Your Favorite Superman?

[jim48]

Who is your favorite movie or tv Superman and why? I've always felt that Christopher Reeve was the best movie incarnation. He nailed it, not to mention being ridiculously handsome. My favorite will always be George Reeves from the '50s tv series. I grew up with that show. Reeves conveyed such warmth and friendliness as Superman and Clark Kent. You wanted Superman as your friend!

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Christopher Reeves, hands down, is my favorite. I didn't get a chance to see George Reeves except in a few rerun episodes.

 

[docm]

George on TV and Chris in the movies. No contest.

 

[FlatEarth]

Who is your favorite movie or tv Superman and why? I've always felt that Christopher Reeve was the best movie incarnation. He nailed it, not to mention being ridiculously handsome. My favorite will always be George Reeves from the '50s tv series. I grew up with that show. Reeves conveyed such warmth and friendliness as Superman and Clark Kent. You wanted Superman as your friend!

Jim, I agree with everything you said. I just wish the Superman movies were up to the level of the recent Batman efforts. There's not a whole lotta depth to the Superman character.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

There's not a whole lotta depth to the Superman character.

I'd have to disagree there a bit. It's just that the movies haven't focused on that issue as much as they have with Batman.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCsHTNP2MaU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlI-i5xM30o[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMhnfr27B9c[/youtube]

Edit - Added vids.

 

[FlatEarth]

And I rest my case.

 

[jim48]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peLLeQrZSI[/youtube]

 

[bdewoody]

Anybody named Reeves gets my vote.

 

[onesmallstep]

I always thought Dean Cain of "Lois & Clark" was a pretty good Superman...and Teri Hatcher was by far the best Lois Lane.

I also thought this series did a good job of fleshing out the characters by delving more into their personalities and having them interact like real people, instead of just being one-dimensional as they were in the CR movies and nauseatingly so in the old George Reeves series.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

And I rest my case.

LOL

The point was that Superman has struggled with many issues aside from just battling bad guys. He loves, hates and has doubt. He has struggled with his own identity and purpose. Is he Kal'el (or however you write it) or a man? Does he has some sort of moral superiority simply implied by his power to affect what he wishes? Should he simply decree that "This is the way its going to be" and have done with it?

That kind of thing..

Batman is half nuts. He's the ultimate vigilante constantly justifying his own brand of absolute Justice. Superman rights wrongs. Batman cruises the streets and finds a wrong to right whether its right or wrong and to heck with the consequences!

Bear in mind, I'm not a big DC fan and haven't been a big fan of Superman except for Reeve's movies. So, I don't know a great deal about the comic stories associated with either.

I'd like to see a Superman movie that was a bit grittier and pushed the envelope, raising questions for Superman that he has trouble answering. Stick Superman in a very gray area and then sit back and see how he handles it...

 

[FlatEarth]

I'd like to see a Superman movie that was a bit grittier and pushed the envelope, raising questions for Superman that he has trouble answering. Stick Superman in a very gray area and then sit back and see how he handles it...

I think you captured what I really meant to say in this comment, a_l_p.

 

[jim48]

Y'all might want to check Doc's thread Man of Steel in Free Space.

 

[FlatEarth]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peLLeQrZSI[/youtube]

This brings back those childhood memories....For Truth, Justice, and the American Way...love it.

I've got to admit to an ongoing skit I do at home where I say "If only I could find my cape..." and I go on to blame my wife for losing it in the laundry. It isn't funny but I do it anyway because now my family expects it out of me. Anyway, I look good in tights. :mrgreen:

 

[jim48]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peLLeQrZSI[/youtube]

This brings back those childhood memories....For Truth, Justice, and the American Way...love it.

I've got to admit to an ongoing skit I do at home where I say "If only I could find my cape..." and I go on to blame my wife for losing it in the laundry. It isn't funny but I do it anyway because now my family expects it out of me. Anyway, I look good in tights. :mrgreen:

TMI!

 

[FlatEarth]

TMI!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[StarRider1701]

I always thought Dean Cain of "Lois & Clark" was a pretty good Superman...and Teri Hatcher was by far the best Lois Lane.

I also thought this series did a good job of fleshing out the characters by delving more into their personalities and having them interact like real people, instead of just being one-dimensional as they were in the CR movies and nauseatingly so in the old George Reeves series.

