October 5th, 2010
So that’s what Chris Nolan is giving us next: a Nolan designed, Goyer scripted, Snyder directed Superman reboot with General Zod as the foil. Temp title: The Man of Steel.
I want to be excited. Really, I do. But I’m just not there. There’s a reason Superman has never (that’s right, never) been great on the big screen: He’s a drama killer. The character is too omnipotent, his powers are, as a visual matter, not particularly interesting to the eye. The interesting aspects of Superman are all interior: How can a man this powerful really be such a boy scout? How does he handle those few people around him who do not recognize him as a deity? (Meaning, his relationships with Batman and Wonder Woman.) And finally: How does the world around him change because of his presence?
There are great Superman moments in comics, but for me, he’s most dramatically powerful when he isn’t the main character. Three examples:
* The very first Jeff Loeb Superman-Batman, which opens with Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent nearly meeting as young boys when Wayne and Alfred are driving through Kanasas. Superman is confronted by a limitation here when he realizes that there is nothing he could have done, even at that early age, to save Bruce’s soul.
* The confrontation between Wonder Woman and Superman in (I think) Korea in DarwynCooke’s New Frontier. Superman finds an AWOL Wonder Woman who has led a group of native women to slaughter the Communist fighters who were keeping them captive. She’s in the process of turning them into mini-Amazons and Superman is horrified. Wonder Woman dismissively calls him “spaceman” and tells Kal to go home, that his moral code has no value in war.
* In Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis, Superman (and Batman) loom over the entire series, despite the fact that they rarely appear on the page. Instead, it’s Superman’s very existence which shapes the actions of the other characters, with one hero or another often threatening to “go tell Clark” about what’s going on.
The common theme here is that Superman’s most powerful dramatic conflicts have nothing to do with physical action. Which is why he’s such a tough character to do well on the big screen.
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Fer the love of all that’s good and holy, can they STOP with all the comic book reboots? Just because ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ worked (incredibly well), doesn’t mean we need a Hulk reboot (which was not only superfluous, but was ridiculous because Ang Lee’s much-derided version didn’t sell well. ), or a Spidey reboot. We just had a Superman film, what, like five or six years ago? It’s ludicrous to keep going back to the well on these. Let them rest for a while, for Pete’s sake.
I realize I’m jumping between the DC and Marvel universes to make my point, but it would seem as if the only reason for these films is now that both DC and Marvel have their own studios, they get a bigger piece of the financial pie. If they don’t watch it, they’re going to dilute their brand faster and more furiously than if they’d just stuck with selling the rights. What DC should be doing is what Marvel is doing w/ ‘The Avengers’ series—a series that perhaps isn’t as well known to the non-comic reading public as say, Batman, but which is well loved by the fan-boys, and has a goodly chunk of dramatic potential, to boot. Branagh—KENNETH FREAKIN’ BRANAGH—is directing ‘Thor,’ with Anthony Hopkins as Odin—how awesome is that going to be? It surely beats another Supe’ remake every day of the week and will deliver a serious beatdown twice on Sundays.
That said, a ‘Justice League’ film would suck, so maybe they shouldn’t go there. (Aquaman to the rescue!) I’m not a fan-girl, but it seems to me there has to be at least one DC property that would fit this sort of bill, instead of constantly pushing Superman back out onto the street in a low-cut top and hooker heels, to see what kind of money they can pull by pimping him hard.
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I want to be excited. Really, I do. But I’m just not there. There’s a reason Superman has never (that’s right, never) been great on the big screen: He’s a drama killer.
Isn’t that kind of a problem with DC’s upper echelon in general? They make great supporting characters, but for a variety of reasons they are often lackluster leads. They’re archetypes, which are compelling backdrops but not compelling characters. I was a big Batman guy when I was collecting, but even then I found myself more interested in Tim Drake, Helena Bertinelli, Jean Paul Valley, and other supporting characters than I was in Bruce Wayne.
pmm October 5, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I must respectfully disagree with Kathy, as I welcome reboots. First, I assume that the stories for these characters will never actually be ended so long as there’s profit to be made, so it’s only a question of whether the story is currently being told well or not. As the properties pass through the hands of various writers/directors, they can either tell awesome stories or run the character into the ground. When a character’s arc goes South in the comics, it’s not that hard to clean up the mess (unless they’re Hawkman or Power Girl). Given the investment each movie represents, a badly executed film will just kill the character.
Reboots allow you to get past Hulk versus Gamma Dogs and instead get Batman versus German Shepherds.
I would love to have a plethora of super hero movies to chose from, and be able to watch a (quality) feature length story on Booster Gold or Omega Red, but I think the market has sorted various super heroes into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tiers for a good reason. Hence, 7+ Superman movies, but nothing on Power Pack. Yet.