Two, judging from the trailers, that dark depressing Superman suit has been retired and the classic bright blue, yellow, and red are coming back. Somehow the super hero genre has taken on a fairly dystopian feel for several years. I can't even keep up with the vast Marvel universe that has evolved in the last decade or so.
And third, it will be good to sit in someone else's AC other than mine.
All that said, I grew up with superheroes, only the universe was not so extensive.
Of course, I watched the campy classic Batman, which ended up being rerun each summer on channel 29 in Philadelphia. As a kid, I didn't think it was all that silly, but later I saw the humor and, well, still loved it.
I got Spider Man in two forms. One was the 1960s cartoon that had the catchy theme song. The other was the silent Spidey who spoke in comic book, form on The Electric Company, which meant WE read his lines.
The most extensive the groups got was the 1970s-80s Superfriends, which gathered the coolest of the cool DC comic heroes...only Aquaman was always getting a lift from Wonder Woman in her invisible jet...I always suspected a different 'lift', but that's me. In fact, I could never figure out why Aquaman was even part of that group since he was the least cool, at least until Jason Momoa played him in recent years. That show's only other downfall was the annoying voice-over announcer.
Then we had The Incredible Hulk, which took Stan Lee's concept and The Fugitive premise for some reason and made it more of a drama...somehow it worked for 5 years but I think Michael Landon did it best with Highway to Heaven...the wandering stranger coming to help managed to stay viable for almost 30 years.
We had the one-season Flash series, and Mark Hamill's occasional turn as the Trickster was about the only thing I liked about it.
I think 1989 renewed the movie trend with Batman. If it had ended there, it would have been more legendary, but that darn Hollywood just couldn't leave it alone. At least the seocnd one kept Michael Keaton, but after that, it was a revolving Bat door with only Pat Hingle and Michael Gough being the constants.
And then came the Spider Man movies with Tobey Maguire. I thought those were well done and had a good story arc stretching across three movies. But then later we had The Amazing Spider Man, which was a rehashing of the origin story way too soon, though not with the exact storyline.
Later, we got The Hulk and Iron Man, both seeds for the growing Marvel Universe that was developed. I won't go into all that now simply because I don't want to.
And then we have Superman.
Of course, I grew up watching the 1950s series with George Reeves. Overall it was an entertaining program if slightly cheesy, with Reeves putting his hands on his hips in that bullet-deflecting pose.
However, I think 1978's rebirth truly defined Superman with Christopher Reeve. There was drama, sadness, romance, light comedy, and a sense of rooting for the good guy to triumph. The soundtrack helped as well. The 1981 sequel holds up well even though Richard Donner's cut came out in the 2000s and killed the cheesy light comedy moments. Superman III to me seemed like a lame excuse to put Richard Pryor in something, though the evil Superman vs good Superman fight was well done. As for Superman IV...it was a disaster and Christopher Reeve knew it would be.
In 2006 I was excited for Superman Returns and enjoyed Brandon Routh's portrayal. I was not so taken with Henry Cavill in Man of Steel, where the famous Superman costome looked a bit too shiny and menacing.
And then there were the TV shows. Lois and Clark, Smallville, Superboy, and Superman & Lois. So many takes on a character, maybe too many, and the plethora of interpretations of any character tends to kill whatever novelty was left.
Still, I am hopeful for this new interpretation by David Corenswet. Perhaps I'll be impressed, perhaps not.
Still, free AC!
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