4 days ago
Up, up and away - another version of Superman hits the big screen
A still from Superman The Movie, 1978.
Photo:
Neon
Nearly a century ago, a man in red and blue lifted a car on the cover of Action Comics #1.
It didn't take long for that man of steel to fly off the comic page and into radio ... then onto the small and big screens, books, merchandise and anything else you might care to name.
If anything is going to bring movie-watchers back to the cinema it's Superman - and the latest iteration is out this weekend, simply called
Superman
.
The latest interpretation of the Man of Steel comes from
Guardians of the Galaxy
director James Gunn. After a long streak of darker, more brutal and gritty interpretations, Gunn has returned to a more traditional, hopeful take.
The bearer of that red shield is arguably the most iconic character ever made, but over so much time and passing through the hands of so many varied creators, no character is going to remain unchanged.
Today on The Detail we look at how Superman changed over his many years, and his surprising origin story, with Stu Colson, who is the co-owner of Auckland comic shop Heroes For Sale. He says every time a superhero gets a new lease of life on the big screen, it's like a two-hour advertisement for his shop.
Superman might not be his best seller - that honour rests with the Dark Knight, Batman - but Colson says Superman's legacy and the history of his impact on pop culture is unrivalled by anyone else.
Superman wasn't the first comic hero - in 1936 Lee Falk published the daily newspaper strip
The Phantom
about a purple-suited fighter of justice.
But in 1938 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster made a story about an alien from another planet being raised in the USA and choosing to use his superhuman powers to do good.
Colson agrees he's probably the most iconic character ever written.
"His legacy and the history of his impact on pop culture I don't think has been rivalled by anyone else."
In the 1950s he was easily the biggest pop culture phenomenon America had ever seen, with summer camps dedicated to him.
"The radio plays were so popular that the guy who voiced Superman ... after a few years said 'I need a break, I need some time off with my family', and that's where kryptonite actually came from. So he went off on his holiday and in the story Superman was taken down by kryptonite so they just had another actor lie on the floor in the studio and groan for three weeks.
"It's a fantastic plot device."
Superman was born just before World War II broke out, but he wasn't a reaction to global uncertainty. The legend goes that Jerry Siegel's father, a tailor in Ohio, was fatally attacked in his haberdashery in 1932, so the character was a son's bullet-proof invention.
This protector had working class origins and was something of a socialist.
Once upon a time Superman represented "truth, justice and the American way", but in 2021 DC's chief creative officer said Superman now stood for "truth, justice and a better tomorrow".
"I think he's the exact opposite of what's going on in America right now," says Colson.
"He's the symbol of what they were, not what they are now. I mean, he's an immigrant. He's the ultimate immigrant, he's an alien. He's there to help all of those people, he'd be on the front line of those protests against ICE imprisonments.
"He would be trying to stop insider trading somehow ... you know he'd be using the Justice League to get on top of that.
"I think he would be incredibly disappointed at his adopted homeland were he a real character.
"This is not the America he was there protecting. Lex Luthor is probably more of a symbol of America right now."
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