The Flash Season 6, Episode 9: "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 3" (MAJOR SPOILERS)

[Thome216]

Superman Returns never made sense as a sequel to Superman II to begin with.

Superman II is set in 1979 and Lois is already clearly in her 30s. Superman Returns is set in 2006 according to a newspaper headline, and she appears to be in her mid 20s at the latest. Martha Kent would have to be 100 years old or more; she was already clearly pretty old when Clark landed on Earth in the freaking late 1940s.

Not to mention Lois remembers events that Clark roofie-kissed away in Superman II, but doesn't remember Clark is Superman.

They went out of their way to reference events from Superman I, III, IV, and Returns because they just don't care that the timeline makes no sense. As far as the Arrowverse is concerned, they're all Earth-96.

Just like how Earth-89 is now canon because of the cameo. But in the cameo, Knox is reading a newspaper that says Batman captured the Joker, but we all saw the Joker die at the end of Batman 1989.

I would think that when the movies were made matters very little to their actual setting in-universe. Just for an example, when Superman Returns came out, that it was a direct sequel to a movie twenty years older with obviously different exteriors reflecting progresses in technology, didn't matter to me at all.

 

[famicommander]

I would think that when the movies were made matters very little to their actual setting in-universe. Just for an example, when Superman Returns came out, that it was a direct sequel to a movie twenty years older with obviously different exteriors reflecting progresses in technology, didn't matter to me at all.

It's the simple fact that Lois should be 60-something years old by 2006 if Returns is a sequel to II. Which would make Martha Kent well over 100.

The newspaper headline says 2006. In Superman the Movie, the newspaper headline says 1978.

It was a staggeringly terrible idea to try to make a quasi-sequel. If you're going to try to prey on nostalgia for the old films to prop up the new one, do it all the way or not at all. Just arbitrarily cherry-picking various aspects of the mythology of the first two films while ignoring the rest is a ridiculously lazy way to go about it. And the plot itself is basically a rehash of Superman the Movie too, except stupider. Because in Superman the Movie, Lex's plot to own the new land makes more sense because nobody could trace the missile attack to him until Superman foiled the plot. But in Superman Returns, everybody knows it's Luthor and everybody know's what he's already done. So who the hell is gonna make a business deal with him? You think if Elon Musk sank half of North America, suddenly the European Union would be keen to do business with him?

 

[Avenging Angel]

I'm struggling trying to tolerate this show.