Bad costume, bad actor. He just isn't Superman for me.
Will probably see it though, just to pass the time, or download it. Any leads on when to expect it?

 

Summer 2013.

 

Am I the only one who is getting tired or seeing the rubberized spandex superhero costumes.
Initial thoughts:

• I miss the super underwear. It's an iconic costume; if they can make the Spiderman costume work, they could have made this work.
• In actuality, there was nothing wrong with the Superman Returns costume. I guess the makers want to stand apart from that movie.
• What the hell are those grove/striation things on his waist?
• What is that buckle for if not to keep his undies up. It looks so pointless.

 

In actuality, the Superman Returns costume was perfect, exactly as it should be.
This just sucks. And you know what's worse than even the groin-bulge? The goddamn emblem.

 

To be fair, why would he need gloves? Pretty much the only thing that can hurt him that I'm aware of is Kryptonite, and that doesn't get blocked by clothes.

The new costume is odd though. I'm not altogether surprised the underwear has gone, but the rest of it has hardly been improved.

 

Well someone hasn't been circumcised.

 

Two teasers:
- with Jor-El's monologue,
- with Jonathan Kent's monologue.

They look quite good and actually show some footage even if they are just teasers. Surprising enough I wouldn't be able to tell it's Snyder's movie, if I didn't know. But I have my doubts if it wouldn't be smarter to show us at least one action scene, since the biggest complain about Superman Returns was lack of it.

Also, it seems that the writers read a good source material, because Jor-El's monologue is more or less taken from All-Star Superman.

 

I thought they were going to reinvent a hell of a lot more than it looks like they have. Essentially, it looks like exactly the same story only with new actors and special effects, and a change in tone.

I thought they were going to go for a much grittier/realistic vibe. Maybe with significantly toned down powers - because let's face it, Superman is seriously OP. Perhaps even with an adjusted origins story.

 

I saw the Jonathan Kent version when I went to see TDKR. The trailer actually gives me some hope for this movie. It looks like they're taking some cues from Superman: Birthright too, which was probably my favorite version of his origin.

Superman's powers have fluctuated wildly over the years. All-Star Superman was probably when he was at his strongest, but that story's basically a love letter to the Silver Age when they really didn't give a shit about what powers they gave him. On the other side of the spectrum, the DCAU has Superman at a fairly low power level compared to the comics. Not coincidentally, DCAU Superman is probably my favorite incarnation of the character overall.

If they just adapt Superman: Birthright, maybe with some aspects of Earth One thrown in, I'd be very happy with it.

 

I hate this argument, because it's simply stupid. There are countless (countless!) superheroes who are just as, if not more powerful than Superman, but I've never heard anyone say they are OP. Only Superman. Jeez.

Also, people made some modifications to costume and I think they would work better than what we got.

First original:



"S" symbol from a different material than the rest of the costume:



Better, more living colors:

 

Me, I think the movies had a pretty good power level for Superman. He has all his powers and is a threat in general but can get beaten by other people like him and he just...felt smaller. It was difficult for him to stabilise a plane in Returns not because he lacks the strength but because he's a small man, and he's not throwing planets around or using super-ventriloquism like in the Silver Age.

His power level is fine.

 

That's pretty good. I'd swap the markings around his waist for a red belt, color the cuffs around the wrists red, and give him a higher collar like the New 52 costume has (though they can leave off the armor from that costume -- Superman doesn't need armor).

As long as those damn undies are gone. I can't believe it's taken so long for the comics to get rid of them, for both Batman and Superman (though Batman lost them briefly in the 90's too, but for some reason got them back).

Well he could turn back time basically at will, which seems pretty OP for Superman. I remember him having some sort of "super building vision" in the fourth movie too, but that whole movie was just ridiculous and better off forgotten anyway.

 

All he needs are the regular powers. Flight, strength, speed, laser eyes, frost breath, x-ray vision & invulnerability.

Now that's going too far. The guy's origin is practically known by everyone in the world.

 

His speed is the bit that's OP. In a rational universe, it would negate all the disadvantages of kryptonite: the stuff would never get near him. Which then makes him completely invulnerable.

The only way to balance him is to then put him up against an equally superpowered villain. Which I hate, because we get into comicbook levels of camp when we start introducing villain/alien bloat. Like the last 5 seasons of Smallville. Show premise: last survivor of his species. Last five seasons: actually, there are tons of them! And they're everywhere! And loads of other aliens besides!

