by Elton Gahr

Created on: February 05, 2009   Last Updated: February 13, 2009

With the recent rumors flying around the net that Brian Singer has been removed from the Superman Franchise because he refused to re-boot it and the Wachowski Brothers have taken over the job, leaving plastic man in the hands of their second unit director, it seems likely that the decision no re-boot the Superman Franchise has already been made. Still, that doesn't change the question of whether it is a good idea or not.

Perhaps I'm one of the only people who never really cared for Christopher Reeve in the superman movies, but that alone isn't enough to convince me that the movies need to be rebooted. Those answer can be found both in the movie Superman Returns and the Batman series, and even Watchmen.

Until recently, no one took the superhero genre serious. From the Adam West batman movies to the numerous cartoons, superhero movies were treated as something for children, or if not children for people who weren't all that bright. In more recent years this assumption has began to go away as people recognize that graphic novels, such as the Watchmen, or even ongoing series can be smart as well as action packed and even dealing with political ideas.

This brings us to the movie Superman Returns. This movie felt like it was out of time. It felt like you were watching the Superman of those older movies, but I don't care about that Superman. I want a smarter character with villains who feel dangerous and moral dilemmas. They attempted some of this in Superman Returns, but even the man of steel can't move forward with the amount of baggage which this movie had. Lex Luther has already been explored, as has Lois Lane and all the other characters you expect in a Superman Movie.

If you want to breathe life into a Superman movie the only option seems to be to start over. Make the character young, without all the answers. he should of course still be Superman, I have no interest in seeing Batman with x-ray vision and flight, but I am interested in seeing what a good director and writer think superman would be like if he became an adult in the two thousands.

Could Superman exist in a world of twenty four hour news-cycles and the fascination of destroying our heroes that seems to be so common in America? How would the patriotic themes of Truth, Justice, and The American Way manifest themselves in our modern world? Would facial recognition software make it impossible for him to keep a secret identity? Could the goodness and honor of Superman really change people the way that it has in past stories or are modern Americans to jaded to believe in that type of hero?

These questions and many more could make for an excellent movie if given the right chance, but how many of them can even be considered when you are dealing with a Superman who has been around for twenty years. Superman is a character who has a place as a modern myth and it is worth telling many times, but in order to be a myth for our time it must be based on the strengths and failings of our times

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