While there will continue to be those among us who throw their hands in the air at the agonizing of writers like me over the changes to the “iconic” Superman costume in the upcoming feature film, “Man of Steel,” what is emerging from the controversy over the unbelievable -- and even ridiculous -- changes is a major rift in American society itself.
It seems that there is a segment of our culture that has just become bored. They find no satisfaction in anything unless there is constant change and alteration of everything around them. The vast majority of us revere tradition, and find both comfort and reassurance in things familiar to us. We celebrate those things that take us back to a simpler time, when everything seemed new and exciting.
And while Superman, as a uniquely American character, went through some gradual metamorphosis from his inception at the hands of two teenagers, by the late 1940s and 1950s, the costume that would define him took a very definite and precise form. Throughout the 1960s and beyond, it was cemented into our collective minds and that form was reinforced by virtually every conceivable product except one -- the never-to-be-explained Ben Cooper Halloween costumes that did exactly what Man of Steel and Superman Returns producers have done. They deleted the belted trunks (not “underwear” or “shorts” as some have described) and squared off the belt buckle while including an “S” on it.
Even the classic Superman playsuits that were advertised in the comics and sold year round included the trunks, albeit minus belt loops that would have added an additional production step. But even the yellow belt was there (with a standard brass buckle, not an oval), and the boots were hinted at by bands at the calves.
I remember, as a child of the 1960s, searching for anything that might be out there in the form of a “perfect” costume. I knew at the age of 8 what Superman was “supposed to look like,” and rejected any change of the beauty of it. It even bothered me a little bit as a kid when I noticed that George Reeves’ suit had a red-and-yellow emblem on the cape, as opposed to the yellow one with a simple black outline.
I won’t go into the features of the suit that we all too familiarly know. Through the years, only the Lois and Clark producers made a tiny revision to the otherwise iconic design -- they squared off the darned buckle again. But except for that, no one dared revise the costume we’d all come to know and love.
And then, it began with the atrocious revisions of Louise Mingenbach, and the defiance of Bryan Singer, who responded to outcries over the Superman Returns costume revisions with the defiant question, “Which costume?”, referring back to the short run of revisions in the 1930s and 1940s before the costume took full form and became an icon. Even then, the absurd changes to the colors, the rise of the trunks (not yet deleted), the chiseling of the emblem and the awful fabrics used, were such a departure that virtually the entire product line associated with this movie were as much of a failure as the movie itself.
And now, DC and Warner Brothers want more of the same?
The rustlings I’m hearing out here in the field is that merchandisers, who would normally tie in product to the images presented in the film, are already shrinking from commitments to the “new” image, suspecting the same sales losses they experienced with Superman Returns. Coming out of the age of Star Wars, most of us realize how important these product tie-ins are to motion pictures’ profits, with as much in the marketplace as possible subtly or openly promoting the film.
What makes that part of Man of Steel’s merchandising particularly daunting is the fact that any merchandising done on behalf of the film that presents the “new” costume is immediately on the same collision course that SR merchandise experienced with “iconic” (read that as “real”) Superman product already in the merchandising pipeline, produced under longtime license that manufacturers see no need to change.
I’ve told the story before of how I watched two young boys in a Walmart store during the SR fiasco quietly deliberating over which Halloween costume to buy. The SR version and the traditional Superman costumes were literally side-by-side on an aisle rack. The boys were looking at each other, and at the costumes and after a brief check of each, quietly put the SR version back on the rack and headed to their parents with the traditional one.
What the revisionists still don’t get is that the “real” Superman will continue to be out here in the field. He won’t go away. The Kirk Alyn and George Reeves and Chris Reeve DVDs won’t quietly disappear. The lunch boxes and pajamas won’t either, nor will the myriad of books produced. The magnificent artwork of Alex Ross will continue to stun us with its depth and power, all featuring the so-called iconic costume. For many of us, it’s the only one.
How can a “new” Superman survive the comparisons? Since when did the feelings of the revisionists matter at the expense of the rest of us? When do we get the film that we want -- the one that celebrates Superman as we all remember him best, while giving us a story we can sink our teeth into?
