Possible synopsis for "Man of Steel"!

I can't prove nor can I confirm if this is the official synopsis for the film but when you think about it does sound kind of right for the film, according to an article from Comicbookmovie.com and from Bleedingcool.com this is what the synopsis for "Superman: Man of Steel" (Which is the title I perfer for it to be) could but hornestly very well should be...

From an article posted at Comicbookmovie.com & Bleedingcool.com:
A young reporter named Clark Kent roams the world covering various news stories. When he is compelled to use his secret powers to intervene in a crisis in West Africa, he returns to Smallville to learn more about his origins and the hero he was born to be.

If you ask me this seems kind of right to my prespective, it's abit short even though it dosen't lead to alot of details still seems like a start!

What do you guys think?

Isn't that a carbon copy of the first chapter of 'Superman: Birthright'?

I mean, an EXACT copy?

Ya it does seem like it,hasn't all the bios come out for film pretty much rip on birthright bio.

I don't like the Africa thing because Waid, by his own admission, wanted to go for that "citizen of the world" bullshit. Sorry, no, he's American.

But to the plot synopsis, yeah, that's pretty much the first, what, two or three issues of Birthright. If they're using Birthright as their basis for this film... well, given that they could have adapted from Sucky Origin, I'll count my blessings.

Love or hate Birthright, it at least had a Krypton that wasn't made of fucking crystal.

Didn't mind the Africa section, it was the "soul vision" and vegetarianism that I thought was lame.

What was up with the "Kryptonian laptop" too??

Apologist Puncher wrote:Didn't mind the Africa section, it was the "soul vision" and vegetarianism that I thought was lame.

Oh yeah, the soul vision too, there you go. One of the few halfway good criticisms I've ever heard Neal Bailey utter related to that. He said there's no reason to give Superman new powers (which is what "soul vision" more or less amounts to) when you can achieve more or less the same effect -- by having him describe the horrifying sound of a heart grinding to a stop which, because of super-hearing, only he can really describe -- without giving him new powers.

Anyway.

What was up with the "Kryptonian laptop" too??

Maybe it's because I read too many comics but I've always been willing (maybe TOO willing) to excuse a lotta bullshit, and chalk it up to "eh, Kryptonian science".

thecolorsblend wrote:Oh yeah, the soul vision too, there you go. One of the few halfway good criticisms I've ever heard Neal Bailey utter related to that. He said there's no reason to give Superman new powers (which is what "soul vision" more or less amounts to) when you can achieve more or less the same effect -- by having him describe the horrifying sound of a heart grinding to a stop which, because of super-hearing, only he can really describe -- without giving him new powers.

Anyway.

Exactly right. And on top of that, using this "Soul Vision" as an excuse to make him a vegetarian was a double-whammy.

Pointless.

Maybe it's because I read too many comics but I've always been willing (maybe TOO willing) to excuse a lotta bullshit, and chalk it up to "eh, Kryptonian science".

They should have shown him figuring out how to use and understand it by the end of the series. Because it never showed-up in the comics again after, right?

Or did it?

From what I have gathered, DC pretty much shit all over 'Birthright' not too long after it came out. Decided it WASN'T "cannon", and was best to be forgotten. Wouldn't it be "sweet redemption" for the writer and artist of this series to have the Reboot fashioned after THEIR story, and it end up being a smash hit?

It would be a double victory, as they chose to go with "Sucky Origin" over this, which was boringly "Donner friendly". So the Reboot would piss on not only Singerman's Donner-obsessed travesty, but Johns' Donner-obsessed book too.

Apologist Puncher wrote:From what I have gathered, DC pretty much shit all over 'Birthright' not too long after it came out. Decided it WASN'T "cannon", and was best to be forgotten. Wouldn't it be "sweet redemption" for the writer and artist of this series to have the Reboot fashioned after THEIR story, and it end up being a smash hit?

There are no sources I can provide for any of this. What I'm about to say is me reading between the lines and connecting the dots all on my own.

DC hates Superman reboots. Oh, they want the thrill, spectacle and excitement of a reboot but they don't want to actually change anything. Just ask John Byrne. When he rebooted, DC got cold feet almost right away because a segment of the fanbase almost had a mutiny over it before so much as a page had been completed. They gave Byrne a lot of bureaucratic resistance in implement his MOS series but the process was too far along to stop now so they ran with it.

