Note that this counterfactual history also works with the J.J. Abrams Superman flick -- except to an even greater level, based on the terrible script. I would say that the Abrams Superman film would have made
Superman and The Mole Men look like
Superman: The Movie, but that would be doing a disservice to the memory of George Reeves.
But let's face it -- a big part of it is this guy right here:
Best Superman since Christopher Reeve by a country mile. It isn't even close.
Actually the Abrahams script wasn't too bad, very uneven with rubbish like the kryptonian lex, death of superman and krypton not exploding but on the same token there were some magnificent character interaction scenes mixed with some good humor and some epic action.
I think that if Abrahams' movie was made it would've been very successful but also very divisive amongst critics and fans (much like MOS).
As for superman and the mole men, well say what you will about the film's low end production values but the film got the spirit of superman right; it was after all a story about superman standing up for the little guy(s) literally!!!
I don't how long some of have been here, but I was here since 2002-3 when the whole Ratner/Abrahams project was moving in full swing and the fans were divided between those who wanted Tom Welling to be superman and those who wanted Matt Bomer (who was Ratner's first choice) and Henry Cavill.
Henry was so young back then that you could see his rosy cheeks in I capture the castle and he was clearly too young to be superMAN but despite of all that he was still my favorite choice (although I really liked Bomer and wouldn't have minded if he got the gig).
There was just something about Cavill, he that charismatic presence that would allow him to carry any role and I think he would've pulled off both superman and Bond even back then when he was so young.
It's funny actually because I first heard about the cavill casting on the superman homepage and when I saw the piece of news the first thing I did was look at the calender to make sure that it wasn't April fools, I was just over the moon. After 9 freaking years of rooting for the guy he finally got the part that he was born to play.
All we need now is Cavill as Bond, directed by Chris Nolan and I can die happy.