Why is it So Tricky to Adapt Superman to the Big Screen?

There are lots of characters that are created for pop culture and then stand the test of time, but one that people try to put their own spin on and fail over and over is Superman.

He’s a beacon of hope who has a huge heart. He’s protecting humanity because he cares about us, not because he thinks he’s better than us. When push comes to shove, he’s one of us.

So why is this so hard to get this level of characterization in feature films?

Let’s dive in.

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Superman Source Material

The character of Superman has been around since the 1930s. He first appeared in Action Comics #1 in June 1938 and was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster.

Since then, we’ve seen so many iterations of the character in comics and on screen. My favorite Superman story is Superman for All Seasons, and my favorite movie is the original with Christopher Reeves.

If you’re going to adapt Superman, you have to use your heart. The character cannot be subverted—that would make him cynical. And there is nothing super about that.

If you’ve read a lot of Superman comics, then you know there are lots of iterations of the character, but few are as dour and sullen as the movies we’ve gotten in the last 20 years.

While I know gritty comic movies were all the rage, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League take Superman and focus on him as “the other” instead of as one of us.

The only time Superman is human is when they have him making the impossible choice to break someone’s neck. Something that felt decidedly not like Superman.

What makes us believe in a character like this is that he’s supposed to be the best of us. Someone who can do anything, but continually makes the sacrifices it takes to make our lives better.

That’s the kind of character I want to see on screen and read about in books.

Superman Movie Character

I guess my major beef with Superman in movies these days is how humanity gets forgotten. And when it comes back, like with the “Martha” moment, how much it feels forced, when it should feel tender.

The darkness of the world and the choices in modern iterations of Superman could be col, especially if we felt like we had a hero being ultimately tested and what he believes in.

But oftentimes, we don’t spend enough time in those movies actually assessing what Superman does believe in versus seeing him do cool things.

Killing Zod could have been a real moral dilemma, but outside of the audience’s inherent knowledge of the character, did Man of Steel give us any scene were we hear about his code?

You could point toward the interrogation scene with Lois Lane, but I prefer the original movie’s interview with Lois on her balcony. It was much more intimate, flirty, and gave us a way to access the character.

Even when Superman died defeating Doomsday in modern movies, it felt like we never had a grip on what he meant to people.

That’s because we saw him on trial or being treated as a god more than we saw him helping people deal with everyday life.

The character of Superman has to balance the grandiose gestures also with getting cats out of trees. It’s why he’s the ultimate american hero, an immigrant raised poor on a farm who makes it to the big city not just to save people from giant robots, but to also to make sure you cross the street alright.

Again, I am always worried by any Superman property that sees him as a god, which I guess sort of works, but this wasn’t a god they cared about. It was one they feared.

I suppose if Luthor’s dark plan was to subvert Supe’s image, that’s a good story. But you have to show his light side and the light side of the way people love him for that to work.

We never got it.

I know the age-old debate—Batman is tortured and interesting, but Superman is just a hokey farm boy and a boring character.

How is there any depth? There are no stakes for the guy who can do everything!

People have been whining about Superman since the comic debuted in the newspaper, but one thing that struck me is how confusing it is that movies continually get Superman wrong, when TV consistently gets him so right.

Maybe I’m just a Smallville stan, but that show got it right. The movies I’ve seen lately, not so much.

In fact, outside of the original two Christopher Reeves/Richard Donner Superman movies, the others have really struggled to capture the ethos of the character.

It’s like they focus way too hard on what makes him unlike us, and forget that what makes Superman so special is how much he’s like us.

The purity of the Superman comics, of an adopted kid trying to get to know his parents and also his destiny, is so often ignored in these movies. There’s a Pixar element to the story that they love on television but that for some reason, recent movies forget to take seriously.

And that’s why I’m so excited for the James Gunn version.

Hope For The Future of Superman

As an adopted person trying to make my way in this world and understand both the family I was born into and the genetics given to me at birth, Superman will always have a huge place in my heart.

It sounds kind of dumb, but that’s a character on screen that reminds me of myself…minus all the powers and good looks.

I’ll watch anyone tackle him. And I truly do appreciate some of the leaps the recent movies take. From the Singer version where he lifts the car, even to the Costner and Diane Lane stuff in Man of Steel, that’s handled well. Especially the younger Clark years when he’s saving kids from busses.

But I think what movies forget is that those themes should permeate through the rest of the story. The TV shows have understood that in a way, Superman should always be a coming-of-age story. He should always be learning what makes us human, and embracing those ideals.

It is interesting to see him fail, but it’s not interesting to see his failures become what defines him. If the “S” on his chest stands for hope, then we have to feel that as an audience.

But I have hope for the future of the character of Superman.

He was always on my bucket list as someone I wanted to write about, but I am super excited for James Gunn to make a movie about him, because Gunn has a proven track record of coming at superhero movies with the characters and their stories prioritized over complicated plots.

His trailer is supposed to drop on Thursday morning, and I am so excited to see what happens and see the footage as well.

In Hollywood, I get used to other people tackling the IP I would give an arm and a leg to work on.

I try to hold out as much hope as I can for what is to come and I always go to the theaters to see new interpretations and ideas.

That’s the kind of optimism I expect from myself, and the kind of optimism I think the Superman character would want me to have about his story if he was real.

Let me know what you think in the comments.