All Things Superman: An Open Discussion

[Lead Cenobite]

As much as I love the Donner movies, there's still room for new interpretations. We could learn more about Zod's character and why he tried to overthrow the council.

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

What does the S stand for from his home planet??

 

[Russell Nash]

Has anyone been able to come up with an educated guess as to what the plot will be? I originally thought Nolan and Snyder would adapt Secret Origin, but I guess that's not the case now. Are those Birthright rumors still floating around?

 

[DorkyFresh]

well they said they weren't using any one particular story but Goyer wrote the intro for Secret Origin and expressed that one particular part of the story struck a cord with him...but one of the descriptions for the casting of Superman said that the movie deals with a young Clark as a freelance journalist traveling around Africa, which sounds a lot like Birthright. some others have also said that Zod being involved might indicate that he's also using Earth One as a basis.

so it sounds to me like he's taking the best bits of those 3 origin-based stories and formulating them into one "ultimate" origin story.

 

[Zack Snyder]

Let see how repetitive this movie will be after watch it in the theaters. I have a feeling that people will be surprised about how different those characters will be portrayed on the story.

I have no doubt it will be pulled off well. That isn't a concern. It's just that Zod in general wasn't needed. A lot of other great villains not used in film before that would have been pulled off just as well, without needing Zod in the mix. I think with Brainiac, Metallo, Darkseid, and Doomsday there were plenty of fresh ideas for introducing more villains with Lex. Btw let's hope we get Mercy from TAS

 

[DarKJediKnight]

What does the S stand for from his home planet??

The comics didn't follow any specific fact on what the S really means, but after the Donner films it's been accepted by most that the S is House of El's family crest.

One of the good things that Smallville did is to flesh out the origin of the symbol, from being a Kryptonian symbol of air: http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_of_Air until being accepted as the House of El's symbol and evolving into what we know as the 'S' Superman Shield that coincidentally resembles the English alphabet 'S' http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Mark_of_El

 

[Mace Bloodstone]

^^ Nice, good stuff... Thanks!

 

[SuperDaniel]

I wouldnt be surprised if the plot is an improved version of JJ Abrams idea.

 

[Rust]

I wouldnt be surprised if the plot is an improved version of JJ Abrams idea.

Ty-Zor?


Anyways, they better bring in more villains to distance themselves from Superman II and from being repetitive. We need an actual villain from the comicbook, please. It's loooong overdue, but they know that...

 

[El Payaso]

Let see how repetitive this movie will be after watch it in the theaters. I have a feeling that people will be surprised about how different those characters will be portrayed on the story.

It sounds repetitive already. If they wanted to stay away from Donner's franchise, why didn't they go with Brainiac instead?

 

[Prison Mike]

I love that the new Superman movie is titled "Man of Steel". I'm really excited about everything announced so far.

 

[Bren]

Superman 2 included Zod as the major villain. 31 years later, they use Zod as (probably) the major villain. Honestly, how repetitive is that, exactly? I know there's Smallville, but let's try not compare tv-budget Zod to what we'll (hopefully) get in Man of Steel.

I know he's not at the same level of greatness as the Joker, but he was used in films only 19 years apart, and that turned out okay. Ignoring the games, cartoons etc that featured him too.

Yes, I'd have preferred a more..... 'spectacular' villain like Brainiac, but personally, I can't really say Zod is repetitive...

 

[JAK®]

Here's why people think Zod is repetitive.

When SR came out, and a lot of people hated it, they didn't take long to notice that the plot was very similar to Superman: The Movie. So some people joked, "Hey! I bet if they make a sequel, Singer will just copy Superman II, and Zod will be the villain!"

And that joke got repeated over and over. Until it wasn't a joke any more. People started to believe it, until it eventually became a fact, like it was confirmed that Singer was going to do it.

And then as time went on, simply mentioning Zod got cries of anguish, people asking for something 'new', almost as if a sequel to SR had in fact been released starring Zod. And in their minds, it sort of had.

The Superman boards are a strange place.

 

[DocHoliday]

I don't remember Zod ever being confirmed for Singer's sequel. I could be wrong but every time I heard a villain mentioned it was always Brainiac. I know Singer wanted Zod in SRand played by Jude Law. When Law turned it down he wrote Zod out of the script.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

Zod was never in the equation for Returns. Don't know where people got that from.

