Supes Mag Sets Stage for Movie
By Dan Brown It’s all about Superman this week. The new James Gunn-directed Supes big-screen adaptation lands in theatres Friday and I have some thoughts. One of the things I’ve been reading in the run-up to July 11 is DC Comics Presents Superman, a magazine-size publication that presents “the official comic book stories that inspired the new movie.” Included in the larger format are All-Star Superman #1, Superman For All Seasons #1, and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel # 1. Each presents a different interpretation of the character from Krypton. All-Star Superman is a what-if scenario from 2005 in which Clark Kent reveals his secret identity to intrepid reporter Lois Lane as he faces his own mortality. “All-Star Superman is the thing that we borrow the most heavily from,” Gunn has said. In Superman For All Seasons (the “spring” instalment, which came out in 1998), a high-school-age Clark must confront the fact he’s not like other teens – the scissors break when Smallville’s barber tries to cut his hair; then, he is lifted off the ground by a tornado that hits the town, yet he doesn’t suffer any injuries. He knows something is up. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, from 2005, explores the motivation of Superman’s nemesis. For a Superman story to really work, I think, Lex has to be relatable on some level, and tech billionaires aren’t exactly looked upon warmly these days. The promo magazine is a good introduction to the character’s many incarnations down through the decades. It also carries on a long tradition. When modern Superman movies started appearing in 1978, DC released all kinds of supplementary material to create buzz and give fans a look behind the scenes at the making of the motion picture that aimed to make moviegoers believe a man could fly. The internet serves the same purpose today. In recent months DC has also put out any number of versions of 1938’s Action Comics # 1, in which the Man of Tomorrow made his first appearance – he could only leap over tall buildings at that point, full-on flying wouldn’t come for a while. So there’s a large-format version of the debut issue, a version with a foil cover, et cetera. The one reboot of Superman’s origin that seems to get no love from Hollywood is the one I am most familiar with. In 1986, DC wooed sometime Canadian John Byrne away from Marvel, where he had established himself as the hottest comic creator in the industry with long runs on Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four. DC was in the process of restarting its continuity after the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries. So Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli did the trick with Batman: Year One, while Byrne got the assignment for Superman. This led to my favourite Supes story of all time, 1987’s Superman No. 2, in which Lex Luthor invents a computer so powerful that it successfully identifies Clark Kent as Superman. But Luthor ignores the answer. This strikes me as the perfect interpretation of the villain: If there was a Lex Luthor, he would be able to create a machine capable of unmasking Superman. And if there was a Lex Luthor, he would be so egotistical he would not accept the truth that a milquetoast newspaper reporter secretly has the power of Superman. As for the new movie, I’m not sure what to expect. They’ve been marketing the heck out of it, but the fact they have focused in trailers on Krypto, Superman’s dog, makes me wonder. Also, much of the online chatter has been about Gunn’s brave decision to give the Superman costume trunks. Those might not be promising signs. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
