Total Nerd Explains: How To Get Superman Right

Look up in the sky

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's another attempt at fixing Superman

I'm Dave Baker. Today on Total Nerd, we're going to explain why everyone thinks Superman is broken, where the previous cinematic adaptations

have gone wrong, and how, with a little thought and planning, they could get him right

Look, we live in an era where anything that's ever been vaguely successful in the past

is going to get retooled, rebooted, and redistributed. Because it's just the world we live in

Nothing ever dies. And specifically, you know what we're going to get a new version of every two years from now

until the only thing left on Earth is a nuclear wasteland? Superman

There's only one issue. No one seems to know what to do with the big screen version of him, these days anyway

Over the course of his 80 years of existence, there have been quite a few versions of Kal-El

Some small screen, some animated, and a few big screen adventures as well

As far as his big budget silver screen incarnations go, initially there was the Richard Donner-helmed Christopher

Reeves starring picture that put the big blue Boy Scout on the map in a way previously unenjoyed by any superhero

film ever. It's arguably one of the best superhero stories to this day

But even then, there are still some clunky aspects of it, like this Lois Lane late night mind poetry scene

Despite how definitive this initial adventure was and how fiscally successful the sequel was

The franchise languished after two less than stellar installments. Weird how the general public didn't really

respond to a male model with metal extendo fingernails lip syncing to Gene Hackman's voice

Cut to today, and culturally, we've spent 20 years trying to reinvent the wheel

There have been multiple versions of Good Boy Clark that have debuted and then seemingly been abandoned

because, well, they weren't necessarily failures. They just weren't successful in the way

that they should have been. The most notable attempts at Mr. Kent's comeback are Superman Returns, Bryan Singer's $200 million

nostalgia fest that really only amounts to the emotional equivalent of a neckbearded dude

at the back of a convention center saying, remember Christopher Reeve? And of course, the Zack Snyder Man of Steel version

The last son of Krypton as portrayed by Henry Cavill is a dour demigod who struggles with his place in the world

And if he should do Superman shit, like saving people, and being nice, and smiling

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1939 Superman is an immigrant story He Space Moses As a baby he sent by his biological father an alien scientist to Earth where

he's raised by two doting adopted parents who raise him in the ways of traditional American values

like doing your best, standing up for the little guy, and being staunchly anti-xenophobic and anti-Nazism

Or, you know, in other words, truth, justice, and the American way

The last few big screen versions of Superman have attempted to bring Superman down to our level

They've made him brooding, emotionally tormented, or dark and cynical. That's not what makes Superman work

He's kind, empathetic, and just generally good willed. He's what you want in a best friend

Superman should be what you aspire to be. He should be a role model, an example of how we should all act

He's a paragon of virtue and emotional intelligence. He puts other people before himself

He's a walking, talking, self-sacrifice machine. He believes in doing what's right, not out

of a nefarious means of gaining societal advantage, but because it makes him happy to be helpful

Basically, he's what you would call not a dick. Look, it's easy to say these things

but I understand when you're running the gauntlet of Hollywood execs, producers, and actors and investors

there's an incentive to bring things back down to something that's theoretically universal

Grief, loss, inner conflict. And it's not like those things aren't there in Superman

just not in a way that's been handled recently. Pac-Hentz passing is a pivotal moment in young Clark's life

Even being a demigod, he can't control his surroundings. His father passed away, saving him via rocket ship

His adopted father passes away via something he has no control over, a heart attack

This serves as a representation of how Superman is. Even though he's an alien from a billion miles away, human

He's acquainted with death and loss. But due to the fact that he's not tormented or grieving

in a traditional way by his father's death, It's not something that development execs or producers

tend to latch onto. Superman takes this tragedy and chooses to make it a positive

He chooses to be a paragon of the virtues that his adoptive parents extolled

He chooses to smile. This flies in the direct contrast to the power that he wields

And the simple fact that he's nigh invincible has no discernible flaws or character defects

All the issues that Superman has are emotional. Nothing can physically hurt him

And when it can, it's something super gimmicky, like kryptonite or a gremlin encased in toenail clippings

It understandable why it would be difficult to nail a tone and theme that would facilitate this delicate balance of innocence and power especially when taking into account the fiscal requirements of a blockbuster

