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July 2, 2006
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
By KAT CAVERLY
"Truth, Justice, and the American Way"; these words had more to do with the formation of my basic ideals than my family, truth be told. So, yes, I have a strong opinion about the character of Superman. I consider him family.
I first discovered Superman comic books at the corner drug store in 1961. And I think the monthly issues were 12ยข. Four times a year the BIG books were published. They were a quarter. And I bought every one of them until the summer of 1966, at age 11 when I decided that I was too old for comic books.
I started collecting again the year that DC decided that Superman was DEAD, Superman #75, January 1993. What??? How could that be?? Superman was invulnerable, or at least he was back in 1966. Well to say the least Superman's abilities, and his stories, have always gone through as many changes as writers and illustrators.
I love the notion that there was someone fighting for what was good about mankind. And yes, Superman is a uniquely American character, but also an alien; not from this country. The metaphors fly too but what offended me most about this new movie, "Superman Returns" was the references to Jesus Christ.
Yes I did NOT like this new movie. But I hadn't liked the first Christopher Reeve version either and never saw the others in the theater. They just don't ring true to me for some reason. I like all of the other comic book genre movies; Spawn, Spiderman, The Matrix, so I thought with all of this great effects technology, I am going to LOVE this new Superman.
When I first saw some preview photos I noticed that Superman's eyes were brown, YES, brown! They at least had the decency to make his eyes blue for the release. And the costume, looked too rubbery. This actor he looked the part, just a bit too young for this time in Superman's life. I would have loved Tom Welling to do this movie, but his contract with "Smallville" must have prevented that being even a possibility. Ok, Brandon Routh has that look of goodness that is necessary, but I hated the way they depicted the flying. It was mostly floating.
And the story, geez, I guess they spent all of their money on the effects. When are they going to write a Superman movie worthy of this character? With Spiderman, they got to tell the whole story, from the beginning. That story has been told and "Smallville" has done a great job of telling the story of what happened right before Clark Kent became Superman. Now is the time to tell the next part, WHEN did Superman start being Superman?
Sure I know, but it is a story worthy of a movie and it could be set in our modern times of worry about terrorism. We don't need a "Saviour"; we need a hero!
Posted by photocartoonist at July 2, 2006 5:00 PM