 

[BH/HHH]

I think it was a rumour that got out of hand, there were rumours Singer had offered the Zod role to Jude Law but knowing how quickly they had to get the SR's script ready theres no way he had Zod in any version of that script.


It seems so good to see this forum title Man of Steel

 

[DocHoliday]

Yeah maybe it was just a rumor. I just remember frequenting the boards as a lurker most of 2006 and it was rampant with that story.

 

[BH/HHH]

Yeah maybe it was just a rumor. I just remember frequenting the boards as a lurker most of 2006 and it was rampant with that story.

Yeah there was also a rumour Kevin Bacon was playing Mettallo. To be honest its a shame theres rumours weren't true at least we'd have gotten a few Superfights.

 

[DocHoliday]

True. I too thought SR was kinda disappointing but the only thing I hated was Jason being his son. Because I thought that was the only aspect that would make a sequel more of the same. Singer had seen that he needed to make it feel less like an homage and more it's own thing. Braniac would have done this. But there was no going back on the Supes Jr. angle.

 

[BH/HHH]

True. I too thought SR was kinda disappointing but the only thing I hated was Jason being his son. Because I thought that was the only aspect that would make a sequel more of the same. Singer had seen that he needed to make it feel less like an homage and more it's own thing. Braniac would have done this. But there was no going back on the Supes Jr. angle.

Yeah I agree the kid been there actually made it impossible for Lois and Clark to ever get together. Its a shame Singer didn't have him come back with Lois just been 100% career focused and Superman having to work against that to get her back. I also thought it would have been more interesting in her anger towards Superman to have her be closer to Clark maybe they could have done something like in Up Up and Away where Superman has lost his powers and regains them.

 

[DarkKnight FTW]

Why do people keep suggesting that Doomsday is a great villain...That's like saying Carnage was a great villain (Worst Villain...EVER!) IMO. And as far a Metallo goes, I'm all Kryptonite'd out at the moment. We get it, it's his weakness. I'm tired of being beat over the head with it. It's time they went another way. And if WB is thinking of this as a trilogy, and I'm sure they are, there's no way they'd use their best villains in the first. So Brainiac and Doomsday would come later.

 

[Zionite]

Imagine if the previous Batman Franchise had only used Joker and 2face.Then they go to reboot the franchise with Joker again.How on earth is that original?Batman begins would have sunk.Why because the audiesnce would have been itching to see now villains.
Zod could have been used for a sequel.But for a franchise 1st film which is trying to stay away from the Donner curse?Its a bad idea

 

[DarkKnight FTW]

Imagine if the previous Batman Franchise had only used Joker and 2face.Then they go to reboot the franchise with Joker again.How on earth is that original?Batman begins would have sunk.Why because the audiesnce would have been itching to see now villains.
Zod could have been used for a sequel.But for a franchise 1st film which is trying to stay away from the Donner curse?Its a bad idea

That was 30 years ago! We're talking about a whole generation, a lot of whom have only seen Superman Returns. and Joker and 2face were used in Batman movies...I don't see complaining about that! Why, because it was a great movie!

 

[Zionite]

That was 30 years ago! We're talking about a whole generation, a lot of whom have only seen Superman Returns. and Joker and 2face were used in Batman movies...I don't see complaining about that! Why, because it was a great movie!

The Joker and 2face were used in the previous franchise but they werent the only ones used.The Former Bat franchise utilized nearly all of Batmans rogue gallery so they are allowed to rehash villains.Superman on the other hand has only used Zod and luthor..Thats it.They are not allowed to rehash villains becuse they dont need to they have a cadre of unused villains so fockin use them!
The only way i see this working is if it is a zod cameo or Russian zod.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

What I wanted to see was Brainiac leaves with Clark. He sends a drone to Earth and attacks Clark as a teenager and Clark throws him into space or the arctic where his AI is trapped. He is eventually found by Luthor who uses the knowledge to amass his fortune in Lexcorp. Brainiac eventually wakes up, but cannot send the AI to the ship. He asks Lex for a new body and he sends a Metallo drone to wreak havoc on the city which Superman stops. Brainiac then asks for the power source, realising it is Kryptonite he uses the power from it to awaken his Skull Ship and launches a full scale invasion of Earth with the ultimate goal of taking all knowledge and then destroying the planet. In the sequel we learn Brainiac was the Kryptonian AI and he served Zod who wants to build a New Krypton on Earth. I left out the Superman parts but I really thought that would be great.