A recent conversation I heard discussed something that I thought was worth bringing up here,..

As you have heard they are rebooting the Superman franchise yet again. I'm wondering if the problem that exist with the Superman movies is whether or not the idea of Superman still works today?

Superman lacks that dark edge of Batman or the guilt complex and insecurity of Spider-man to drive him. He is an almost Christ-like figure in what is now a much more cynical world.
Does the "ultimate boyscout" have any attraction to audiences anymore? Do our heroes need to fall to be able to rise above?

Thoughts?

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"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

Superman seems to have evolved with the times. If you compare George Reeves' interpretation in the 1950s to Christopher Reeve's in the 70s and 80s, you can see the evolution from Superman as super-scout, to a man (albeit a super one) with burdens to carry.

While I don't think you will see a Superman that acts like Hancock or one that gets all emo, I'm guessing a contemporary Superman will deal with feelings of loss and loneliness (of friends and family he outlives) and perhaps some guilt for some of his choices. In that way, he'll be closer to Christopher, than George, in his actions.

Superheroes haven't worked for me since I hit puberty. Back then they were all about kicking *** and taking names. I don't need to see Superman anguishing over rain forests, or The Fantastic Four whining about electric cars. I want to see bad guys getting toasted, kicked, beaten, and blown into small unidentifiable pieces.

This being the age of angst and 'backstory' though, I doubt it's going to happen.

But in the end though, Superman may lament the passing of his friends, he may carry the burden of loneliness, etc, but in the end we KNOW he will do the right thing. We KNOW he wont kill the villain, we KNOW he will save the girl.
Is that a character we can relate to?

DC has been very protective of how much you can change a character like Superman or Batman and I think that has been their downfall in a way. The moment the Joker confronted Batman in "The Dark Knight" and told him that no matter what he did Batman wouldn't kill him, Batman was no longer an effective character. Sure we all KNOW that, but you never, NEVER spell it out in a story.

Don't we all want Batman or Superman to go off the rails once just to bring them down to our level?

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"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"

For me he had become too boring and the way he was brought up as "Mr. Perfect/Goody2shoes" was just so unrelatable and Superman was made way too strong so they made Kryptonite plentyful on the earth. I would rather the superheroes be a little more human or just make a superhero movie in a different angle like KickAss

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war is some crazy sh** -alexander the great

I agree. If you make your hero completely invulnerable, then what is there to worry about? What threat is there to your character?

I liked the version of Supes that they came up with in the animated series. Yes he was a boyscout, but he was not the incredibly super, Superman. If he was in space or underwater, he needed a suit. He got batted around plenty and in an episode or two bruised and bloodied.
He was made a little more "human".

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"Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars"