Let's Talk About the Superman Reveal While We're At It.

Old news already (yesterday) but why not weigh in on the reveal of Henry Cavill as Superman in plucky Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. I don't know what the original source of this image is but I stole it from a site who stole it from someone else:

I'm optimistic about this image even though Superman clearly has a lot of obstacles to conquer in terms of his audience. Firstly there's the ponderous Superman Returns where a dazed Bryan Singer painted Supes into a colossal corner by gifting him a bastard child. Hopefully this will be ret-conned at the beginning of Zack's flick as Superman wakes from a fever dream, relieved that he imagined the entire last movie after eating bad clams.

And of course, Superman's other huge obstacle is that he is not Batman, and therefore nobody really gives a shit about him. In fact... hang on... I'm just thinking about Batman for a moment. Man. Batman is so awesome.Publish Post

Anyway, Snyder appears to have darkened Superman somewhat and made him a brooding, hunched over monster badass that just smashed into the bank and stole all your savings. And he's nearly got arms that are as big as Zack's! I for one am totally prepared to accept an angry meathead Superman (who robs banks) and I have faith in Snyder to create something crazy and over-the-top. Hopefully with a lot of yelling. IN FACT let me say right now, on the record, that Zack Snyder's Superman is going to make Christian Bale look like a pussy. There! I said it! Let's see if I'm wrong.

Of course, not everybody is thrilled with this new vision of Superman. When reveals like this occur the funniest place to hang out is the forum of brilliant but curmudgeonly classic comic artist John Byrne. Byrne was responsible for revamping Superman back in the... uh... 1800's, and none of his doting acolytes are willing to except change. In fact the biggest fear among them is that suspicious crotch shadow which may well be hiding the absence of Superman's beloved "trunks". (One guy even blew up a picture of Supe's crotch for a trunk inspection!).

Here are some of my favourite observations from the John Byrne Forum:

"Oh hey, no red trunks. Nevermind."

"No trunks.  That sucks."

I love the blanket dismissal of:

 "Another superhero movie I have no interest in ever seeing.  That's getting to be quite a long list." (Probably because of the trunks).

"Hate the texture, hate that they tease us with the lack of pants.I think the guy looks great, but the texture and colorscheme are to distracting."

"Ughh Where are his eyebrows?! He looks like Bizzaro, I'm out."

And what does John Byrne himself think?

"For the sake of my blood pressure, I'm going to put this whole thread on IGNORE now. . ."

I hear you, John! I hear you!