To my knowledge, the first real attempt to take the Byrne stuff away, in my opinion, was Superman #166 where it was "revealed" that the Byrne version of Krypton was a ruse Jor-El created so that Superman wouldn't miss his homeworld. The "real" Krypton was pretty much the Pre-Crisis version with Jor-El going from wearing the black and green toga with most of his body covered to the Silver/Bronze Age green-suited, red-headbanded, smiling version.

That issue pretty much broke the Internet in half. Fandom at the time just wasn't ready to say goodbye to the Byrne Age stuff just then. So eventually it was "revealed" that the whole thing had been done as part of the machinations of Brainiac. Therefore, the Byrne/MOS origin was reinstated as the REAL origin.

Flash forward to 2003. What I think was going on that DC wanted to let Waid write his version of a Superman origin. In my estimation, that's all the thing was supposed to be. "Here's Mark Waid doing HIS version of Superman!" But it wasn't really intended to replace Byrne's MOS. At least, not at first. So here comes Birthright. Well, on the grounds of it being an interesting thought experiment, fandom responded very positively to the series... so Eddie Berganza announced it was the new origin. Problem was that not all fans were bowled over with joy about that (either the fact of Birthright or else it becoming the new origin) and for damned sure even fewer creators were. This led to DC sending mixed signals to the fans. They claimed Birthright was the real deal (which became supposedly "official" with Superman #200) and published those issues at literally the same time they released JM DeMatteis' The Kansas Sighting miniseries, which clearly drew off the Byrne Age/MOS origin.

The "new" version of Supergirl was, until relatively recently, a pretty significant example of the clusterfuck Birthright created with continuity. All of the iconography associated with Supergirl came from the Birthright version of Krypton which led to some major continuity issues when DC changed their mind and quietly restored Byrne's MOS as the origin.

As a Superman story, Birthright is very good (not crazy about Leinel Yu's art though). Quite entertaining. As the oh-fficial origin of the Superman they were trying to publish monthly comics about, it was a crashing failure because DC didn't want to start the character over again. They wanted Birthright to be his new origin while at the same time keeping the existing Byrne Age-oriented stories in continuity (death of Superman, Lois and Clark getting married, etc). The issue there is that the MOS stories don't easily fit in with Birthright (which is logical because that wasn't how Waid designed Birthright to begin with!). But, like I said, fans didn't buy into that and neither did a LOT of creators at DC, who'd worked hard to keep the Byrne Age continuity going.

It's sad. Had Birthright been spun off into an "ultimate Superman" type of ongoing title and a universe unto itself, I suspect that the Birthright continuity would still be in print to this very day. But poor editorial decision-making makes Birthright a curious footnote in Superman's history.

DC hates Superman reboots.

It would be a double victory, as they chose to go with "Sucky Origin" over this, which was boringly "Donner friendly". So the Reboot would piss on not only Singerman's Donner-obsessed travesty, but Johns' Donner-obsessed book too.

I'd be prepared to say that for both (or either) Birthright or MOS. DC likes forcing the comics into line with the movies. Given the gigantic pain in the ass that Sucky Origin has been for them, I would LOVE it if the movie version was something TOTALLY CONFLICTING with Sucky Origin so that Geoff Johns could get a taste of his own medicine.

I defer to your knowledge colors.....

Rereading my novel of a post, next time I'll just write "Birthright was an unfortunate casualty of office politics".

thecolorsblend wrote:Rereading my novel of a post, next time I'll just write "Birthright was an unfortunate casualty of office politics".

Nah, some of the people here need to be educated.

Badly....

I'll second that. Thanks for the tutorial colors.

For me I haven't read most of the modern reboots of the character. But I always said something I like to see is them borrow the best elements out of all eras of the character. While throwing in some new stuff for there own mark. And combine that all together to make a good composite of superman from everything.

thecolorsblend wrote:Had Birthright been spun off into an "ultimate Superman" type of ongoing title and a universe unto itself, I suspect that the Birthright continuity would still be in print to this very day. But poor editorial decision-making makes Birthright a curious footnote in Superman's history.

For those so inclined, here's more reading on the "Superman 2000 / Superman Now!" pitch that led to the exits of Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Tom Peyer, and Mark Millar from the DCU proper and inspired Birthright, All-Star Superman, and Superman: Red Son. It's good stuff.

