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Kyle Pinion takes in the new 3 hour cut of the much maligned superhero clash.

The studios unveils new concept art featured on the digital release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

A quick summary of some of the high-points being reported today

Because sitting through the nearly three hour film once certainly isn’t enough, right? You know you want to watch an extended version of Snyder’s magnus opium with over half an hour of additional footage, right? You know it’s cool that this “Ultimate Edition” is rated R, right? Oh, and did we mention that the ultimate edition […]

The comic book Watchmen, penned by Alan Moore and drawn by artist Dave Gibbons, is one of the most revered books in DC Comics’ nearly century-spanning catalogue.  However, their treatment of the work’s creators has always been more than a little murky.  Many people both within and outside the industry know that DC’s relationship with Moore […]

The co-writers of MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR and creative team behind ROCKET GIRL weigh in on the first big blockbuster of the year!

From THR, the victory that WB so desperately needed after a fairly bleak 2015 has come, as the studio reports that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be raking in an estimated $170.1 million dollars this weekend. Snyder’s film, which currently stands at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, defied its critics with the #6 all-time […]

A new column by Marissa Louise is the best thing I've ever read about coloring comics.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, when it hits theaters on March 25th, will carry a PG-13 rating. As of yesterday, the MPAA announced that the film’s subsequent “Ultimate Cut” home release will be rated R. While it isn’t specifically known what’s different between the two cuts, the ratings board signifies that this particular cut’s […]

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like the sky might be falling for WB, based on a report from HitFix’s Drew McWeeny that the studio was unhappy with the reactions they had received from screening Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which garnered a mixed response. McWeeny had posited that if Batman v Superman […]

While much of America was watching its favorite Winter pastime, they got a glimpse of what may have been their first real look at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (unless they saw trailer #2 in front of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I know I didn’t.) Here are the two new tv spots for […]

Over the weekend, Warner Bros. Pictures unleashed two short promotional pieces for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The video embedded above and below features scenes with Henry Cavill as Superman (a.k.a. Clark Kent) and Ben Affleck as Batman (a.k.a. Bruce Wayne).

Entertainment Weekly reports that Zack Snyder served as the director on this project. The filmmaking team recently introduced a “brand new Twitter emoji for each hero, and in a video posted to Twitter today, Snyder encouraged fans to pick a side on social media by tweeting using the hashtags #Batman or #Superman. (Sadly, there’s no Wonder Woman option.)”

This film adaptation will hit theaters on Mar. 25. Follow these links to watch the first teaser, the second teaser, the first trailer, and the second trailer. Who’s your favorite comic book super hero? (via IGN)

Well last night's Batman v Superman trailer debut definitely perked things up for this film. After the underwhelming sepia-toned teaser from Monday this stoked the chatter to acceptable levels with variety of villains and a question of just how heroic all these heroes are going to be. And for the first time, the Big Three of DC in one film.

Per the big cover story in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, we now know just when Wonder Woman and Justice League, the two 2017 entries that will follow Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad will begin filming. According to the magazine, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is currently in London prepping […]

Over the weekend, a new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was unveiled at Comic-Con International. The video embedded above offers glimpses of stars Henry Cavill as Superman (a.k.a. Clark Kent), Ben Affleck as Batman (a.k.a. Bruce Wayne), and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (a.k.a. Diana Prince).

This movie, helmed by filmmaker Zack Snyder, will hit theaters on March 25, 2016. Click on this link to watch the teaser trailer.

Even though this adaptation hasn’t been released yet, the executives at DC Comics have been busy developing plans for future film projects. Deadline reports that Affleck intends to collaborate with Geoff Johns on a script for a stand-alone Batman movie. Once they complete this task, production will move forward with Affleck serving as the director and taking on the lead role. (via Rolling Stone)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, for such a massive movie, is surprisingly something we don’t know that much about. We’ve gotten teaser photos, a trailer, and posters; but strangely we’ve yet to actually get a synopsis detailing what’s going to happen on screen.

Until today that is, per Collider just ahead of this year’s Licensing Expo:

Fearing the actions of a god-like super hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs.  And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.   

I guess Zod and his fellow Kryptonians invading and tearing up a huge hole in Metropolis was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the danger that the DC Universe is about to face. There have been rumors about what this will entail, but I’m not going to relay them here for fear of spoiling something. I’m sure Jesse Eisenberg‘s Lex Luthor will probably be at the center of it.