They require the creators to tell a story that can be resolved with punching and explosions

Full stop. In many ways, Superman is like how the MCU handles Captain America

He's a Boy Scout. He's well-intentioned, but he's a man at a time. There's no cynicism or sarcasm inside of him

He always sees the best in people, which is hard to nail today

in an era where we have a supreme distrust of authority figures, the powerful, and anyone who claims to know what's

the right way of doing something. There's an art school phrase, the constraints

define the canvas, meaning that once you know what the parameters are, the more interesting it is for you as a creator

You're able to build a sandbox and then play in it. Shunting creativity into an infinite void of possibility

is dangerous. You can lose yourself in this endless potential. However, if you have a specific box

that you can then figure out how to work within, you can come up with exciting and inventive solutions

for problems that you might not otherwise come to. Superman is a perfect example of that

How do you make a story about a man with no physical weakness? How do you tell a story about a man who

has no possibility of losing? How do you tell a story about a man who's literally perfect

You have to get inside that idea. What would it be like to have the pressure to be perfect all the time

What would it be like to always be worrying about the people around you's safety

Because there's nothing anyone can do to harm you. The only way they can get to you is through them

How do those ideas relate to someone who has the courage to go out every day

and pretend to be a human journalist? How do they relate to someone who's

literally hearing every conversation in the building they're in and processing it all simultaneously

Sure, you want a Superman story to end with punching in an emotional, fulfilling climax that's

tied to some thematic element. It's a superhero story. I get it. But you need to tie every punch to something emotionally

important, to Clark, the man, which is what the past few incarnations of Superman

on the big screen have failed to do. They haven't found a way to make us, the viewer

believe in the emotional equivalent of a man can fly. The endless echo chamber that is the internet

insists that Superman isn't relevant these days, that a person who is good and just and moral just

has no bearing in a modern world. This is false. Let's look at some examples of aspects of Superman's mythology

that people tend to malign and then recontextualize them for a modern audience

Lex Luthor is a cartoony villain. OK maybe But what about a movie where Lex Luthor buys the Daily Planet and starts spreading false reporting placing a stranglehold on the news Clark Kent is just a guy who pretends to be a news reporter

and no one notices that he's actually Superman just in Coke bottle glasses

True, but Superman is a journalist. He's someone who wants to be a part of distributing the truth

These two characters bouncing off of one another sounds like a quintessentially modern tale, doesn't it

Sure, you have punching and stuff, but the characters are genetically engineered

to be opposites with one another. There's literally a war on facts happening right now

Who would be better a protagonist than an outsider journalist who cares deeply about the truth

Another qualm that people espouse is that Superman's rogues gallery isn't as interesting

and flawed as Batman or Spider-Man or the X-Men. Again, this isn't the reality of the situation

They just haven't been used to their full potential on film. You just need to place them in a modern context

Parasite could be a metaphor for toxic culture or online fandom or political acrimony or first world colonialism

He literally sucks the power out of everything he touches. Bizarro is a gonzo sci-fi movie about how morals are relative

and we're all a product of our own environments, about just how someone could be different

but that doesn't mean that they're evil, and about how understanding is the only true path forward

for us as a society. Brainiac could be about the looming threat of cyber warfare

or the fact that malevolent foreign forces interfering in our culture is something that's happening today

Or, you know, about how weird it is that smartphones are listening to us right now

What about Miksias Pitalik? I mean, he could be about the dangers

of aggressively wearing bowler hats. The term that is often thrown around by development execs

is grounded, meaning they want something that's instantly communicable and realistic. Ironically, they're obsessed with adapting intellectual property

that's been beloved for 80 years because it's uplifting and positive and speaks to the best of us

And it's literally about someone who is not grounded. They can fly

Superman is the prime example of innocence, both in terms of a consumer and narrative standpoint

He requires us to believe that power does not corrupt, that kindness prevails, and that good can win over evil

Which, in today's dark times, it's easy to see why people have a hard time

believing in this paradigm. But that's why it's all the more important to fully embrace

The simple answer is that if you're telling a Superman story, he should be smiling

He should know right from wrong. And he should be the beacon of empathy and kindness

that we all aspire to be, even when we think we can't