Discuss: How Do You Reboot Superman?
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Okay, so what are we going to do about Superman? Obviously Bryan Singer is done with the Man of Steel; he's moved on to other projects. Meanwhile, Mark Millar (the brains behind Wanted and Kick-Ass) has been extremely vocal in his quest to take over the superhero franchise ... but his (and our) cries and screams seem to have been ignored by Warner Bros. Now, however, Millar has returned to update fans on his blog and unfortunately it doesn't sound very promising. He says, "Warner's talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn't, no biggie."
Millar went on to vent a little more, adding a cheap shot or two ("The idea of taking notes from the guys who liked the idea of Superman lying in bed for the final act of Returns doesn't sound good to me"), and looks to be just about out of the running for a reboot that really needs to succeed this time around. And that's probably why Warners is taking so much time with it -- they desperately need to get Superman right, and they desperately want that one-two punch of Supes and Batman. As Millar notes, "I think Avika Goldsman (Batman and Robin dude) has been charged with rethinking them to match the Marvel juggernaut."
But how do you reboot Superman in an age where folks want their superheroes dark and a little bit dirty? Do you start from the beginning or pick it up somewhere in the middle, like Singer did? What do you want to see? Which villains should they include? And who the hell do you get to play the big S?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
3-24-2009 @ 7:13PM
Diego said...
Cannot reboot Superman. He is a LAME super hero. He has and always will be!
Reply
3-24-2009 @ 7:54PM
Andy said...
Thank you for saying it Diego...Superman is a boring protagonist. He is essentially a god, and that is boring.
The way I've explained it to people is this: Superman has two problems, an allergy, and chicks.
And that is freaking boring. Filmmakers always whip out the kryptonite when they get in a jam, otherwise the movies are spent watching dufus Clark Kent try to get into some chick's pants while not revealing that he's Superman. Also boring.
3-24-2009 @ 8:18PM
YouFaceTheTick said...
Amen. Superman ranks as one of the worst heroes EVER. He's 1 dimensional and boring.
Best reboot - put it away for 20 years and then in 2029 abuse another generation with a generic mom, flag and apple pie "hero."
3-24-2009 @ 11:49PM
Batzarro said...
Now, now, I would disagree, obviously. A boring character doesn't get to exist for as many decades as Superman. It just takes imagination.
3-25-2009 @ 10:34AM
Lois Lane ROCKS!!! said...
Do a total reboot with Tom Welling and Erica Durance as Superman and Lois Lane. Make their legendary story EPIC!
As for villains, bring them all in, some as major villains, some as sub-villains with their strings being pulled by Lex. Lets see Brainiac, Bizarro, Livewire, Doomsday, Darkseid, etc.
Stop the madness with the dang real estate obsession that Lex has had.
Show fast images of Krypton exploding in the opening credits with Superman's ship being shot off with Supergirl's following so that we can see her in sequels.
Must the fans think of everything for these characters? Why the heck is it so freaking difficult?
3-25-2009 @ 7:36PM
damienthorn said...
you suck
3-25-2009 @ 10:06PM
Mike Tomlin said...
Ben Roethlisberger would make a good Superman.
3-24-2009 @ 7:26PM
Deadpan said...
I'm sure it's covered somewhere that can be rebooted by pressing three stones of K'ntrol, Ald, and D'leet....
Hire Silent Bob. Two hours of Superman punching through shit. DONE.
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3-24-2009 @ 7:31PM
CoreyBean said...
Whoever does the next Superman film shouldn't be afraid to go all out. Forget about all that "superhero in the real world" jazz & go NUTS. Grant Morrison's All Star Superman would be a good example to follow. Give him massive earth theartening stuff to beat down & conquer have some fun while showing it.
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3-24-2009 @ 11:22PM
dishesaredone said...
Totally. If he is a god-like character then let's see him on a huge scale. I like the christopher reeves originals and appreciate what he did with the character more all the time, but it'd be great to see superman finally neck deep in some planetary size action. The superman films should be able to hold their own against in films like Transformers in that way.
3-25-2009 @ 3:23PM
Norbert said...
Exactly my thoughts. A hero is only as good as his villian and only as interesting as his villian is challenging. Who wants to see Superman fight bank robbers or Lex Luthor...yet again? Kryptonite can't be the fall back for every movie. Superman needs a grand scale action packed movie. More on the Darkseid or Brainiac or Alien Invasion scale. The best part of Superman Returns (other than the end) was the airplane scene (i.e. Superman in action). The action and destruction and power should be huge!
3-24-2009 @ 7:42PM
Dan said...
I'm with the other fellas, I'm not much of a Superman fan, I think he's kind of a boring hero, Batman's always been my main man. However, I think maybe Kevin Smith would be the type of dude that could do this right, and successfully. Epescially if A Couple Of Dicks does well. And if I recall correctly, wasn't he drafting a script awhile back, or some shit? As far as villains, I'm not familiar enough with Superman to make any calls, but for casting purposes, though it might completely fuck up the reboot-continuity issues, I thought Brandon Routh was a pretty great Superman in an otherwise pretty mundane flick. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor also worked for me, but that was about it.
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3-24-2009 @ 7:46PM
d said...
1st thing to do is keep that hack Millar has far away from Superman as possible. Work off of Morrison's All-Star series, there's a guy who understands the character.
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3-25-2009 @ 12:34PM
CoreyBean said...
But weren't Millar's Superman Adventures comics (based on the cartoon) consider to be pretty good?
3-24-2009 @ 7:58PM
vegimorph said...
I like Superman as a superhero for the fun of it, but I just think his backstory/adventures are kind of boring and boxed in. Fix the story maybe, add a little different tone or something
Reply
3-24-2009 @ 8:07PM
kevin said...
Dont try to make him dark. Just because The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk were good doesnt mean Superman has to be dark too. Too many films these days (Max Payne, Watchmen, im gonna get flamed) try to capitalise on the dark feel of TDK specifically, but the trend has been going for a few years before too (Batman Begins, SM3, etc.) with mixed results.
Iron Man was not dark and worked out just fine.
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3-24-2009 @ 8:10PM
alex said...
they need to make the Death of Superman movie come to the bigscreen. its the grittiest and most bad ass of all the superman comics and its dark as shit. they only way to rebuild superman is to kill him. and then after that they do some cool shit with him
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4-03-2009 @ 1:39PM
HellokittyWhite said...
Superman is so pure that people consider his morals outdated (we should terminate those people, I bet Saddam didnt like superman) but the truth is that it also needs to be entertaining. they should do Death of Superman with IMPECABLE effects (no starwars episode 1 2 and 3 crap)
3-24-2009 @ 8:57PM
Nathan said...
It's not so much that Superman's boring, it's just that, with the exception of Superman 2, (which a lot of people say is the best one) the character rarely has a challenge in villains in the movies.
I agree, whenever they can't think of anything else, there comes the green rocks, otherwise, it's Lex Luthor ALL THE TIME!!
If they wanted to make a somewhat successful movie, Bring out the baddies. A Superman movie with either Brainiac, Doomsday, Darkseid, or even Lobo, or Metallo would be very cool.
Bringing back the "big bad bald dude" for another appearance in a superman movie would just weaken the experience, and probably make even more people view the superhero as a boring, weak, awful character.
All this coming from the point of view of a fan in general of the character.
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3-24-2009 @ 8:25PM
e3m88 said...
kill smallville first.
Reply