Posted in: Movies | Tagged: man of steel, superman

Must There Be A Man of Steel? By Bill Meeks

Video producer, animator and voiceover man Bill Meeks writes for Bleeding Cool;

I think I've finally hit on the difference between how I see superheroes and how my fellow fanboys see superheroes. Most kids, when they saw Superman, wanted to be as strong as him. I wanted to be as good as him. So, still adolescent wish fulfillment but not the flavor most people had.

Maybe that's why as more and more news about Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman franchise have leaked out over the past few months I've felt more and more marginalized… an outcast among my fellow geeks.

At first it seemed like a pretty good package: Chris Nolan mentoring Zack Snyder to bring us a more modern version of the Man of Steel. Naturally Nolan can do no wrong and Snyder's Watchmen showed he could make superheroes seem plausible. But then the doubts started trickling in.

First, the Warner Brother's executive Jeff Robinov said they were looking to make Superman 'edgy.' This signaled that the studio was more interested on capitalizing on the success of Nolan's The Dark Knight then trying to bring the best qualities of Kal-El to the big screen. Superman shouldn't be 'edgy.' Superman, when he's portrayed well, is a bright star shining down on humanity showing us how to be better.

Then they announced the main villain for the piece: General Zod as portrayed by Michael Shannon. Many fans cried out in ecstasy at the mere mention of the Superman II villain. I am left uninspired. Zod has had a few good portrayals in the comics (most notability the New Krypton arc where he was shown in his element as Krypton's answer to General Petraeus) the Donner version was nothing more than a big swinging fist for Superman to swing back against. Yes, Superman is very powerful, but his most interesting villains are the ones that force him to be creative. Any hero can trade blows with a villain, but it takes a Superman to trick a 5th-Dimensional imp into saying his name backwards. Not that I ever thought Mxy would get his cinematic due. I'm a fan not a fool.

Then this week the first picture of Henry Cavill as the titular Man of Steel was released. I'm not one to judge a film solely on the merits of a promo photo but the reaction it's garnered online is very telling. Many of the comments I've seen are hopeful that Superman looks so 'bad ass,' or claim that it's impossible to make a compelling movie with the character because he's so powerful.

These reactions miss the point of the character, and I really hope that doesn't indicate the filmmakers have as well. Superman's greatest attribute isn't his heat vision, invincibility, or even his power of flight. It's that no matter how hard or inconvenient he does the right thing, and in doing so shows us mere mortals the strength within ourselves.

We haven't seen nearly enough to know what version of Superman will be presented in Man of Steel. As Bibbo would say Superman is my favorite so I'll see the film regardless. With everything that has come out about the film so far I can't say I'm hopeful. I really want the movie to bring to life my Superman, but it looks like Nolan and Snyder might feel that my Superman is as outdated as my fellow fanboys tell me he is.

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