The Daily Planet - Superman News and Speculation Thread

[DlAMONDZ]

Yea, Sony using the multiverse to introduce Miles to casuals was genius

Saved us a lot of headaches

 

[Frodo]

If their problem is a Black Superman then him being from the Multiverse isn't going to make people happy. They want a white Superman and they're getting something else that's their problem.

If Superman being black is what determines them seeing the movie then I dont really care about them. For every one of them that wont see the movie there will be someone who will.

I'm a black Man aswell, so I dont see the point of saying "My black friends dont like it either, that proves it's a bad idea." Superman wears a blue suit with a red cape, and an S on his chest.
Seeing a white face and hands has never been what makes Superman recognizable and that's not what makes him Superman.

It's his personality, his ability to be a good Man first, instead of a helpful God. If he's Black, white, Hispanic, asian, doesn't matter. He can be any color and if he keeps the same core principles, he's Superman.

Also, you completely misinterpreted why Will Smith said he didn't wanna do it. It had nothing to do with the execution, it was because he didn't wanna do another Race Swap character after WWW because of the unnecessary backlash he faced. No idea he was presented with would have changed that.

Which is why I keep saying that there will be people who can't accept that there's a Black Superman no matter what and there are people who aren't gonna be able to deal with it no matter how good or bad it is.

And alot of those same people will probably be upset if/ when White children embrace a Black Superman the way generations of Black kids, like me and my parents, have embraced a White version of Superman over 80 years.

The people who are that hung up on it have plenty of White versions of Superman ,including one on TV right now, if it upsets them that much.

 

[WatchProtect]

Which is why I keep saying that there will be people who can't accept that there's a Black Superman no matter what and there are people who aren't gonna be able to deal with it no matter how good or bad it is.

And alot of those same people will probably be upset if/ when White children embrace a Black Superman the way generations of Black kids, like me and my parents, have embraced a White version of Superman over 80 years.

The people who are that hung up on it have plenty of White versions of Superman ,including one on TV right now, if it upsets them that much.

Agree with everything you said. Something different from 80 years of the same ish, Is very welcomed imo.

 

[LifesEnd]

I hope its not Clark Kent tbh but it likely will be....Coates isn't a surefire hit, his marvel comics are mixed with some controversial deconstructive approaches, also has been quite slow. Add on his inexperience with screenwriting... I expect him to do an unconventional movie, almost snyder like but hopefully much less dreary. Still surprised of all people hes who Warner would go to.Hope it works out though.

John Ridley who's done a lot of dc stuff(apparently also working on milestone media) would have been much more preferable to me at least. I would definitely be up for a val zod or more likely Calvin ellis story form Coates than a kal-el , he could make the other two into his own with less controversy if he does go for an unexpected take

 

[Marvel united]

One thing's for certain, controversial or not, it's certainly a way to get Superman back in the movie public's eye. It could be the burst of reinvigoration the character needs

WB has been trying to find a way to make Superman relevant to modern conversations. This is one way to do that.

 

[Mani-Man]

Finally got time for this.
New Superman movie sounds of course neat.
Coates and Abrams make me worried, but i will wait till this project takes form...maybe they will do good, maybe not, we will need to wait and see.

As for the rumor about a black superman...im in the middle to be honest.
I get wanting the "iconic" superman, which happens to be a white guy.
I understand that many grew up with this superman, some see part of themself and all that.

But i also understand why his skin color shouldnt matter.
Because more than any other character, superman can work both ways.

He is a Alien who lives on earth trying to fit in, struggling to be part of society.
You can tackle this from the Alien perspective, from the perspective where he is this superpowered being trying to just be one of millions.
You can tackle this from the human perspective too...and lets be honest, the whole fitting in and feeling like you dont belong, is how more black people than white feel in our society.

So i can see both ideas working of course.

Personally i would like to have both.
Because i would love to see live action Calvin Ellis while also having Cavill getting another shot at Superman.

 

[WBwins]

Im very mixed on this Black superman as a Black guy.

Yes theres no reason why Superman cant be black.

But supect the reason they are doing this just to cash in on Black sentiment and make the movie impervious to criticism. We all know that anyone who criticises this movie will be called a closet Racist and I hate it.

I quite frankly dont want to see a Superman deal with racism. At all.