Though I can’t help but wonder: where does Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman fit into all of this? Or how about the expected appearances of Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg? Quick cameos at best for the latter three?

I remain intrigued, mainly due to the fact that I have no idea what to really expect out of Oscar-winner Chris Terrio‘s take on the DC universe and what Zack Snyder will produce without the Christopher Nolan-factor.

T-minus 9 months (and some change) and counting. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice releases on March 26, 2016.

Making the announcement today, Warner Bros has unveiled that James Wan, whose Furious 7 has grossed over a billion and a half dollars worldwide, will be directing the Jason Momoa starring Aquaman.

Warner’s film chief Greg Silverman, who was the focus of Heidi’s post on DC films just a bit earlier today, had this to say about the new addition to the DC Cinematic line-up:

We’ve been so lucky to have worked with James, first on New Line’s ‘The Conjuring’ and now on their upcoming ‘The Conjuring 2 and are thrilled to have him on board as we continue to expand our DC slate. The ‘Aquaman’ film will be a major tentpole picture for us and James’s span of work has proven him able to take on any manner of project, bringing his incredible creative talent and unique voice to the material.

Producer Charles Roven added:

James is not only a great storyteller but can make action truly explode on the big screen and Jason has a dynamic presence that commands your attention. Together, they will bring an undeniable vitality and energy to this character as he headlines his first feature film.

Roven will produce alongside Deborah Snyder and Zack Snyder from a script by Kurt Johnstad (300: Rise of an Empire), which means that, sadly, the Jeff Nichols script won’t see the light of day; but Wan is a terrific addition to a group of filmmakers that thus far includes: the above mentioned Snyder (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League), David Ayer (Suicide Squad), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), and some writing involvement at the very least by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Flash).

Momoa’s Aquaman will first appear in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice next year. Here’s how the press release describes the upcoming Aquaman:

An icon for over 70 years, Aquaman is the King of the Seven Seas. This reluctant ruler of Atlantis, caught between a surface world constantly ravaging the sea and Atlanteans looking to lash out in revolt, is committed to protecting the entire globe.

Man of Steel is endlessly fascinating to me. While I appreciated the central thesis: “How would Earth react to finding out there’s life on other planets?”, some of the choices made have been the source of discussion for years now. The one that I found always stuck out most was the desaturated color palette that director Zack Snyder used to reflect the more dour themes of the movie.

While it makes sense in concept, a more realistic Superman should probably be reflected tonally in the visuals, it ended up lessening some of the splendor of the film for me personally. Man of Steel had some of the best visual effects and action cinematography (the two areas in which Snyder really excels) of any superhero film, but the overwhelming sense of grey made everything look rather sludgey.

Now, thanks to the folks at VideoLab, we get a chance to see a somewhat brighter take on the material. Their team turns the color up a bit and show us what Man of Steel would look like if it were just a bit more red and blue. Check it out and gaze at what might have been:

For what it’s worth, we’re all still debating the film to this day, so clearly somebody did something right. That’s more than we can say for some of the lesser Marvel offerings or the latest Spider-Man picture.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released the teaser trailer for the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice adaptation. This movie, helmed by filmmaker Zack Snyder, will hit theaters on March 25, 2016.

The video embedded above offers glimpses of stars Henry Cavill as Superman (a.k.a. Clark Kent) and Ben Affleck as Batman (a.k.a. Bruce Wayne). Some of the other stars who will appear in the film include Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

And as predicted, the official teaser for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has dropped via Zack Snyder‘s twitter feed:

#BatmanvSuperman#NotBlurry#NotPiratedhttps://t.co/6twr1oFBvr

— ZackSnyder (@ZackSnyder) April 17, 2015

What do you think? Sound off below, and have a great weekend!

Via Entertainment Weekly, here’s your first look at Jesse Eisenberg with a clean shaven dome for his role as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Director Zack Snyder shared a few words on Eisenberg in the role:

He’s not any of the Lexes that you’ve seen, that’s for sure, other than him being a captain of industry and one person to the world and another person to himself. And bald, of course. Our Lex is disarming and he’s not fake. He says what he believes and he says what’s on his mind. If you can unravel the string and decipher what he means, it’s all there.

More importantly, this tips me off to the idea that we’ll be seeing a trailer very soon, as they had been keeping Eisenberg’s head under wraps (literally) for months. Now that this cat is out of the bag, those WonderCon trailer debut rumors don’t seem so unfounded.

