Superman Day

Posted 4:00 PM by Gerald So

Image by Gerald So

For the second year in a row, DC Comics is celebrating Superman today, the anniversary of Action Comics #1 in 1938.

I've dressed my avatar for the occasion. Note the curl, bit of cape, and eyes heating up.

SUPERMAN (2025)

Posted 6:00 PM by Gerald So

I didn't get to see James Gunn's SUPERMAN in theaters, but I've just watched it on 4K disc. It meets its mandate of reviving the superhero movie for DC. It's rooted in Clark and Lois's love story yet full of far-out science fiction. Its two tones work because Superman in concept is both: the space alien raised in America's heartland.

As casting news dripped out, I wasn't sure about including heroes besides Superman, but they let viewers compare and contrast. Without then we'd only have Superman's version of doing good, and we might not grasp its nuance. Multiple heroes also let the plot be epic in scope. Superman couldn't be everywhere, but he didn't have to be. I also liked Gunn's fresh take on Eve Tessmacher.

In my Christmas 2024 post about the teaser trailer, I wrote I wasn't onboard with yet again riffing on John Williams' theme. I also could have ditched the Richard Donner-style swooshing credits. I give them a final-paragraph mention because neither detracts much from the movie. Gunn uses them like Bryan Singer before him, to show this is the Superman familiar to us from the Donner movie. From there, Gunn shows that brand of Superman can meet this moment in history. Neither Singer nor Zack Snyder did.

It's Not Easy

Posted 3:30 PM by Gerald So

I titled this post after Five For Fighting's 2001 song about Superman because it has to do with my best college friendships, and in college I identified with Superman. I had romantic feelings for one of said friends, and their going unrequited threatened our friendship and my equilibrium. I could only handle it, I imagined, if I were Superman. My disappointment still spilled out at times, but less than it would have without my super thought experiment.

Fast forward thirty years, for about half of which the same college friends have dreamed of a destination reunion. It's finally happening next month, a long weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, only I'm not going. My friends are all married, most with kids. I'm single, no kids. I'm also disabled. Can't drive well enough to pass a road test. We became friends in part because they drove me, enabling me to join in any group fun I could ask.

For the reunion, too, a friend offered to book flights together and arranged airport rides. I think this longstanding dynamic blinds them to realities of my disability always apparent to me. For one, getting ready each day. At home I do it in private. At a rental house with a handful of roommates? Not entirely possible. They are my friends because they accept everything about me, but I'm still self-conscious. It wouldn't be an issue if we had hotel rooms, but the house is the point of this trip.

I paid my share of the rent shortly after my mother's death. I thought a getaway would be good for me by the time it rolled around, but I find I'm still concerned I'd bring down the mood. So I passed, but that was far from the end of it.

While it's true we haven't all gotten together in persion in many years, we chat and email and video call regularly. I count all these because I never know if I can make events or trips. A lot of things to line up. That's true for everyone, but it might seem so in my case. I've freelanced from home with my mom's and brother's support since well before the pandemic and the past three years caring for Mom after her bouts of pneumonia. In calmer times, it looks as if I can rearrange my schedule to do anything.

My friends are used to including me, convincing me, in effect overlooking my self-consciousness. Others might empathize, knowing it doesn't mean I'm retreating from friendships; it means I'm cool with what friends want to keep to themselves.

SUPERMAN Teaser Thoughts

Posted 5:00 AM by Gerald So

I feel sufficiently teased. I've been a Superman fan since LOIS & CLARK with Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain. Part of me has liked anything Superman since. I haven't been invested in how James Gunn's SUPERMAN will influence the fate of superhero movies overall. Lois and Clark's relationship is what I enjoy most about the Superman mythos. Gunn's comments sound as though he has a handle on that.

I'm not onboard with yet again using John Williams' Superman theme. It's great, iconic, and all, but if you're trying to do a 2025 take on Superman, how about you don't use Williams' 1978 theme?

MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN Renewed for Season 3

Posted 2:00 PM by Gerald So

I'm glad to see this, never mind Season 2's Brainiac storyline isn't my favorite. It rivals Season 1's cleverness. I've just seen Brainiac's brainwashing, collecting m.o. enough for my taste. (I'm less than three months shy of the Big 5-0.)

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Practically a single bound

© by Gerald So | 4:30 AM

On Adult Swim's My Adventures with Superman, traditionally metahuman and supernatural villains like Livewire, Silver Banshee, and Parasite have high-tech origins, keeping the show somewhat real and setting Clark further apart. He's the only one with alien powers so far.