I have my Luke cage, Black Panther, storm etc dealing with this. And happy with it

I go to Superman for a very different type of conflict.

I may give this a chance if its a Black Clark Kent.

But will definitely not watch a Calvin Ellis or Val Zod movie.

I aslo HATE the idea that Warner bros has that traditional superman can not work.For goddsakes you guys are the one wh keep messing up. Not the source materia;

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I get wanting the "iconic" superman, which happens to be a white guy.

The quote unquote around the word iconic feel unnecessary. I do find this version to be iconic

​

1. Red 'S' in the red triangle with trimmed corners and yellow inside it
2. Blue suit with red cape, boots, and briefs (even if you're more pro post NU52 look, the briefs are a more ideal look for the man)
3. Yellow emblem on the back of his cape
4. Black hair
5. Hair shaped like an 'S' dropping in the center of his forehead
6. And yes, being white is part of his image that's been ingrained in my mind for over quarter a century, so it is part of his iconic look

I don't mind hiring a black actor to play the role, other posters made the idea sound interesting and gave ideas to make me rather optimistic about the choice and wish success for this new version, but the final result has faces the difficult task to impress people and live up to built up expectations.

 

[rocco2216]

Sure, you want to give that character 75 years to catch up to the iconic status of Superman first?

A character doesn’t need 75 years to become iconic. Superman became iconic long before it had been 75 years since his creation.

 

[rocco2216]

An original character would never gain the same amount of traction as an established character. Making Superman a different race is a statement.

Yes not every original character becomes/became iconic but creating more original characters is worth the risk. Every iconic character now started off as an original one.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Doing original characters and creating fun variations on pre-existing ones are both things that should happen.

Superman is important, Superman is an icon, Superman is also a character. He's mythologized past the point of that and that's honestly kind of a problem. Superman is a classic character the way Sherlock Holmes or Dracula is and no one bats an eye at extreme variations of them.

 

[super85]

Since I dont like the works of Abrams or Coates, ill probably pass on this.

 

[Boy Scout]

I feel like the director will be the deciding factor for a lot of folks on forums like these about whether or not they feel confident in this production. Whoever they cast as Superman - assuming he’s a POC - slightly less so.

 

[Frodo]

I think they could find the best director on the planet, and there would still be people who are against the project because a POC, or in this case, Black, will be wearing that suit.

Alot of people just won't be able to get pass that because they're incapable of getting past it.

That's a reality, and WB will have to accept that if they're going to move forward with this project.

If the announcement of a great director changes alot of minds that's great, but there's no director that's going to make someone against the idea of a Black Superman on general principle , change their minds or feelings on the project regardless of Spielberg was involved instead of Abrams and if Ryan Cooglar was writing it instead of Coates.

 

[rocco2216]

Doing original characters and creating fun variations on pre-existing ones are both things that should happen.

Superman is important, Superman is an icon, Superman is also a character. He's mythologized past the point of that and that's honestly kind of a problem. Superman is a classic character the way Sherlock Holmes or Dracula is and no one bats an eye at extreme variations of them.

Sure some variations work and some don’t. Some are fun and some aren’t.
Superman fans seem like a whole other breed to me compared to Sherlock Holmes and Dracula fans lol. Plus it’s possible there’s more fans of Superman.

 

[Boy Scout]

I think they could find the best director on the planet, and there would still be people who are against the project because a POC, or in this case, Black, will be wearing that suit.

For sure. I wasn’t bothering to address the bad faith objections; just the ones that had some understandable hesitancy about looking forward to an Abrams and/or Coates project. A good director could mitigate those fears.

 

[SiegePerilous]

The problem is that you have 80 years of comic book history. In that time the general public (who don't read comics and are not well versed in them) are unaware their is a black Superman in comics. It's not like Nick Fury or Perry White. This is Superman one most iconic Super heroes to ever be made. So to suddenly shift him from white to black is going to make a lot people scratch there heads and ask why? Lot of people are going to think that is stupid. Heck I've talked to black people who have said making Superman black would be stupid and nothing more then a statement.

Hell Will Smith was offered the role of Superman and turned it down even though he was interested because he knew it was a bad idea. It's not necessary a bad idea it just needs to be done in the right way. Just randomly dropping a black Superman film is going to end badly. However if you establish him in The Flash film first it sets it up in minds of the audience and allows them to get behind it and go "okay so there a black Superman in the multiverse".

