DC and Warner Bros' Superman Problem

DC and Warner Bros’ have a major Superman problem, and no, I’m not talking about the possibility, however small, that they may still losethe rights to the character back to the families of his original creators,Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. No, the Superman problem I’m referring to is the ongoing and very obvious struggle of DC Comics and their parent company Warners to fix, update or tweak Superman so as to make him more appealing to modern audiences, this despite the fact that Superman is arguably their most iconic character (yes, ahead of even Batman) and undoubtedly one of the most recognizable fictional creations on planet Earth.

For the past two decades, some very talented people who obviously care a lot about the character have been in charge of crafting his adventures in comics and on both the big and small screens, yet it should be obvious to anyone who has followed The Man of Steel’s history over the past twenty years – a period marked by several reboots, re-imaginings of his origin story, failed attempts to relaunch a film franchise and/or make him “grittier” and more in line with the moral ambiguity of modern times – that the corporate entities charged with stewarding the character have very little idea of what to do with him.

It’s clear to anyone paying attention that DC and Warner Bros have been locked in a constant, near desperate effort to “fix” Superman and make modern readers/audiences care about him, a struggle that most recently has led in part to DC relaunching its entire line of comics with the New 52 and the latest misguided attempt to steal headlines by making Superman and Wonder Woman make out in the most recent issue of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League, the publisher’s flagship title. The problem, of course, is that Superman isn’t broken, probably never was, and almost certainly doesn’t need “fixing” in any real sense. What needs fixing is DC and Warner Bros’ failure to understand the character and what makes him so important to so many people on this planet and this country in particular. 

Consider for a moment Superman Returns, Warner Bros’ attempt to revitalize the Superman film franchise by allowing director Bryan Singer to direct an absurdly reverent, direct sequel to the twenty-five year-old Superman 2 that envisioned the Man of Steel as a deadbeat father who returns to Earth after abandoning the planet, Lois Lane and his child for five years. Surely, if any one project summarizes how little Warners understands the character, it’s this awful, misguided and very poorly conceived movie. Just think about it for a moment: an entire corporation filled with talented, creative people thought making Superman a creepy, deadbeat father was the best way to appeal to modern audiences. If that fact alone doesn’t prove to you just how clueless the company is in regards to Superman, nothing will. The whole misguided effort would have been funny if it weren’t so downright disturbing to those of us who grew up with a deep rooted love for the character.

Warner’s latest attempt to breathe new life into Superman’s film franchise, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, seems a hell of a lot more thought out and on target than Superman Returns, but that really isn’t saying much. Unsurprisingly, Warners handed the franchise over to Christopher Nolan, his brother Jonathan and screenwriter David Goyer, the men behind the uber-successful The Dark Knight trilogy and the only filmmakers who have had any success whatsoever adapting DC’s iconic characters to the screen over the past two decades. 

Despite Nolan and company’s success rate with DC characters, however, one only has to listen to early reports of the team talking about making Superman “darker” and “grittier” for more modern audiences to suspect even they might not have a clue what makes the character tick. That they hand-picked Snyder, a director who has proven time and again with his movies and comic book adaptations like 300 and Watchmen in particular that he’s concerned far more with visuals, speed-up-then-slow-down action sequences and bad, ham-fisted soundtracks than annoying little details like, well, story. So no, Man of Steel doesn’t fill me with any reassurance that Warners finally “gets” the character, even though like any loyal comics fan I still hold out hope the film will turn out alright in the end despite these initial warning signs.

DC Comics’ handling of Superman over the past two decades isn’t anywhere near as pathetically misconceived as Warners’ film division, but their stewardship of the character has hardly been without uncertainty and at least a little bit of cluelessness in regards to what makes the character work, thus the decision to shack him up with Wonder Woman despite the fact that the Superman/Lois Lane relationship is unquestionably one of the character’s defining aspects and what has helped make him such a cultural mainstay. I haven’t yet read the issue in question, but if Justice League #12 is anything like the previous eleven issues of Geoff Johns’ series, I hardly need to in order to know this latest story decision isn’t what’s going to suddenly make the character “click” for modern comics readers who devour anything with Batman and Avengers vs. X-Men on the cover.

The Superman/Wonder Woman romance is just the latest in a long line of efforts by DC to breathe artificial interest in the character, efforts that have included taking Superman off-world for an entire year in the convoluted, dragged out New Krypton saga from a couple years back, allowing J. Michael Straczynski to have Superman walk across America in an effort to reconnect with his adopted homeland (keeping to character, JMS himself walked away from the series before its conclusion), and rebooting the entire DC line before allowing Grant Morrison to re-imagine the Man of Steel in his early years as a head strong, T-Shirt and jeans-wearing social activist in the pages of Action Comics. Morrison’s Action Comics isn’t without its considerable merits, but it too still seems like a rather extreme and over-the-top effort to convince readers what already works about the character. 

There are a few main problem areas with how comics writers handle Superman. The first is that they are often either overly reverent to the character and thus incapable of taking the sort of bold chances with him that would make for interesting stories, or they go the opposite direction and veer so far away from what makes him work that they do more harm than good with their risk-taking (see: JMS, Snyder). Another problem area is that, in an effort to challenge Superman and create the sort of high stakes struggles necessary for entertaining storytelling, comics writers either throw an equally powerful brute up against the Man of Steel and have them punch it out in a glorified wrestling match, or they go the opposite direction and challenge the Man of Steel ethically and emotionally without giving him any real opportunity to showcase the cool super powers that help define him.

That’s all not to say there haven’t been some truly wonderful Superman comics over the past twenty years that truly “get” the character and showcase him in all his glory. Morrison’s All-Star Superman is certainly the high-point of the Man of Steel’s recent history, and maybe even the greatest Superman comic ever created in terms of fulfilling all the areas of action, ideas, inspiration, myth-making, moral parables and visceral entertainment needed for any great Superman tale. Mark Waid’s previous reboot/re-imagining, Superman: Birthright is another damn fine tale that “gets it” far more than it doesn’t. Likewise, even though it had its flaws and eventually petered off into the New Krypton mess, Geoff Johns run with the character on stories like Last Son, Escape from Bizarro World, Superman and the Legion of Superheroes, Brainiac and Secret Origin also has a hell of a lot to offer fans of the character.

The point of this long, unwieldy rant of a post isn’t to prove I have some unprecedented understanding of the character and/or know how to boost his comics and movie sales to new heights, because I’m not sure I do even if I think I show a better understanding of the character than Warners does. The point is, whether you see Superman as the ultimate American immigrant story, a Moses analog, sci-fi Jesus, a cool superhero who can fly, look through walls and lift heavy things, or an inspirational figure meant to uphold and emulate the best of humanity, during large chunks of the past two decades you’ve probably scratched your head in disbelief and disappointment over some of the creative decisions DC and Warners have made with the Man of Steel. And the corporate cluelessness over how to make people care about Superman is not only a frustrating problem, it’s a baffling one. Surely some other company would kill for the chance to fix a character who isn’t broken, or make people care about a superhero who is already universally beloved. 

That’s it for now. Tomorrow I’ll talk more about Superman, why specifically I think he works as a character, and finally describe some of my favorite Superman stories of all time. I might even get into Morrison, Waid, Mark Millar and Tom Peyer's fascinating Superman 2000 pitch that sadly wasn't picked up by DC, but eventually found its way into great modern Superman stories anyway.

As always, if you dig it please pass word of this post and blog along to friends and like minded fans.