Superman Returns Redux

Just saw Superman Returns again with the wife tonight. She hadn't seen it yet and since the kids were gone we decided to go out on the town, so to speak, and hit a movie after I was done work. She thought it was pretty good (although I don't think anything will capture her heart quite like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest this summer) and I enjoyed it even though I was going in predisposed to finding something wrong with it. I walked away from it the first time absolutely spellbound but after reading so much criticism of it online and in the blogosphere I figured it was my duty as a critic, a blogger and a Superman fan to put the film under greater scrutiny.

Sorry to say, I'm even happier with it now than before having now, officially, accepted Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and embracing Frank Langella as Perry White (looking back on it now I don't think Hugh Laurie would have made as good a Perry as Langella). I noticed little nods to continuity and Superman fandom that I hadn't before (like the ripped page in the encyclopedia) and appreciated the iconography a little more than the first time.

Since getting home I decided, freak of nature that I am, to read the DC Comics prequels that they published just before the film's release. They didn't look like anything special on the shelf and I largely ignored them because it's pretty rare that anything of any value ever comes of these adaptations and tie-ins. Still, the buzz was strong and they were just sitting there so...

The first issue was essentially a primer for folks who maybe don't own the DVD of the 1978 Donner film. It's all scenes cribbed from that movie's first 20 minutes and operates under the pretense that it is setting you up for watching the new film by giving you the critical backstory. Aside form some really nice Ariel Olivetti artwork, this inaugural issue was largely a waste of time.

The second prequel dealt with Ma Kent - how she's coping with Clark being gone, what she does with her time now and showing us some more backstory through flashbacks to the Donner film, bits of deleted material from the new movie and stuff that I believe the writer, Marc Andreyko, made up from whole cloth. It's readable and even enjoyable in some parts, and the artwork by Kerschl is very nice to look at. While reading this story will do little to enhance your viewing experience of Superman Returns, it's a pleasant digression or sidebar that fills in a few of the gaps left by the filmmakers.

I was looking forward to seeing Luthor take the stage for the third prquel issue, especially since there's a lot of stuff that we didn't get to see in the film (like the fact that Luthor planted the info that Krypton may still be there sending Supes off on a 5 year journey), but instead we get an absolutely gastly comic book and story that loosely fits the continuity of both Donner's film and Singer's. The art by Leonardi was lacking and there wasn't really much there to latch onto as a reader. Maybe there's a Luthor fan out there who thinks the book rocks, but I have to give it a big thumbs down.

As for the fourth one...I don't seem to have it. I was sure I did but I can't find it anywhere at the oent so I'm going to hold off on the Lois Lane issue. I'm not holding out high hopes for it, but you never know. Regardless, I'm going to go and get some shut-eye and try again tomorrow.

Later!

mike