I think more people will think going with a character other than Clark would be stupid. And it would 100% be stupid and the wrong call to make on top of the other controversies and mixed reactions they've had to their efforts with the IP.

If Clark is black but otherwise himself, I think there will of course be backlash but it'd be easier to salvage the situation with a good end product. Those who make a stink about it will be drowned out if the final film is a hit.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

You know what could make for a political intrigue story and an arc that could fill more than one film? Eradicator stuff, it can dig deep into the politics of Krypton and thoughts of the council of leaders on immigration of denizens of the planet to other planets and science vs religion talks,and marginalization of religious groups on that planet.
But working on that will be pretty difficult without turning it to sequel bait, yet it could still be as awesome as Alita: Battle Angel, and boy is that movie a drive to watch the sequel, and might not come through.

Collin Thornton from Newstime once sold drugs that turn users temporarily to demons and give them powers. It doesn't have to use the demons angle and replace it with a variety of other powers, that could make for some interesting investigative story and threads to find and stones to turn. But such a plot might require a lot of attention that wouldn't do well for an origin story.

Maybe meeting Lori Lemaris for the first time while he's in journalism college, no need to fake her death in the adaption. It could make for an interesting plot about stories to be dropped instead of getting published, and an outcome of such decision.


Any other plot ideas? I don't expect the movie to focus mostly on Clark's life in Kansas.

 

[GreenKToo]

I don't know. I will see how this plays out.

 

[Prison Mike]

I just don’t want this Superman too dive too heavily into the racism angle. I just want 2 hours of escapism rather than getting a lecture. I think a lot of people will feel this way and these feelings are warranted, IMO. I don’t know, I guess we’ll just have to see.

 

[Kirmit]

I just don’t want this Superman too dive too heavily into the racism angle. I just want 2 hours of escapism rather than getting a lecture. I think a lot of people will feel this way and these feelings are warranted, IMO. I don’t know, I guess we’ll just have to see.

unfortunately I feel this is the road they’ll be going down, could be wrong though.

 

[Dark Raven]

Is this black Superman going to have the S curl? And will he be having a jheri curl to achieve that look or will it look too 80-ish and make him look like Michael Jackson or DeBarge?

 

[Lencho01]

All this outsider talk is giving me “Smallville” teen angst vibes with respect to the alien aspect and ain’t nobody got time for that. As someone said, that’s very much an internalized feeling. One would hope that someone like “Superman” would work through those issues. On the “Clark Kent” side of things, it’s hard to be an outsider if the world doesn’t treat you as such. One could say this ties to the old approach/concept of them being two different characters/identities. But, people tend not to look at him that way or take that approach.

Now, the outsider talk with regards to race is a different thing. It’s not like dealing with racism is some constant 24/7/365 battle one has to deal with every day. Of course, where you live (and how extreme) is a factor.

 

[Boy Scout]

All this outsider talk is giving me “Smallville” teen angst vibes with respect to the alien aspect and ain’t nobody got time for that. As someone said, that’s very much an internalized feeling. One would hope that someone like “Superman” would work through those issues. On the “Clark Kent” side of things, it’s hard to be an outsider if the world doesn’t treat you as such. One could say this ties to the old approach/concept of them being two different characters/identities. But, people tend not to look at him that way or take that approach.

I’d expect any version of Black Superman to be (mostly) comfortable with himself and who he is by the time he puts on the cape, so the conflict from that point on would be dealing with the public. The most powerful being on the face of the Earth has a black face. How does the world respond to that? What pushback and repercussions would he face for rescues and prioritizations that a guy that looks like Henry Cavill wouldn’t? What expectations would a Black Superman have to confront to do something - anything - about racial tensions and systemic injustices that other Supermen haven’t necessarily had to deal with? What would it feel like to rescue a guy from a burning building and have him thank you over and over even though Clark heard him drop the n-word the other day when he was disguised as Clark Kent?

And most importantly of all: how does Superman get a fade?

 

[writer0327]

I just don’t want this Superman too dive too heavily into the racism angle. I just want 2 hours of escapism rather than getting a lecture. I think a lot of people will feel this way and these feelings are warranted, IMO. I don’t know, I guess we’ll just have to see.

Highly unlikely. Seems like we get a lecture in every movie these days.