What a great read! It really makes most of the threads in this forum embarrasingly irrelevant. I'm embarrased myself here for being too focused on the costume- and casting-threads.
The article mentions that Superman is not a god. But what is a god really? Couldn't GOD himself just as well be an extra terrestrial like Superman? Oh well...
All that Superman stands for and his actions are timeless, if you're looking to update the "blue boyscout".
He's an alien, regardless of his "human" intentions, and as such we shouldn't question his motivations. The Kryptonians are a massively evolved and supposedly harmonic race compared to us, so theoretically they have no physical and culturel similarities to us. It should be self-explanatory.
Superman exists on a different plane alltogether. For instance, he wouldn't necessarily understand the concept of war. Actually, he reminds me of another iconic do-good'er who was human though, but had the same kinda background and intentions. You might've heard of him. Jebus.. Jesus-something.
Anyways, this Longstreth really makes some valid points. And puts some interesting perspectives on it. I may have missed out on it in the comicbooks(I haven't read Superman in a looong time), but the angle on Superman's superiority affecting the world really should have a VERY relevant part in the upcoming movie. If Nolan sees this and it's possibilities he could potentially make a movie just as dark as his Batman-flicks and even dwarf them in relevance and importance. And like the article points out, the super-villains and the spectacular almost seem unimportant here.
I'd personally love to see an origin done with Superman being feared in the beginning as described in the article. His introduction-scene could be pretty grand with a mass hysteria sort of scenario.
After all, human or not, he's still very much an alien, which hasn't really been played upon in any of the movies. An alien with godlike powers should create a new angle to the Superman mythos. Add to that a realistic approach to how mankind would react to that scenario I think Nolan could shine here.
