DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
A NEW SUPERMAN?
© NaimaLett.com/blog
Man of Steel © Warner Brothers, DC Comics
Looks like Spidey isn’t the only one getting a complete makeover!
The new Superman reboot, Man of Steel, was all the buzz at this year’s Comic-Con festival in San Diego over the weekend.
The new Super is Emmy Award-winning British actor Henry Cavill, star of Showtime’s The Tudors, who joins fellow Brits – Batman‘s Christian Bale and Spider-Man‘s Andrew Garfield – as America’s foremost superheroes.
Batman/Dark Knight‘s writer/director, Christopher Nolan, is responsible for the story. 300‘s director, Zack Snyder, is running the show. Russel Crowe, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Laurence Fishburne round out the cast.
Zack, the director, is quoted as saying they wanted to humanize Superman and make him more relatable in this reboot.
Henry, the actor, says “I just wanted to bring Superman into the modern world. Hopefully I bring a version that everyone can relate to.”
Here’s my question:
Do we need a more humanized, relatable Superman?
We like Superman because he is, well, S-U-P-E-R.
We want to see him be “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound”.
We like his super strength and super senses including super hearing, super x-ray vision, super breath! We want Superman to super fly! Fly!
The story of one of the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel, is told in a way that says he created the bulletproof hero after his immigrant, store-owning father died in 1932 during a robbery attempt in Cleveland. Siegel and his partner developed a hero who essentially defied death (unless Kryptonite was near) and who would seek justice and keep the bad guys at bay.
But maybe Zack and Henry have a point.
Maybe our super heroes need more humanity???
Isn’t that what Jesus did?
Being God, He became human.
Paul breaks it down in his letter to the Philippians.
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-11
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried— will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Jesus became human for our sakes and He saved our lives.
Maybe a more humanized Superman will be good for our sakes too? I don’t know????
We’ll have to see.
Right now, all we have is a brief trailer and interview from Comic Con.
I’ll keep you posted,
Naima
What do you think?
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I like the idea of Superman becoming more human and someone that we can relate to more. He will still have his super abilities of course but making him more human makes him someone that we want to get to know. I’m all for having characters that we can relate to!
I hear you, Hannah. The jury’s still out for me. I guess I’ll have to wait until I see more footage. A part of me feels like Superman should be super. I’m not sure that I need him more human and relatable. When characters are more relatable, it’s supposed to make us feel like we can identify with them. As much as I may imagine, I’m not going to have x-ray vision, freezing breath or fly on this side of heaven. LOL! But, our dear Hollywood will try whatever it needs to reboot a franchise, and this seems to be one of its tactics. We’ll see how it goes. Skeptical, but hopeful… if that makes any sense. :=)