Upcoming Aquaman star Jason Momoa, who will be making his debut as the character in next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, fielded a few related questions during a panel at the Sundance Film Festival.

While you can listen to the full audio of the panel, here are the relevant bits pertaining to his role as Orin:

On the subject of meeting Zack Snyder regarding the role and having to lie about his involvement:

Well, things are going to be a little different. When I first went in I met with Zack (Snyder). His idea is pretty amazing. When I went in, he told me – my jaw kind of dropped. My jaw doesn’t normally drop. What he has planned for the DC world and definitely for Aquaman is something that, you know – I think I was brought on for a certain reason and they got some really cool plans for him. I’m really excited for everyone to see it.

Last year, when I was on this panel I was like eating chicken breasts and in training when I wasn’t supposed to talk about anything. I wasn’t supposed to say anything until 2016. So I told a bunch of people that they could punch me in the face if I was on it, so I’m going to get hit a couple times. But they finally released it. I was supposed to keep it a secret for 3 years.

When a 78 year old, long-time Aquaman fan asks him about Aquaman’s appearance in the new films:

Well, just going off what you’ve seen so far ma’am, I don’t think he is going to be blonde or white. I can’t really tell you because I haven’t shot it yet. I hate to disappoint. But um, you know, I’m a little different than what those others… I hope you watch it with an open heart.

POSSIBLE SPOILER…

At one point in the panel, the moderator points out that Michael Shannon was seen at Sundance wearing an Aquaman shirt, and directly asks Momoa regarding the rumored involvement of the actor in Batman v Superman. Momoa responded with silence and a dodge, pointing out how important the Aquaman role was to him and his Polynesian roots.

Regardless of rumors, it looks like we’ll have a dark haired/Conan-esque Aquaman, likely in the Peter David mold. I’m into it, but your mileage may vary.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens on March 25, 2016. Aquaman is scheduled to release on July 27, 2018.

It’s funny how little we know about the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder, which arrives in theaters on March 26, 2016. We know who is in it, we know there have been reports that the mass destruction in Metropolis from the previous film will play a part in the story, and lastly we have a list of films that will spin-out of the events of this forthcoming feature.

That’s more or less it, we don’t even really have a plot summary yet.

We may learn a bit more soon, as Latino Review (usually a pretty good source for superhero movie “scoops”) is reporting, via Twitter, that the first trailer for Batman v Superman will be released in front of the upcoming film by the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending, which opens on February 6th.

We’ll still more than a year away from the release of this major DC movie tentpole, but Snyder and company wrapped shooting about a month ago, so it’s likely there’s some footage ready that goes a good deal deeper than the brief clip that was prepared for last year’s San Diego Comic Con (which basically amounted to Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill staring at one another, but admittedly in a pretty cool way).

Say what you will about Man of Steel and the rest of Snyder’s oeuvre, the man (or WB’s marketing team) knows how to cut a pretty great trailer. Given some of the negative buzz that’s surrounded Jupiter Ascending‘s pushback from last July to this February, typically no man’s land for cinema, having this trailer attached to it will likely give it a decent audience boost…provided it doesn’t show up online first.

Guest post by T Campbell.

Can the soul of Western civilization be found in a pair of red briefs? Was our first great superhero at his strongest, his noblest, his superest, before modern interpretations stripped him of his underwear? Is there a connection?

A generation ago, when those red briefs were an inseparable part of Superman’s design, he was the most familiar superhero by a wide margin, leading the field in film adaptations,[1] headlining cartoon shows,[2] and even winning over famous media critics who were fiction writers in their own right. Even now, if you believe superheroes have anything to say to American culture or the human experience, you sort of have to start with him, because he’s the prototype.

Umberto Eco called him “the representative of all his similars” [3]  and Harlan Ellison described him as one of “only five fictional creations known to every man, woman, and child on the planet.”[4] Born in the early hours of a visual, easily reproduced medium, he was popular enough to codify most of what being a superhero meant. The Oxford English Dictionary even mentions him by name in its definition of “superhero”:

su·per·he·ro ˈso͞opərˌhirō noun: superhero; plural noun: superheroes; noun: super-hero; plural noun: super-heroes. a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman.[5]

And yet, Batman emerged a year later with no superhuman powers at all, and he was far from the only superhero to flout that membership requirement.[6] What really seemed to make a superhero a superhero, in the minds of the public, was the benevolence, the codename and the costume.