I prefer Superman when it's just him and Earth, and nothing else.

Which is why toning down powers is necessary.

And of course, there's an entirely different argument for the same thing from the angle of realism. Because it's pretty hard to imagine any living being having those abilities, alien or not.

The problem with the origin story is obviously the fall of the Krytonians makes absolutely no sense: they have interstellar travel, yet they all die off from an event occurring in their solar system? So that needs to be fixed too.

If I was coming up with a Superman reboot?

I'd make him an artificial life form - a kind of experimental super solider - created by Kryptonians using their most advanced science, before they discarded him into deep space when they realised that they'd made him too strong, their ethics preventing them from just killing him. Jor-El would be the scientist who created him, who, out of compassion for his created "son", sends him to Earth instead of deep space.

As an artificial life form, his abilities would make more sense. His cells could run on miniaturised cold fusion, or something, which would give an explanation for where all the energy came from for such amazing feats. His bones, muscles and skin would all be made of some advanced materials like carbon nanotubes. He wouldn't have the ability to fly - just jump very great distances, as he has some control over his own weight (not mass). It also has the benefit of making him unique, and establishing a clear separation from Krypton - they don't know where he is, and don't want to find him anyway.

But even then, I'd tone the powers down. Strength enough to easily lift a car with one hand, but not an airplane. Speed enough to break the sound barrier, but not much more than that. Enough invulnerability to take an artillery shell and survive, but not something like a nuclear explosion. I'd also focus more on the mental differences: in order to cope with that kind of speed, his reflexes would have to be similarly faster, which means his brain needs to work quicker, which means his perception of time should be different.

Plot wise, I'd have him found by the military at an early age, and would then pursue a plot about the use and abuse of power, culminating with Clark Kent breaking free of the military at the end of the first movie - Superman the hero wouldn't even appear until the second.

Allergy to Kryptonite - an artificial material developed by the Kryptonians - would be a deliberate fail safe designed into him. There would just be a single piece of kryptonite on Earth, in the hands of the military, found by them with Superman's craft.

 

I'm very glad you're not a writer for Superman. This sort of hyper-realism doesn't work at all, at least not for Superman.

Actually that sounds superficially like Miracleman (also known as Marvelman in certain places due to stupid licensing shit) by Alan Moore. Maybe you'd like that, if you haven't read it already.

 

You know Taure, you are a brilliant writer, but I really, really hope you never, ever have a chance to reboot Superman. Never.

 

1. The super speed is one of the lesser regular powers, so dropping it shouldn't be too difficult.
2. I get the feeling your perception of the Superman mythos is heavily influenced by Smallville and other mediums second.
3.While I really don't like the idea of Kal-El being an underpowered laboratory experiment from start to finish and then being captured by the military and Kryptonite being an artificial creation meant as a failsafe for him as a reboot of the movies, the comics or in a cartoon, you should consider adapting it into the Smallville series as an alternate beginning and making a fan-fic.

 

The problem in general with Superman movies is that writers tend to focus more on the 'Super' rather than the 'man'. Kal-el is an alien, but he was raised as a human, thus, those two aspects of his character need to be balanced.

Both of these trailers give me hope that his humanity wont be neglected.

 

Do they really? The first movie had Superman and Clark more or less balanced. The second had him literally become a human. The whole point of the third was to show his human flaws under influence of the red kryptonite. Haven't seen the fourth one. And the fifth (Returns) once again decided to show him more human (feeling alone, stalking Lois, having kid). Meanwhile we also had Smallville that was all about Clark Kent.

All in all, I'd actually prefer for the writers to actually for once concentrate more on 'Super' than 'man'.

 

I think they do, yes. The first film is exactly what I'm talking about. Unlike the comics, there isn't really a believable human element. Clark Kent's persona is just a facade.

In Superman 2, there is a momentary plot device used to produce realistic humanity, but it's a gimmick. It's sole purpose was so he could bone Lois.

3, which is arguably the most 'humanized' of the series, is probably the only Superman movie I've ever liked, even though everyone else seems to hate it.

4 ignores the human element entirely.

Superman Returns tried to meet a halfway point between 1 and 3, which I enjoyed, but the writing and acting was terrible.

Smallville was great right until he really started to become comfortable with his powers. It was all downhill from there.

Basically, I suppose I just want to see a film that adequately fuses the personalities of Clark Kent and Superman.