bring back all the worst parts of the old movies?

Will there be another chance to see the transparent cellophane "S" trap that doesn't actually do anything?

For the same reason there are a dozen or so CSI clones: Nobody wants new ideas.

Can we stop using the term reboot?

I'm not sure Snyder actually knows what the word 'canon' means.

I'm really wary of this, for a few reasons. One, as Thistle said, Superman's kinda boring. For my money, the best Superman stories are the ones where he's the co-star--he's best used as a contrast to other characters. Two, the impetus behind this is to make a Superman movie like The Dark Knight. Nolan's Batman films work because the movies are designed to showcase the essence of Batman. They're dark and gritty (for a superhero film) because Batman is a dark and gritty superhero. Supes isn't a dark and gritty superhero.

The one way I could see this working is to make Superman the 'co-star' of his own film. Don't just have Superman flying around and beating people up, spend time--a lot of time--with other characters exploring the impact Superman has on them.

Couldn't agree more. There are interesting Superman stories out there, but they're the exception. The two that come to mind are "The Dark Knight Returns", where Supes gets exploration as a side character, and as a force of nature and political puppet. The other is "Red Son", a one-shot graphic novel that explores a world where Supes crash landed in the Soviet Union rather than in the US, and grew up idolizing communist values instead of American ones.

Supes works best as a force of nature - it's just near impossible to make him stand up as a character with struggles we care about.

"Red Son" was great but no one will ever make it into a movie.

True that.

What kind of robot?

The kind that writes crappy blogs about things nobody cares about.

I disagree with the prevailing sentiment. Silver-Age Superman is boring. He's got enough strength to move a planet out of orbit, a weakness to things most people know nothing about and have no access to (magic and kryptonite), and he's got no relatable inner characterization beyond "Halt evildoers!"

But that's precisely what the reboot takes us away from.

The modern Superman is significantly weaker, he has quite a few enemies with significantly more strength and ability than he does, and he has a much richer inner mental life. If Supes could do anything in the world and be sure that Earth wouldn't suffer for it, he'd give up his powers completely and just be Clark Kent. He remains Superman partly because there are forces out there that would conquer the world if he didn't, but mostly because the world needs someone who never compromises on doing the right thing no matter what the cost, and never stops believing in humanity's capacity for good even if we've stopped believing it ourselves. It strikes me that the more hopeless our world seems to get, the more we need Superman to remind us that we can be more than what we are, not less. And a story that does that is anything but boring.

Oh shit!

It also divides by zero.

Amen to everything you said. Superman isn't my favorite superhero, but whenever I try to make a similar point to this one, it often falls upon deaf ears.

HOW IS THIS NEWS? Seriously, old news is old.

The new version of Superman starts with John Byrne's Man of Steel collection. I realize that most people think he's an ass (and he is), but Man of Steel was to Superman what Year One was to Batman. There's a few other stories that really show Superman shining: Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, the Death of Superman arc, What's So Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way (Action Comics #775). Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman has a Superman with Silver Age powers that is nevertheless really compelling as a character (and a moment that will either make you sob or prove you don't have a heart).

I personally think What's So Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way, and its followup may be Supes' finest moment. The villian of the piece is a telepath named Manchester Black, leading a fairly thinly veiled pastiche of The Authority. His group tries to defend Earth, but is willing to use casually brutal and lethal means to do it. It's a story that challenge the idea of Superman.

Eh, Superman is all right. I find Spider-Man intensely boring.

Not a big fan of Superman, in so much when i am in my local store it never gets more than a passing glance. But i think i may look into Red Son. Thank you for this!