Clark and Lois meet at a convenience store and are instantly smitten. In a few hours working together, she appreciates how earnest and quietly helpful he is. On the other hand she thinks Superman an evasive liar. Answering anyone who ever groused, "Can't Lois figure out Clark is Superman?" intern Lois has, by the fourth episode. This strongly suggests it wnn't be the belabored plot point it's been for decades of comics and shows.

Clark and Lois's chemistry is my favorite part of mythos. Already, My Adventures with Superman has served it with more focus, continuity, and nuance than any earlier animation. I have no idea where the fourth episode will go. That's truly enticing.

Adult Swim's My Adventures with Superman

© by Gerald So | 2:30 PM

In development since 2021, My Adventures with Superman premiered on Adult Swim yesterday and I watched the first episode today via the Adult Swim app.

On their first day as Daily Planet interns Clark Kent (Jack Quaid) and Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid) meet slightly more seasoned intern Lois Lane (Alice Lee). Lois is tasked with showing Clark and Jimmy how to make copies. Instead, already on the scent of a huge story, she cons them into helping her.

This telling of the famous trio's beginnings distinguishes itself in that Clark and Jimmy are roommates. Though Clark tries to hide his powers, he can't look past people (or pets) in peril, and you gather Jimmy is keen to prove the existence of aliens, cryptids, and other oddities because he's been living with Clark.

Jimmy and Lois talk fast and frequently and Sahid and Lee are up to the task. Meanwhile, despite knowing Jack Quaid's voice as Star Trek: Lower Decks' Brad Boimler and previous smaller roles in DC animated movies, I find his Clark fresh.

Superman & Lois Season 3 Finale

© by Gerald So | 4:30 AM

The existential cliffhanger of this season, whether the show would be renewed for a fourth, was resolved two weeks ago. The renewal came with budget cuts demoting seven Season 3 regular castmembers to recurring and dropping from thirteen episodes to ten. In theory, neither change much concerns me. The cast has turned over each season to suit different stories, and this season's Mannheim family arc was eleven episodes.

More concerning were the abrupt ways the finale sidelined the supporting characters. Chrissy became pregnant by Kyle, who not only welcomed the news but also proposed marriage, which Chrissy accepted. Where was the Kyle who by the end of Season 2 seemed like he wanted to win Lana back? Where was the Chrissy who despite her mousy appearance was strong enough in Season 2 to resist Ally Alston's brainwashing? Meanwhile Lana and John Henry hooked up after circling each other this season, and Sam revealed an online match of his own, who led him to be abducted. Where was super-skeptical Sam?

The main story had its share of out-of-character moments. Lex Luthor, who in his two episodes has been monotone menace—a departure from the show's nuanced approach to every other element of the Superman mythos—reduced zombie Bizarro to the mindless Doomsday.

The cloud of uncertainty over Season 3 may have forced all of the above. I'm sure the show will recollect itself to a degree next season.

Short-Term Gratification

© by Gerald So | 3:30 AM

Going into new years, I tend to feel overwhelmed. We just wrapped one up and here we go again. Plus, this year we seem to be treading in a sea of Omicron cases, so I'm taking optimism in the short term.

• Tomorrow night NCIS and NCIS: HAWAI'I return from hiatus.
• Tuesday, January 11, SUPERMAN & LOIS Season 2 premieres.
• Friday, February 4, REACHER premieres on Prime Video

That's the first month and change of 2022 booked.

Dog Days

© by Gerald So | 6:30 AM

This is my first and possibly only post of summer '21. I haven't been out much, but my mother got to spend a month in Florida. Thank goodness for vaccines. The first season of Superman & Lois wrapped up this week and I pre-ordered the Blu-ray set, which goes on sale October 19. I also recently bought Justified the complete series on DVD for $41. The packaging is terrible, 18 discs on one big spindle, but the show is great, the best representation of Elmore Leonard's books.

Tropical Storm Henri, headed more or less my way. is expected to strengthen to a Cat 1 hurricane and hit tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope it's a little east of me, meaning weaker winds and less impact than Isaias. Keep on keeping on.

