I read a couple comic books, but never got involved until “The Death of Superman” books came out. I’ll admit I still get teary eyed reading the final pages. I know its coming. I’ve read it probably 30 times and it still gets me. Nothing has come close since then. I’ve watched Superman-Doomsday, Smallville, and Superman Returns... [to the $5 bin at Wal-Mart]. Listen to those loyal fans!!! Several people have attempted to script a movie, but then you shelve it, dust it off and think, “How about a reboot?” Ok… Hulk did great with that, but why do we need another telling of Clark growing up and becoming The Man of Steel? We have Smallville for that. What about the bad guys? Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Doomsday, Toy Man? There is also Darkseid, who could create some fantastic fight scenes that would be talked about for years to come. Vast possibilities are knocking on the door.
Kevin Smith is the kind of guy you want to flesh out a comic book movie. Smith has a background in comics and utilizes that knowledge to appeal to the fans. “Superman Lives” utilized other villains in the Blue Boy scout’s history. Brainiac locates a call from Lex Luthor, who is seeking anyone that can kill a Kryptonian. Intrigued, Brainiac sets a course to Earth and meet Lex. The two villains conspire a way to kill Superman by taking away the Sun’s yellow rays and unleashing Doomsday. Certainly, Smith’s version had great promise, but as comic books turned movie scripts go… someone had to steer WAY off course and create some garbage. Yeah… I watched Kevin Smith’s explanation about producer, Jon Peters, whose obsessions with robots, giant spiders, and Superman couldn’t fly, and then in comes Tim Burton.
I loved Batman with Michael Keaton. I thought Edward Scissorhands was a pretty good flick. I used to see anything Tim Burton touched turn to gold, but the spirit of Martin Lawrence’s character Sha-Naynay went through me like Patrick Swayze in “Ghost”. When Burton arrived and came up with this concept of a Borg from Star Trek as The Man of Steel, “Awww Helllllll NO!!!” just blurted out. Burton trashes Smith’s script and brought his own writers. Thankfully, before committing career suicide, Warner Brothers put Superman on the shelf with possible talks of a reboot.
JJ Abrams is a great producer with a list of hits under his belt, but when he was approached for a Superman concept I finally began to question why Warner Brothers should ever have a say in any more movies based on DC comic book characters. Abrams stirred a plot where Krypton never exploded and a Zod knock-off was trying to kill Jor-El. Really? I’m starting to wish for Brainiac fighting Polar Bears.
Lex Luthor has been done to death. C’mon… a bald human being the greatest adversary to Superman? I get it that he’s a criminal mastermind, but he’s also a character that would be ashes in the wind after heat vision. The story has been overdone and is great for Smallville or Lois and Clark, but not for movies.
Now here is a true bad guy. Darkseid killed his own brother, takes the Omega Force which can disintegrate any object, trades his son for another villain’s son, and seeks to eliminate free will from the universe. I think using him would be interesting.
The story has been begged for. Fans have been screaming to see this hit the big screen. We’re not talking a cartoon dedicated to the deadliest fight of Superman’s life and only giving us 15 minutes of the entire fight. Worldwide fans want to see a 2 hour ass beating from east coast to the west. We want explosions, fire, punches and kicks of seismic proportion.
The truth just eludes the big executives of Warner Brothers. The talk of reboot is what should be shelved permanently. I know the question of how to continue the series is weighing on your mind, but sometimes you just have to say, “Ok… that was a bad movie, so what is the NEXT installment?” No more, “Ignore the movie(s) that we made, they never happened. Here’s the one you should have watched.” I’m sorry… it happened. You made a piece of crap that exists, I know, it is in my collection. Yeah, I’m confused as to where to put it for continuity sake, but that is what dates are for. If you want to make a great movie, stick to what the fans want to see, what works, and I guarantee you it will be epic!!