by James Thornton

Created on: June 26, 2009

I would gladly pay to see a dark reboot if certain qualities of the Superman mythos is adhered to. Foremost among these is the hero and his qualities. Superman is a Messianic figure sent by a wise and benevolent father, Jor-El, to save mankind. Both Superman and Clark Kent should hold this worldview. The dark twist to this part of the mythos could be his childhood and upbringing by the Kent's in Smallville. Superman is practically immortal. He should land on Earth during the 30's or 40's during the Great Depression and World War Two and be brought up to be very conservative and/or religious. Imagine a Superman who is OCD about truth telling and obeying the law. He ages much slower than his parents who can't send him to school for obvious reasons. They pass away while he appears to be in his twenties yet actually closer to fifty or sixty years old when he emerges as Superman and shocks the world. Few people think he is a hero at first, and many people worry about alien invasions. It takes a while of fighting crime, pulling cats out of trees, and providing disaster relief before he is fully accepted. Through it all he plugs away, but is increasingly bitter towards people. He doesn't care for the cynicism or the hero worship. The Kent farm is his Fortress of Solitude. He has been living on the Kent farm for 75 years in almost complete isolation and really knows nothing about his adopted world. His worldview is Manichean; he only sees shades of black and white. To be dark the film should put Superman in a moral dilemma where he has to decide between the truth and law and good and falsehood.

This moral dilemma should result as a conflict with the antagonist. If Lex Luthor is the main villain then he should operate inside of the law; better yet with legitimate power being used for evil purposes. Some of the more interesting storylines in the comics have Luthor becoming President of the United States and using his authority to gain dictatorial powers and forcing Superman to choose between the law and righteousness. Pulling cats out of trees, fighting crime, and serving as disaster relief leads to him taking an oath (Truth, Justice and the American Way) and becoming an agent of the US Government. He needs to feel compelled to break the law and his oath in order to save mankind; even if mankind doesn't want to be saving (they elected Luthor after all). Perhaps Luthor orders the invasion and destruction of a country on manufactured intelligence.

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