Babillygunn
New Age Outlaw
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2014
- Messages
- 7,059
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 118
I do get what you are saying. But I donāt know that I 100% agree. Superman 2 was a hit in its day, or at least that is my memory. I remember when it came out, it was a staple on the early days of cable tv. It may be just the memory of a childās perception but I just remember that movie always being on. And he was wildly popular in the ā80s. Then Frank Miller wrote DKR and Burton came out with Batman ā89 and Batman, a character that was way on the decline, saw a renewed popularity.Itās more than the board I am just giving a simple example because the last few pages have been talking about Donnerās movies. Letās not sugar coat it Superman 2 was just ok for the general audience. Superman for the most part has had a long struggle sense the 80s remember they killed him off, changed his power set, and even gave Supes a mullet. Superman has been saved over the years by the live action television shows, the Justice League Cartoon, ect. For some reason mainstream has not excepted Big Blue. I have a feeling something is different with Gunnās Superman. I donāt think this is fake hype.
The times were different then. You didnāt necessarily see situations where a big hit comes out and then studios would churn out other hits in the same genre. Because that hadnāt really been a successful model. After Star Wars, some studios tried their hand at space operas and it didnāt hit. Disney sunk a bunch of money into The Black Hole and it failed. A lot of this was because the hit had set the bar too high. So the success of Batman ā89 didnāt usher in a ton of other big budget superhero films. At best, it ushered in low budget Cannon films like Dolph Lungrenās Punisher, or television shows like the 1990 Flash. So it wasnāt all that surprising that Superman didnāt get a film after the success of ā89.
After the success of Batman Returns, we did get Superman return on television with Lois and Clark, which was very successful and aired for a number of seasons. Iād argue that after Batman Forever, Superman may have been rivaling Batman in popularity at that time despite not being on the big screen for a couple of decades. Thatās why, when DC decided to have an enormous event comic with a ādeath ofā angle, they went with Superman as opposed to Batman. The result was the highest selling comic of all time. That wouldnāt be the case for a character that the public did not care about.
As far as the mullet is concerned, weird as it sounds, mullets were considered cool for a hot minute during that time period. Young people did mullets in late ā80s and early ā90s. And giving that hairstyle to characters like Superman and Nightwing was actually a show of respect by middle-aged white guy creators who thought that was the general audienceās definition of looking cool. It hasnāt aged well, but a lot of stuff from the Bronze Age hasnāt aged well.
Throughout it all, I think people have been itching for good Superman content. We just havenāt gotten it on the big screen. But it is telling that the Superman films that werenāt made are considered the stuff of legend. People still talk about Superman Lives, or Superman:Flyby in ways that Arnofskyās Batman Year One could only dream of.
Again, I donāt see that happening for a character that nobody cares about.
In the end, Iām pretty sure that if you give people a good Superman film, they will go see it. Give them something that is bad, and they wonāt. Itās just that simple.