Revisionists immediately do the same thing that political revisionists do when defending Obama and the “change” he hoped to bring to America. They criticize writers like me as hopelessly dated and old, stuck in the past, unwilling to venture out and give new things a chance. They attack the image of Superman that I have always loved, that captured the imagination of millions, and claim that he won’t fit in a 21st century world. They call the belted shorts “underwear” and express their hatred of them, calling them stupid or silly. They offer an imagined idea of the suit being “armor” when trying to explain away the spongy, wet, sculpted look of it and the still chiseled but more traditional emblem on the chest.
They even attempt to ignore the more irritating aspects of the suit, including the inexplicable tendrils wisping around his midsection and thighs where the trunks and belt have been deleted altogether and rave about “how good Henry looks in the costume,” praising his physique and overall look, as if the nightmarish changes will all be forgotten out of loyalty to the actor wearing them.
They try to redirect the discussion to other aspects of the film, such as the casting or the proposed script. Others snarl about the predictable special effects that they believe will dominate and save the film, while branding anyone who even remotely objects to an African American Perry White as racists.
This film is doomed. I’ve taken that position repeatedly here and elsewhere through the months since poor Henry was first shown wearing his monstrosity of a costume. You get one chance at a first impression, and most people saw through the strategic release of an initial image near a bank vault that had Henry posing in such a way that the midsection was obstructed from view.
They’ve known from the gate that they would be taking a hit over the revisions, but defiantly went about it anyway. What the revisionists inside and outside of DC and Warner Brothers still don’t understand -- but will -- is that there are fans like me who simply won’t accept the changes. We don’t view these as revisions or improvements. We see them as mistakes.
The explanations and justifications are often presented more as attacks than as an attempt to win us over. It falls on deaf ears when revisionists argue that we should simply “wait until the film comes out and give it a chance.” Why? Why should we, when a significant element of the character has been changed so dramatically, rendering him almost unrecognizable?
Why should we embrace changes that we didn’t welcome in the first place? It’s as if we might attend the film and be so moved by the story or the special effects or Henry Cavill that we leave the theatre saying it was a great movie, forgetting all about the costume. That’s simply not going to happen.
The changes are ALL anyone is going to talk about leaving the theatre. Through the entire film, it will be the pink elephant right in front of the screen that fans will be struggling to accept through compromises in their reviews of the film, praising certain actors or specific details of the script, all the while trying to ignore the awful costume that Henry is being forced to wear.
And then the failures will come. Lackluster reviews or dead pans of the film will show up in major magazines. Fan pages will reflect on negative aspects of the production or casting choices. First week receipts will wane by Week 3, and theatres will begin almost immediately trimming back feature times in favor of other, stronger films. Other studios will undoubtedly be planning some kind of blockbuster timed carefully for Man of Steel’s week of release, further eroding its impact in the marketplace.
Any merchandisers who signed on will be scrambling to recover, and MOS product will land squarely in clearance areas of any store it’s found in. Rubies and other costume manufacturers will wisely hedge their bets, continue selling the traditional costume and try to unload the dust-covered remains of product from the SR film.
Will DC and Warner Brothers wake up and smell the coffee? Probably not. Could this fiasco in the waiting be saved? Yes, but at tremendous costs that they aren’t likely to incur. After all, they don’t even know they’ve made an error.
But they will find out soon enough.
What die-hard fans need to understand is that we aren’t losing Superman. His image is indelibly burned into the American landscape, largely through that unintentionally competing merchandising I referred to earlier. There’s too much of him out here for any of us to forget. In movie form, we still have two out of four Chris Reeve films still worth watching when it’s time to introduce our kids and grandkids to the character (and they won’t even mind the two bad ones.)
Superman will endure because he’s too good not to, and there are still artists out here who respect the iconic look, while fan film producers will continue to post their efforts on YouTube. You simply cannot take away something that we’ve all loved for 70 years and decide for the rest of us that some changes are in order.
Changes are in order alright, and I’m going on record right now that those changes will be coming, but not in Superman. We’ll be seeing changes at DC and Warner Brothers, when those dismal sales figures hit the books. My hope is that one day, we will see Superman return to the screen in all of his glory for new audiences to enjoy while old ones celebrate.
This film will be forgotten as the 21st century trudges on, but Superman never will be. Up, up and away…….