Rama’s SCREEN

Last week, it was reported that WB has decided to Reboot SUPERMAN franchise and start off with a new movie that’s darker and grittier and gloomier, and all this because… it seems to be working for The Dark Knight (which is still banking money like mad crazy by the way)
MTV goes to the brilliant comic writers of our time to get their opinions on the decision. Do they agree with having a ‘darker’ Superman movie?

“Hellboy” and “Buffy” writer Christopher Golden thinks it’s a bad, bad idea. He feels strongly about it too..

“”How stupid is that?”
“That announcement made my head spin. ‘Iron Man’ isn’t dark. ‘Iron Man’ worked because Favreau brought in all the best Iron Man creators and had them read the script and asked them, ‘Tell me what we did wrong?’ — and it worked because it had all the best things about Iron Man boiled down into the best movie they could make. ‘The Dark Knight’ was really good because it had all the best things about ‘Batman’ boiled down into the best movie they could make. Making a dark and gritty Superman movie because Dark Knight made a ton of money is incredibly stupid.”

Now we all know that if we claim to be true geeks or real movie buffs, we can not ignore the opinion of the awesome Kevin Smith whose contribution to comic world will forever be greatly appreciated. This is what he said about the issue at hand…

“You always have to always keep Superman very distinct from Batman,” he related. “Batman can be brooding and bleak and dark but Superman — if you want to take a realistic approach to him that’s fine, but I don’t think you can turn him into an angry character. Superman is about the hope in people, the good in people, whereas Batman is about the more driven, hungry for justice angry side of us. [So] I don’t know if doing a dark Superman is the approach, but I’m all for a reboot.”

DC Comics scribe Mark Waid could see how the idea or the concept might work…

“make the films as dark as the characters allow us to go,” he said. “Hopefully they realize that Superman is not a dark character, but that doesn’t mean the story can’t be darker or more threatening.”

Ramasscreen Reader Jay left a comment that goes along the same line scribe Christopher Golden.
Jay actually makes sense, he reminds us again that Superman is NOT Batman, so making it darker will lose the whole purpose of what Superman is all about.

Superman should represent who we hope to be, not what we’re afraid we’re becoming. The beginning of the last movie starts with Superman’s father saying: “They can be a great people, Kal-el, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only Son.” The movie’s not about Superman, it’s about us, about our capacity for good, and Superman is supposed to be the “light” to “show us the way”. I can understand adding more action and helping Superman to overcome greater odds, but destroying his character by making him darker only leads us to believe that our capacity for good is over rated. Heath Ledger did an amazing job showing us just how dark we can be, perhaps it’s time for someone to show us just how good we can be.