SUPERMAN: MAN OF TOMORROW Animated Movie

© by Gerald So | 8:30 AM

Daily Planet intern Clark Kent (Darren Criss) learns more about his origins while encountering alien bounty hunter chaos agent Lobo (Ryan Hurst), Martian-in-hiding J'onn J'onzz (Ike Amadi), and the life-draining accidental mutant Parasite (Brett Dalton).

As a fan of the 1990s ABC series Lois & Clark, I appreciate similar themes explored here, yet well updated for 2020. All the voices are great fits, including Zachary Quinto as Lex Luthor, Alexandra Daddario as Lois Lane, Neil Flynn as Jonathan Kent, and Bellamy Young as Martha Kent. I hope this goes on as an arc. If not, though, Superman: Man of Tomorrow hits all the right notes itself.

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)

© by Gerald So | 2:00 a.m.

Just back from watching with three fellow superfans.

Sometime after Batman vs. Superman, we find Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince recruiting Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg to team up against Jack Kirby's Steppenwolf and the Parademons of Apokolips, ancient enemies of the Amazons, Atlanteans, and humans.

Team-up movies face a number of challenges solo movies don't, most obviously to make the stakes high enough to warrant the team-up and to divvy screen time fairly among the heroes and villains. I'm glad to say the new League recruits left distinctive impressions true to their characters. This movie will make them new fans. I already liked Ben Affleck's older Batman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, and they continued to deliver.

All that said, Superman is the reason I've watched Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, and Justice League. If and how he rejoined the battle were important to me, and I think someone (or someones) bobbled the ball. I'd read comments by Henry Cavill that moviegoers would see the classic champion we know and love, but his transition from death to that was too abrupt for my liking.

And finally, Steppenwolf and the Parademons are your standard, otherworldly (less realistic) army of manufactured evil, but they were adequately shown to be too powerful for any one hero to beat, quite possibly too powerful for a team without Superman to beat.

On the large scale, Justice League is more cohesive than Batman vs. Superman, but doesn't surpass Wonder Woman in any way. However, its smaller, character moments are well thought out and worth fans' time.

LOIS LANE: FALLOUT by Gwenda Bond

© by Gerald So | 3:00 P.M.

Two weeks ago via Twitter, I learned about Gwenda Bond's YA series with DC Comics' legendary Lois Lane as protagonist and was immediately interested.

The first book, Fallout finds sixteen-year-old Lois recently moved with her Army family. Her first day at East Metropolis High, she sees spelling bee champion Anavi Singh being harassed by the Warheads, a seemingly single-minded clique of VR gamers.

The principal does next-to-nothing, so Lois tries to expose the bullying through her new after-school job at the Daily Planet's teen newspaper, the Daily Scoop. Discovering the Warheads' strange ability to carry out psychic assaults, Lois isn't sure anyone will believe her but an online friend she knows only as SmallvilleGuy.

Though the concept is similar to early seasons of TV's Smallville and has equal potential to resonate with Superman lore, Lois is refreshingly the focus here, wishing she could stay out of trouble long enough to get settled, but nonetheless driven to help Anavi.

An Imperfect Superman

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com

Yesterday, a Twitter discussion of superhero movies brought up Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, which many of my friends dislike. While their complaints are reasonable, they didn't keep me from enjoying the movie.

Everyone expects Superman to make perfect decisions, saving all life along with public and private property. We expect this fantasy heroism because of his theoretically limitless power.

Real heroism is making an effort despite one's limitations. Yesterday's most serious complaint was that the Kents encouraged Clark to bury his talents, not make the best of them. The most poignant support for this complaint is Jonathan Kent's waving off Clark's attempt to save him from the tornado. While I agree the Kents contributed largely to Clark's morality and decision to use his power for good, this can be portrayed in any number of ways. Man of Steel showed Clark's upbringing in snippets, and I saw Jonathan as a honorable man of few words. In my view, despite their limitations, the Kents accepted Clark as a son and wanted society to accept him, too, not alienate him. All parenting is an imperfect mix of protecting children and encouraging their sense of adventure.

Behind the best-known complaint, that Superman kills Zod, is the movie's poor job of making the kill necessary. Here, too, though, because of Superman's power, we imagine everything he could have done instead of killing Zod. It's clear the filmmakers wanted to include the killing to raise debate. Unlike viewers, who can spend hours second-guessing, they had to make that decision and move on.

Man of Steel may not live up to idyllic visions of the Kents and Clark, but I relate better to this imperfect, more human Superman.

What is the point of Superman?

