Superman 2000

Any discussion of DC and Warners’ varied attempts to revitalize Superman for a modern market wouldn’t really be complete without at least some mention of Superman 2000, a now famous (or, depending on how you look at it, infamous) 1998 pitch by writers Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer designed to overhaul the Superman comics franchise. Their proposal, which you can read here, is forward-thinking yet faithful, immensely engaging, well thought-out, filled with promise and in general a pleasure to read and contemplate. And of course, keeping with their recent history of playing it either too safe or stupid (or both) with the Man of Steel, DC editorial of course turned it down at the eleventh hour.

Whether or not, as modern legend would have you believe, editor Mike Carlin was responsible for squashing the proposal after returning from a vacation to find out four of DC’s biggest writers had tried to overhaul his editorial direction without his knowing is really irrelevant. What’s important is that an incredibly intelligent and promising pitch made by four superstar writers – at the time, Morrison and Waid were arguably as popular as they are now, Millar was an up-and-coming scribe under the tutelage of Morrison, and Peyer was a consummate professional with plenty of impressive editing and writing credits to his name – was shot down by DC in favor of more bland, play-it-safe comics. If that wasn’t a big enough condemnation of their handling of Superman, legend has it that the Superman 2000 team’s audacity at thinking they could revamp The Man of Steel in such a fashion led DC editorial to (at least temporarily) decree that no big-name writer, and Waid in particular, would ever get the chance to write Superman’s adventures again.

The Superman 2000 fiasco is just another in a long line of bafflingly short-sighted decisions made by DC/Warners in their misguided efforts to make Superman relevant to the modern market. Thankfully, DC would eventually reconsider their “no big name writers on Superman” policy, and Waid and Morrison would go on to repurpose many of  the pitch’s most fascinating concepts into Waid’s Superman: Birthright and Morrison’s various Superman projects, most notably All Star Superman (The team’s bold new way of splitting the writing duties up would also later pop up in DC’s 52 weekly series, which also happened to involve Morrison and Waid ).  As fantastic as those comics are, however, it is still tough not to wonder what could have been had DC been a little more accepting of the groups ideas way back in 1998.

If you haven’t already, please go and read the proposal over at this link. The reason I bring up Superman 2000 on the heels of yesterday’s piss-and-vinegar rant about DC and Warners’ mishandling of Superman over the past decade isn’t just to provide another in a long list of missed opportunities, but to provide a concrete, tangible example of how Superman can be reworked to appeal to modern readers without losing the essence of what makes him work. Superman 2000 really is a fantastic approach to the character, as it attempts to usher the Man of Steel into the 21^st century by re-embracing the character’s huge sci-fi elements while still balancing the humanity at his core. If there’s one knock on the proposal, it’s that the team’s plan to dissolve the Lois/Superman marriage and reinstate the Lois/Superman/Clark love triangle veers a little too close to One More Day territory. (Perhaps the big, cosmic retcon is the go-to move for any writer considering how to undo a well-intended but counter-productive superhero marriage, or maybe Joe Quesada and company had a looksy at this famous pitch while contemplating how to break up Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.)

What would the last fifteen years of Superman comics and movies have looked like if DC had decided to give Superman 2000 the green light? It’s not a given that the proposal would have been the game changer it initially appears to be on paper, especially considering many of its core ideas popped up in Birthright and All Star Superman without those comics drastically changing DC’s behind-the-eight-ball philosophy on their flagship character. But it sure is fun wondering what could have been, and for that reason Superman 2000 stands right up there with Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes as one of the most fascinating instances of a great comics story that never got off the ground.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow I’ll be back with my picks for great Superman stories that exemplify the characters greatness and actually had the luxury of seeing print.