Superman is a strong man created by weak boys. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were nerdy teens when they came up with their first “Superman,” a madman with mental, not physical, powers.[7] Their second draft, far closer to the version we know, had what appeared to be a streak of white in his hair and a bare chest.[8] And those trunks, which persisted through other versions for eighty years.

Lacking any personal experience being strong, S. & S. took Superman’s powers from their beloved science fiction, and his costume from the circus.[9]

Underpants on tights were signifiers of extra-masculine strength and endurance in 1938. The cape, showman-like boots, belt and skintight spandex were all derived from circus outfits and helped to emphasize the performative, even freak-show-esque, aspect of Superman’s adventures. Lifting bridges, stopping trains with his bare hands, wrestling elephants: these were superstrongman feats that benefited from the carnival flair implied by skintight spandex. Shuster had dressed the first superhero as his culture’s most prominent exemplar of the strongman ideal, unwittingly setting him up as the butt of ten thousand jokes.

Grant Morrison [10]

Actually, Siegel and Shuster thought of Superman’s other clothes as the mockable ones. To fully understand the significance of Superman’s costume, look at him when he’s out of it—when he’s Clark Kent.

In virtually every version of Superman, Clark is an exercise in patient self-restraint, the ultimate man pretending day by day to be the ultimate common man. In his early days, this restraint was a superstrongman feat all its own, because Clark was extra pathetic—the better for Siegel, Shuster and the readers to identify with him.

I had crushes on several attractive girls who either didn’t know I existed or didn’t care I existed. So it occurred to me: What if I was really terrific? What if I had something special going for me, like jumping over buildings or throwing cars around or something like that?

Jerry Siegel [11]

Kent looked like Shuster, who later lifted weights for five years but never developed the bodybuilder’s confidence.[12] If Kent’s daily humiliations echoed Siegel’s past, they also predicted part of Shuster’s future.[13] When Shuster’s worsening eyesight drove him out of cartooning, he went back to deliveries, showing up at his former publisher carrying a package and wearing a ratty, worn-out suit.[14]

It’s not hard to imagine nerdy Shuster stammering “Sign here, please” in the same voice that Kent used to ask Lois, on their first date, if it wouldn’t be “reasonable” to let a bullying gangster have just one dance with her.[15]

Yet Shuster also drew Clark with a rock-hard physique that threatened to burst out of his jacket and pants at any moment. Every so often, after meekly tolerating an editor’s blustering or Lois’ icy contempt, “Clark” would crack a smile: if only they knew. For him, the angst Siegel and Shuster had felt in real life was just a pose, a suit he put on sometimes. And then he’d hear someone in trouble and strip off his shirt to reveal the S-shield underneath. The red trunks would soon follow. Underwear, for the underself.[16]

It was all just a game. Everything was going to be all right. Superman cheerfully presided over a world of bright rainbow colors where hurts and humiliations were temporary. Indeed, after a couple of years he developed a code against killing—a code most superheroes also followed.[17]

They also imitated the briefs, especially his most immediate peers—the original versions of Batman, Robin, Hawkman, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Fate, the Spectre, the Atom, and the Star-Spangled Kid all rocked the look as seen below. [18] And yes, more than half of those heroes also followed his “Somethingman” naming convention.

The 1960s and 1970s still saw plenty of new trunks-wearers among Avengers like Giant-Man and the Vision, mutants like Magneto, and gods like Orion. The Thing wore only trunks, and the Hulk torn purple pants. Other gods and mutants (Thor, Darkseid, the early X-Men) wore onesies broken up with a belt.[19] Strangely, two X-Men who each disdained the other’s sense of style—Cyclops and Wolverine—went full trunks-over-pants from the 1970s into the 1990s.[20]

This tendency to assign the look to gods and mutants, though, instead of more central figures like Captain America, Mister Fantastic, and Spider-Man, may have been an early sign that it was on its way out. These newer Marvel characters stood out from the first generation by being more fully realized people in their civilian identities, if not eliminating the dual identity altogether. Of the marquee Marvel heroes, only Thor, whose fashions and godly nature made him the exception that proved the rule, was introduced with a Clark Kentish self-denying secret identity.[21]

