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Week 13- "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" - In class assignment

1. My initial reaction to the text I read was sadness followed by acceptance, while certainly a MUCH darker overall tone that ANY golden age Superman story, this joint collaboration by Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenberger, is a damn near perfect end to this "run" of the Superman story. Focusing on the dramatic end of Superman, the story throws all of his most, and a few of his lesser, memorable villains and allies at him at once, a sort of collage of the entire Alan Moore run with the character. As Batman later describes it, "like walking through fragments of a legend." This comic celebrates everything that built Superman, from his allies and backstory, to his bitter enemies and emotional struggles; it ties up and ends practically every loose end previously left open in previous issues of the Superman story, while also providing one massive, yet satisfying cliffhanger at the story's end.


2. I grew up loosely following various versions of the Superman character, and always considered Alan Moore's version my personal favorite, if not sometimes overly silly. Having never heard of this epic conclusion to Moore's run, it was pretty shocking seeing this sudden, (though much appreciated) shift into a more serious exploration into Superman, his allies, and his enemies. Because the writers didn't have to worry about keeping the status quo alive, the shocking deaths and reveals in this story hit hard; but give some much needed closure to all aspects of the character.


3. If I were to adapt this to another medium I would want to adapt it into a limited run TV or web TV series, keeping with the visual aspects of the comic while also giving the story plenty of time to explore just as many, (if not more) aspects of the Superman character as the comic. A five hour movie would be far too long for most people, not to mention costly, and anything shorter would be insulting the long legacy Alan Moore, his writing and art staff, and the Superman character has created. Not to mention anything not visual would be lack-luster to the explosively visual stimulation created by super-heroes, and far less profitable. In terms of changes to the story, I would likely just SLIGHTLY modernize a handful of the Superman villain/heroes designs, but only in INCREDIBLY SMALL amounts, such as removing the "elastic-lad" lettering from Jimmy Olson's shirt; BUT NOT INTERFERING WITH ANYTHING MAJOR!!! Looking at you Zack Synder's, "Man of Steel."

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