Wired Magazine, of all places, has an article by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers that discusses Superman from a cultural and mythological standpoint. It also talks briefly about the upcoming Brian Singer flick, which Gaiman and Rogers are more optimistic about than I am, but then, half the free world seems more optimistic about it than me, so I’m not surprised. I’m amused by the lengths that Warner Bros. is going to with the Superman footage, nonetheless - only allowing people to watch it with a chaperone who shreds the DVD immediately afterwards? Insane!

What’s important, though, is how Superman uses these powers. Compared to most A-list comic characters, he has almost no memorable villains. Think of Batman, locked in eternal combat with nocturnal freaks like the Joker – or Spider-Man, battling megalomaniacal weirdos like Dr. Octopus. For Superman, there’s pretty much only bitter, bald Lex Luthor, forever being reinvented by writers and artists in an effort to make him a worthy foe. Superman’s true enemies are disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, jet planes tumbling from the sky, enormous meteors that would crush cities. Superman stands between humanity and a capricious universe.

Singer’s movie hasn’t yet screened in its entirety, so no one knows what he’s going to add to the myth. The few minutes of the film that outsiders have seen (watched with a chaperone, on a DVD that gets shredded after viewing) look good, a spiritual successor to the Richard Donner films from a quarter-century ago. The special effects will be flawless. But Singer’s Superman is bound to be less interesting than his Clark Kent. Of all the relationships at the heart of the myth – Superman and Lois Lane, Superman and Jimmy Olsen, Superman and his adoptive parents – the most important is the one with his alter ego.

Full article online here.

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