Listen, I’m a fan of the “Everyone on Krypton was a perfect super-person, it was a utopia and now it is gone, alas” viewpoint so I am with you that far, Mister Snyder. I am also a fan of the Donner Era “let’s just lean on the Christ-like imagery” angle, as well. Sure! I’m just…trepidatious at Yahoo Movies saying he’s a “special child” and that his birth was a “cause for alarm.” You don’t need to push too hard on the space-savior angle. It is already built right in. I’m guessing that this actually ties into a more cerebral, Byrne- era Krypton; Krypton as a sparse emotionless world where children are conceived in test tubes birthing matrices rather than through physical contact.
As for leaving out kyptonite, sure! Heck, as Superman: the Unauthorized Biography will tell you, it was only added in by the radio series to give him an Achilles’ heel. You can tell a perfectly good Superman story without it; Superman can have mental conflicts with people like Luthor, or the military, he can have emotional tension with Lois and the public and Zod and company will provide plenty of grist for a physical clash.
Call me old fashioned, but personally, I just wish Superman would put on some pants. Saladin Ahmed puts it quite succinctly: “Superhero costumes look silly. Feature, not bug. Attempts to make them look ‘serious’ just makes them look stupid.”
Look! Up in the blogs! It’s a Tumblr! It’s a Twitter! It’s…Mordicai Knode!
