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What the heck happened to Superman?

Superman. America's boy scoutt. He was created in the 1930's by two hardworking Jewish Americans. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. In the end they created a masterpiece. And many other newbes and copycats came along. The came the movies......

....that's where we have our problem.

The first Superman movie was pure gold. The second was campy. And the rest were just cinema trash. If a mere mortal like Batman beat Superman on the AMC superhero polls, you know something is wrong (altough Batman is pretty cool). With a new movie (dubbed The Man of Steel) on the way here our three simple suggestions to turn 'old blue boy's fame around.
1. Personality
Superman is capable of freeze breath, x-ray vision, heat vision, hyped senses, flight, super strength, and super speed. He is perfect. THAT'S THE PROBLEM! Make him more stressed about protecting a whole city. Make him want to throw in the towel every now and again. Like in Superman 2. Just less campy.
2. Love Intrest
I know it will hurt the comic tradition giving him a list of people he loves. But lets face it, he comes to this planet and only has the hots for one girl. Hasn't he ever been curious about dating others who are much more intresting than Lois Lame. But with Super Jr. revealed, that may turn out impossible.
3. Rouges Gallery
Here are the foolowing people he has faced on the big screen: Lex Luthor, the 3 alien inmates, Lex Luthor, Richard Pryor, a Super computer, Lex Luthor, Nuclear Man,and eh, Lex Luthor again? What on Earth happened to his REAL villians. Brainiac, Parasite, Metallo, Bizzaro, Darksied, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Toyman etc. It would be nice to see any of these supervillians deck Superman and tear up a whole city while their doing it.
Hopefully their will be some big changes made to Superman. If not for his sake. For the small number of fans out there.

Filed under: Favorite SciFi Films
Tags: superman

Comments

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Great points Donovan. I am of the opinion that the largest problem with Supes comes down to your issue No. 1. He is too perfect. He has too many abilities, he's too much of a boy scout.

I don't think the solution is to Dark Knight him and make him all dark and broody -- he is Supes after all -- but he does need a little conflict.

Given our culture's current cynicism, I don't know it's possible to make a Superman movie worth Donner's 1978 classic. Maybe it's best not to try...

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