Nigh Journal

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Does Superman need to hit people?

(WARNING: May contain fanboy trying to be objective!)

Originally, this was going to be a post called ‘Does the bad guy have to die?’ but the recent announcement that Chris Nolan will be ‘Godfathering’ the next Superman film has me contemplating the fate of the Man of Steel on the silver screen.  

When Superman Returns was on over Christmas, the usual jibe that the plot is ‘Superman lifts a series of increasingly heavy objects’ (Oops…possible spoilers ) started appearing on twitter and that what we all really wanted was to see Superman scrapping with some kind of giant beastie. But this instantly brings up the other general moan about Superman; that he’s ‘just too powerful’. So who’s he going to hit?

When DC Comics published The Death of Superman in the 90s (and had a younger me sobbing unashamedly) they created the mysterious creature nicknamed ‘Doomsday’.  

For anyone who hasn’t read it, the premise is basically that Superman and Doomsday duke it out across American and into Metropolis. A lot of the actual plot or story is carried by the rest of the cast (Lois Lane and other less powerful superheroes) looking on, reacting in horror and helplessness. But, having re-read this story older and slightly more cynically, I did start to wonder why Superman didn’t just throw Doomsday up into space. But, again, doesn’t that just count as the ‘lifting a heavy object’ plot? 

Hmmn. So what to do?

I’ve always thought that – apart from Lex Luthor – the best nemesis for Superman is that, for all his speed and strength, he still can’t be in two places at once. He can’t save everyone.  To my mind, at its best, Smallville gets it right, primarily as the onus is on the Clark Kent/ Superman balance. Most episodes DO end with him turning up and punching someone in the nick of time to save his friends. But the fun of the episode is always whether Clark will find where he has to get to and who he has to punch someone and, more specifically, if he can get there in time without Lois noticing.  

And I think this where Bryan Singer’s Superman went badly wrong. There was no mention of Clark for entire second half of the film. I’m not saying that Clark needed to be bumbling around Metropolis exploded. But the fact that the Daily Planet was evacuated and no one thought once to say ‘Hey, has anyone seen Clark?’ showed a different concern from the film-makers. But perhaps the Smallville structure only works due to it being an ongoing series than standalone feature that needs a third act. 

To those who say that the ending of Superman Returns was anticlimactic, I can only say that (as is usual) the problem with the Ending was the Beginning and the Middle. But I do have a huge soft spot for the film – Superman, as a concept, is far more optimistic (or, indeed, soppy) than the likes of Batman in much the same as the difference in tone between Star Trek and Star Wars. But if the film had been as uplifting as the teaser trailer below, I, for one, would have been amazingly happy.

But ultimately, the finished film seemingly could not make up its mind what its main plot was. I’d say that the key flaw with Superman Returns wasn’t only that the makers decided against a big punch-up climax, but they really didn’t deliver on the Lois/Clark/Superman triangle either. Even if the film had ended with Supes pummelling Lex Luthor into villainous Spacey-chunks, we still probably wouldn’t have cared that much.

So while my answer to whether Superman has to hit people is probably ‘yes’… it’s not why I’ll be buying my ticket. What about you?