Superman’s influence continued to erode as the decades wore on. Newer heroes showed less interest in the code against killing or in names ending in “-man.”[22]  And costume redesigns left the trunks behind. The X-Men got into black leather for a while, and their later, more colorful costumes still left the briefs out.[23]

Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film “de-briefed” comics’ second most famous underwear wearer. Batman never went back to the briefs in any succeeding movies: they began to fade from the comics as well, as shown in this sample of Ben Moore’s larger survey of Bat-suits seen in various media, covering the period from 2005-2012.[24]

The look could still show up in the deliberately retro stylings of a film like The Incredibles; despite fashionista Edna Mode’s disdain for capes and insistence that “I never look back, darling, it distracts from the now,” her creations had an old-fashioned flair that matched the traditional values of their wearers, the kind of nuclear family that seemed to headline most sitcoms from the 1950s to the 1980s.[25]

Superman, for many years, seemed content to be a bit old-fashioned. His brand hadn’t been about “cool” for a long time: it was more about safety and stability. The comic-book Superman of 1962 or 1988 was more scientist than slugger, often approaching problems from a cool remove. His peers honored him as the one who came first, and therefore someone who didn’t need to follow the trends. He had, after all, defined them.[26]

Nevertheless, as superheroes and popular entertainment in general grew increasingly impatient with the “no kill rule,” the temptation to challenge Superman for wearing last year’s morals was overwhelming. The movies of the 1970s and 1980s danced around the issue by making Superman’s foes inanimate[27] or leaving their fates uncertain.[28] But many of his best-loved adventures, the ones that could claim to influence his canon, saw him sorely tempted to end a life—or even saw him succumb.

However, this was always an ending for the character as we knew him, as proved by what came next. In one such story, Superman instantly punished himself by giving up his super-powers and retiring.[29] In another, he died along with his foe.[30] In a third, he had a mental breakdown and went on a long journey of soul-searching before returning to duty with an even firmer vow, “Never again.”[31] In multiple stories of a world not our own, a world gone wrong, Superman deciding to kill is his first step toward villainy.[32] And at least once, he used magicians’ stage tricks to fool the world into thinking he’d broken his rule—just to show how terrible a Superman unchecked by restraint would be.[33]

The conservatism is unmistakable but charming.  Nearly all fictional franchises create a moral universe that rewards readers for following them, and Superman is no exception. However much he struggled with it, refusing to kill would always be The Right Choice. Other heroes would always look to him for guidance, saluting his cape as if it were the flag. Underwear on the outside of your pants totally works.

The super-briefs stayed on for generations, in comics, movies, TV, Halloween costumes and branded, official kids’ underwear—an incentive to finish toilet training if ever there was one. [34]

And then everyone seemed to reject them at once. In 2011, Jim Lee redesigned all DC Comics’ top-selling characters, giving them the scratchy, slightly self-conscious “edginess” that had made Lee famous.[35] But the artist who had kept Cyclops and Wolverine in trunks now broke precedent. The red of Superman’s trunks shifted to his belt, and its buckle took a shape echoing the chest symbol. The trunks vanished.

I think you have to go for the core elements that are critical to the costume and freely change what looks dated… For me, the red trunks on Superman, you didn’t notice. It gets colored in blue anyhow.[36]

In the same year’s Action Comics, Grant Morrison and Rags Morales emphasized the populist strain in Siegel’s early, Depression-era stories. Theirs was a Superman for the 99 percent, and his costume was the believable result of a reporter’s salary: a screen-printed T-shirt, short cape, and jeans. [37] Morrison explained:

We felt it was time for the big adventures of a 21^st-century Paul Bunyan who fights for the weak and downtrodden against bullies of all kinds, from robot invaders and crime lords to corrupt city officials. The new look reflects his status as a street-level defender of the ordinary man and woman.[38]

The filmmakers of 2013’s Man of Steel found the trunks clashed with their concept of the costume as alien armor. Even director Zack Snyder, whose adaptation of Watchmen had featured two trunks-over-pants designs to the comic books’ one,[39] now found himself breaking precedent.

The costume was a big deal for me, and we played around for a long time. I tried like crazy to keep the red briefs on him. Everyone else said, “You can’t have the briefs on him.” I looked at probably 1,500 versions of the costumes with the briefs on.[40]

Who stole Superman’s undies? Morrison takes responsibility for his part in it, Lee shrugs about careless colorists and readers, Snyder bows to the input of unnamed advisors. Their earlier output, though, suggests they had no dislike for the design, just a need to follow popular taste rather than acting as if Superman still shaped it. But fashion, as ever, sends a message about its wearer.