On the note of using cues from Birthright in the new movie, I can only say I approve. To the majority of moviegoers, it'll be fresh and it'll play well onscreen. Certain panel layouts will also work well as interspersed match cuts, IMHO.

道 wrote:

thecolorsblend wrote:Had Birthright been spun off into an "ultimate Superman" type of ongoing title and a universe unto itself, I suspect that the Birthright continuity would still be in print to this very day. But poor editorial decision-making makes Birthright a curious footnote in Superman's history.

For those so inclined, here's more reading on the "Superman 2000 / Superman Now!" pitch that led to the exits of Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Tom Peyer, and Mark Millar from the DCU proper and inspired Birthright, All-Star Superman, and Superman: Red Son. It's good stuff.

On the note of using cues from Birthright in the new movie, I can only say I approve. To the majority of moviegoers, it'll be fresh and it'll play well onscreen. Certain panel layouts will also work well as interspersed match cuts, IMHO.

I've read through the complete proposal on the Superman.nu page a few times over the years. Great stuff!

In many respects, I have a lot of admiration for Mike Carlin and how he handled the Superman books during the 90's but the way he handled the Superman 2000 reinvention concept still bothers me. I mean, when the hell are we *EVER* going to have such top shelf talents vying to work on Superman in a way that honors the character and his legacy like that? They would've taken advantage of the existing continuity (no really "reboot" as such), they would've written some really phenomenal stories and you have to figure their names would've attracted some truly kick ass pencillers.

History pretty much speaks for itself on this account. Grant Morrison and Mark Millar have both gone on to become rock stars in the biz, Mark Waid is motherfucking MARK WAID and Tom Peyer is no slouch himself. Had DC made the right choice back in 1999, I dare say Superman's fate in the 2000's would've been MUCH different... and unquestionably better than the 2000 to 2005'ish dark age he went through with shit artists and shit writers and shit editors. Hell, had Superman 2000 been put into place, we probably wouldn't be contending with Sucky Origin now.

Superman 2000 is a hell of a waste, as far as I'm concerned.

thecolorsblend wrote:I've read through the complete proposal on the Superman.nu page a few times over the years. Great stuff!

No kidding. I printed it out, I liked it so much.

In many respects, I have a lot of admiration for Mike Carlin and how he handled the Superman books during the 90's but the way he handled the Superman 2000 reinvention concept still bothers me. I mean, when the hell are we *EVER* going to have such top shelf talents vying to work on Superman in a way that honors the character and his legacy like that? They would've taken advantage of the existing continuity (no really "reboot" as such), they would've written some really phenomenal stories and you have to figure their names would've attracted some truly kick ass pencillers.

Yeah, that's the thing. Instead of what they proposed, we got the Loeb revamps that you so detest.

...and I'm unconvinced it was Carlin's fault. Paul Levitz and Mark Millar did NOT get along. Levitz later censored Millar both in his Wildstorm work and on the DC boards. That led to the creation of Millarworld, IIRC. Levitz also hated the idea of reboots. He was the one who killed the Birthright U and forced it into the DCU proper. He was the one who held up progress on Earth One's reveal (which has been around since the end of 52, remember). I think it was Levitz' doing.

History pretty much speaks for itself on this account. Grant Morrison and Mark Millar have both gone on to become rock stars in the biz, Mark Waid is motherfucking MARK WAID and Tom Peyer is no slouch himself. Had DC made the right choice back in 1999, I dare say Superman's fate in the 2000's would've been MUCH different... and unquestionably better than the 2000 to 2005'ish dark age he went through with shit artists and shit writers and shit editors. Hell, had Superman 2000 been put into place, we probably wouldn't be contending with Sucky Origin now.

Definitely.

On the other hand, we wouldn't have Morrison's New X-Men, Waid's... er... everything Waid's done since (barring his horrible run on JLA), and Millar's Authority, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimates. We might also have not gotten Birthright, Red Son, or All-Star. All of those kind of outweigh the mediocrity and pandering of Secret Origin, to me. So... maybe it was for the best, in the end.

Superman 2000 is a hell of a waste, as far as I'm concerned.

Truth. Whatever else we might suppose, that's a fact.