© by Gerald So | geraldso.blogspot.com

Having seen Man of Steel, in which, among other things, kryptonite is absent and Superman kills Zod, my friend Jim Winter concludes:

Even the myths of old had vulnerable characters. Chronos swallowed his children, only to vomit them back up so they could condemn him to darkness. The Norse gods will all die someday. The Greek and Roman pantheons are a collection of case studies in human neuroses, from the panicked overlord (Zeus) to perpetual smartass (Hermes) to the borderline autistic (Hades and Hephestus). Pick a god, any god. They have more weaknesses than Superman and more flaws. This lets them be the hero or the villain, depending on the story.

I know I loved Superman as a kid, having this invincible hero take out much more powerful baddies than people could handle. But I’m not a kid anymore. Even my escapism needs a dose of reality. "I know I loved Superman as a kid, having this invincible hero take out much more powerful baddies than people could handle. But I’m not a kid anymore. Even my escapism needs a dose of reality.

I commented that I thought Man of Steel did a good job of showing how Superman empathized with the everyman. The draw of Superman, to me, is his capacity to feel for humanity, to the point he goes out of his way to assimilate into Earth culture. That an alien would do this says something positive about humanity. His empathy also makes him vulnerable to people and supervillains who don’t care who they hurt in pursuit of their goals. His emotional vulnerability, to me, is more compelling than his physical vulnerability to rocks from Krypton.

There are times I’d like Superman to have more personality, like the Greek gods Jim mentions, but that’s not who he’s become. He’s not the tortured Batman or the wise-cracking Spider-Man; he’s the Boy Scout, boy-next-planet Superman.

Crimespree #52

I received the delayed May/June 2013 issue of Crimespree yesterday, featuring my reviews of Ace Atkins' second Spenser continuation novel, Wonderland (p. 72), and third Quinn Colson, The Broken Places (p. 58), as well as the May Blu-ray release Superman Unbound (p. 50).

Thanks as always to Jon and Ruth Jordan and Jeremy Lynch.

Ben Affleck is Batman?

I've just read Variety's report that Affleck has been cast as Batman opposite Henry Cavill's Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel. I'm in disbelief given Affleck's professed disappointment at having played my favorite superhero, Daredevil, and his resulting vow never to play a superhero again.

The report is probably true, though. I liked Ben well enough as Daredevil. I don't know that I'd believe him as a darker, broodier Batman, but his Batman may not be as dark as Bale's anyway. The key will be for the characters to balance each other. Since Cavill's Superman is darker, Affleck's Batman may be lighter. There's room for that without reentering Joel Schumacher territory.

Here's what I thought when news of the movie broke at San Diego Comic-Con.

Superman vs. Batman

One of the scoops at San Diego Comic-Con this year was that, in the sequel to Man of Steel, Superman would be pitted against Batman, bringing to mind their battle in The Dark Knight Returns.

There is already much speculation as to how the movie will be plotted. Zap2it.com Contributing Editor Billy Nilles calls the premise a bad idea, asserting that writer David Goyer and directer Zack Snyder have "irreparably altered Superman's philosophy".

While I also found Man of Steel's final battle clumsily contrived, the rationale behind the sequel may be as simple as profit. Thanks to Tim Burton, Bruce Timm, and Christopher Nolan, Batman is probably Warner Bros.' most lucrative property. Meanwhile, though Superman hasn't been as successful at the movies, he remains popular enough to have afforded TV's Smallville ten seasons. Regardless who plays Batman or how problematic the plot, people will go see it. The powers-that-be are risking very little.

If I Wrote a Superman Movie...

As pleased as I am with Man of Steel, Superman brawling with bad guys has always seemed crude to me. This has long been his m.o. in comics and cartoons. In Warner Bros. Animation's 2001 Justice League cartoon, Superman was deliberately powered down so he would need his super friends' help.

My Clark Kent/Superman would have traveled the world, gaining insight into every culture and himself. He would be aware of how powerful he was, of how much damage he were capable of, and would be firmly against aggression. His instinct, like a Jedi's, would be to defend, not to attack. He would not punch, but would slip, block, and use submission holds. Not adding to villains' violence, he would not cause as much collateral damage.

He would be a rescuer and would use his power to nullify villains' power such that, when Superman arrived, they might simply give up.

I know. It would probably never sell. But I'll keep dreaming.

More MAN OF STEEL

Crime author and friend Russel D. McLean weighs in on Man of Steel at Do Some Damage. I offered a spoilery comment.