In Man of Steel, the blue is navy, the yellow rusty and gritty. Smallville’s Clark operates without a costume at all. Both versions of Superman are painfully unsure of themselves, closeted, desperate, and far less successful than earlier versions at preventing collateral damage.[41] Smallville averaged one death per episode in each season.[42] Superman’s first TV outing, The Adventures of Superman, averaged none—and lasted six seasons to Smallville’s ten.[43]

Analyst Charles Watson puts the Man of Steel death toll at 129,000, with the last of those deaths by Superman’s own hand.[44] Contrast this with Superman: the Movie, in which Superman saves everyone at risk from a devastating earthquake except Lois Lane, whom he then rescues via time travel. Man of Steel opened in eight times as many theaters as Superman: The Movie.[45] An influential new beginning, and by his old standards, an inauspicious one.

Man of Steel Superman may scream in anguish after killing General Zod, but unlike in the other stories where he crosses that line, he seems to get over it pretty fast. One scene later, he’s cheerfully knocking an Army drone out of the sky. He actually seems more relaxed and happy after the killing is done! No doubt Lois’ approval helps, but even so.

Man of Steel screenwriter David Goyer appears to be weaving some acknowledgments of that issue into its sequel.[46] He would like to assure you that the Superman you remember from your childhoods isn’t gone—he’s just not fully reborn yet.

Our movie was, in a way, Superman Begins; he’s not really Superman until the end of the film. We wanted him to have had that experience of having taken a life and carry that through onto the next films. Because he’s Superman and because people idolize him, he will have to hold himself to a higher standard.[47]

It’s true that Smallville and Man of Steel focus on a young Superman who hasn’t had a chance to become the graceful legend of earlier works. But these have been the portrayals to reach the widest audience in the last decade. [48] Even in current comics, though they have a lighter color scheme and mood, he’s an impulsive younger man with a quick temper.[49] The latest Superman project to be announced, TV’s Krypton, will take place thirty years before his birth.[50]

Put it all together and you’re left with the impression that Superman’s 21^st-century caretakers would rather invoke the smiling, life-preserving, cool-headed circus superstrongman than actually show him. Will the next film change that? Will it give him the power and certitude to preserve all intelligent life in his path with a calm soul and a wink at the viewer? Or is that Superman no longer filmable, a relic to be tossed out like a pair of outgrown briefs?

Tights may tell.

[1] 1978’s Superman: The Movie earned nearly six times its budget and spearheaded the only superhero film franchise of the following decade.

[2] Some variation of Super Friends, always with Superman as the headliner, appeared on TV from 1973-1986.

[3] Eco and Natalie Chilton. “The Myth of Superman. The Amazing Adventures of Superman. Review.” Diacritics, 2(1), pp. 14-22. Spring 1972.

[4] Ellison, Foreword to Dennis Dooley and Gary Engle, Superman at 50: The Persistence of a Legend, 1987.

[5] Oxford English Dictionary entry, 2014. Found via Google search, November 22, 2014.

[6] Batman later used gadgets as sort of substitute super-powers, but other figures—the first Atom, Wildcat, and the Spirit, among others—used nothing but ordinary fists.

[7] Jerry Siegel (illustration by Joe Shuster), “The Reign of the Superman,” Science Fiction: The Advance Guard of Future Civilization #3, 1933.

[8] Les Daniels, Superman: The Complete History, 2004, p. 17.

[9] Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Action Comics #1, 1938.

[10] Grant Morrison, Super Gods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human, 2012.

[11] Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the American Comic Book, 2005, p. 63.

[12] Tom Andrae with Geoffrey Blum and Gary Coddington, “The Birth of Superman,” Nemo #2, 1983.

[13] Craig Yoe, Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster, 2009; Brad Ricca, Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—The Creators of Superman, 2013.

[14] Joe Simon, My Life in Comics, p. 188, 2011.

[15] Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Action Comics #1, 1938.

[16] Alex Ross for Alex Ross and Paul Dini, Superman: Peace on Earth, p. 7, 1938.

[17] Editor Whitney Ellsworth was the driving force behind this rule, as early as 1940, years before the Comics Code Authority.

[18] Art by Jerry Ordway, Who’s Who in the DC Universe #12, 1986.

[19] Tim Leong, “A Venn Diagram of Superhero Tropes,” Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe, 2013.

[20] Art by Jim Lee for X-Men #11, 1992.

[21] Dr. Donald Blake is more complicated than we can cover here,

[22] Wikipedia’s “List of notable superhero debuts” shows a tapering off of such names after the 1960s.

[23] Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, New X-Men #114, 2001; Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men #1, 2004.

[24] Selected from Ben Moore’s 2012 “Batman Infographic: Every Significant Bat-Suit Ever,” found at Screen Rant, http://screenrant.com/batman-infographic-every-batsuit-benm-144238/.

[25] Brad Bird, The Incredibles, 2004.

[26] Image by Jim Lee for DC Comics.

[27] In Superman: The Movie and Superman Returns, natural disasters are the chief problem; in Superman III and IV, the main villains are destroyed but arguably not truly alive.

[28] Superman II.

[29] Alan Moore, Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger, Action Comics #583, 1986. Source of the image below and the last “Silver Age” Superman story.

[30] Dan Jurgens, Superman #75, 1992. The famous, notorious “Death of Superman.”

[31] John Byrne, Superman #22, 1988; Jerry Ordway, Adventures of Superman #450, 1989; Roger Stern and Kerry Gammill, Superman #28, 1989; George Perez, Action Comics #649, 1989. John Byrne’s last Superman story, and a heavy influence on Man of Steel in terms of who Superman kills and why.

[32] Central premise of the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, released in 2013, ongoing storyline in the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited animated series (2001-2006) and invoked in the climax of 1996’s Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

[33] Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, Action Comics #775, 2001. Adapted into a 2012 direct-to-DVD animated film, Superman vs. The Elite.

[34] Photo from http://savinginsalinas.blogspot.com/2011/09/yard-sale-finds.html. Superman has had many adaptations but this was true of virtually all of them until 2011.

[35] Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, Justice League #1, 2011 (image source), and George Perez, Superman #1, 2011. Lee’s career goes back to 1987.

[36] WonderCon 2013 panel, “WC13: Jim Lee Talks DC, Answers Fan Questions and More!,” Comic Book Resources, March 30, 2013, http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44604.

[37] Grant Morrison and Rags Morales, Action Comics #2, 2011.

[38] Dareh Gregorian, “Bird? Plane? Superdude!,” The New York Post, July 18, 2011.

[39] Nite Owl wore them in both versions, but Ozymandias picked them up in the movie. Comics 1986-1987, film 2009.

[40] Reed Tucker, “‘Steel’ this movie,” The New York Post, November 25, 2012. Image from Man of Steel, 2013.

[41] In addition to the film itself, see Emma Dibdin, “‘Man of Steel’: Zack Snyder defends Superman’s ‘collateral damage,’” Digital Spy, August 30, 2013.  

[42] According to smallville.wikia.com. In some seasons it was as high as three.

[43] 1952-1958; 2001-2011.

[44] Graphic by Chris Ritter, “The Insane Destruction That the Final ‘Man Of Steel’ Battle Would Do To NYC, By The Numbers,” Buzzfeed, http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/man-of-steel-destruction-death-analysis, June 17, 2013.

[45] Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com.

[46] Devin Faraci. “Find Out Superman’s Situation In BATMAN V SUPERMAN,” Badass Digest, December 15, 2014.

[47] 2013 speech at the BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters’ Lecture series.

[48] 2006’s Superman Returns was far less profitable and problematic in a different way.

[49] Johns, Lee, and Morrison have confirmed this is deliberate.

[50] Lesley Golberg, “Syfy, David Goyer Developing Superman Origin Story ‘Krypton,’” The Hollywood Reporter, December 8, 2014.

Batman’s famous sidekick, Robin, may be played by a female in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Rumors have been swirling in Hollywood that Catching Fire actress Jena Malone will be taking on that role. According to Variety, the movie studio has not confirmed this to be true. The theatrical release date has been scheduled for March 25, 2016.

Here’s more from Time: “Making Robin a woman, though, isn’t all that drastic. Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman movie is reportedly based largely on Frank Miller’s comic The Dark Knight Returns, in which Batman’s sidekick is a woman named Carrie Kelley. In the comics, a raven-haired Kelley—obsessed with the Dark Knight—saves him from some bad guys in order to win his trust and become the new Robin.”

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