Lois and Clark - Bah! A modern day, politically correct soap opera focusing on the woman with the ball-less wonder Superdupe accidentally saving the day in the end just because he happens to have super powers. Buncha crap!

George Reeves - no contest. The movie supermen were ok, alright. But none of them had the Superman physique that he had. To me, they were all too tall and skinny, no muscles.

 

[jim48]

I always thought Dean Cain of "Lois & Clark" was a pretty good Superman...and Teri Hatcher was by far the best Lois Lane.

I also thought this series did a good job of fleshing out the characters by delving more into their personalities and having them interact like real people, instead of just being one-dimensional as they were in the CR movies and nauseatingly so in the old George Reeves series.

Lois and Clark - Bah! A modern day, politically correct soap opera focusing on the woman with the ball-less wonder Superdupe accidentally saving the day in the end just because he happens to have super powers. Buncha crap!

George Reeves - no contest. The movie supermen were ok, alright. But none of them had the Superman physique that he had. To me, they were all too tall and skinny, no muscles.

Hate to tell you this, but Reeves wore arm and shoulder pads. The new Superman does as well. The rest didn't.

 

[kelvinzero]

I found the lois character from lois and clark irritating, so I couldnt relate to Clark for being interested in her. I quite enjoyed Smallville because I hadnt really been following it then sort of rediscovered it with seven seasons available cheap. The main character was likable but the female characters were allowed to be more interestingly flawed IMO.

 

[docm]

Smallville has gotten interesting again this year, especially the movie length "Absolute Justice". Darker, more serious but still with humorous moments.

 

[Kerberos]

Is he Kal'el (or however you write it) or a man?

Is el his last name, or does he only have one name?

 

[OleNewt]

I'd kinda like to see Stiffler (Johnny Knoxville and go kiss a comet) and Jessica Simpson reunite to do Superman. In a sort of watching-the-train-wreck-happen kind of way.

 

[docm]

Is he Kal'el (or however you write it) or a man?

Is el his last name, or does he only have one name?

El is his family name, as in the House of El. Kal-El is his full name. Krypton's star was a red dwarf called "Rao" and the Kryptonian religion was heliocentric. Once on Earth Kal-El was raised a Methodist, though he no longer attends services for various reasons including the privacy of the congregation, and he is a vegetarian. Still gets council from his old minister though.

The red dwarf GJ1214b matches a lot of the specs for Rao, so after the discovery that it had planets a lot of netizens suggested naming one them Krypton. Nothing ever came of it, of course. The IAU only likes dusty mythologies, not modern ones.

 

[Kerberos]

That makes sense. As I recall, his father's name was Jor-el, or something similar.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...The red dwarf GJ1214b matches a lot of the specs for Rao, so after the discovery that it had planets a lot of netizens suggested naming one them Krypton. Nothing ever came of it, of course. The IAU only likes dusty mythologies, not modern ones.

I went over to the IAU to see what the conventions were on common names for stars and such, just to see if I could find some interest expressed, somewhere, in "Krypton." Along the way, I happened across this little gem of advice from the IAU where it concerns people "buying" star names and, in this case, bits of the moon.. Gotta remember this one.

IAU-Buying Star Names[/url]":2l8swmdh]"Q: But what about the companies that sell pieces of territory on the Moon and other planets? Those are within reach, we know, so surely I own the piece that I have bought?

A: See the answer to the previous question. As a minimum, we suggest that you defer payment until you can take possession of your property..."

I can understand why names are chose with care. But, if we eventually reach the stars and explorers reach GJ1214b, maybe the old conventions of allowing the first explorers to name the area may still be in favor? So, if Superman is still a popular folk-hero.. there's still hope.

Of interest: In 2009, the discoverer David Charbonneau also expressed interest in giving it a more interesting common name...

Wired - Name the New Super-Earth[/url]":2l8swmdh]

Name the New Super-Earth

...“We’ve been finding exciting planets for 50 years, and we’re still calling them by these terrible catalog names,” said David Charbonneau, a Harvard University astronomer who helped discover GJ 1214b, but doesn’t even have a nickname for it. “I have three young daughters, and I think they might be inspired by a better name.”...

I don't know whatever became of that though. Here's an interesting paper attempting to convince the IAU of the benefits of common names for extrasolar planets from someone at the Max Plank institute.. Not an institution worthy of being ignored.. ARXIV - Naming the Extrasolar Planets-.pdf

 

[onesmallstep]

Lois and Clark - Bah! A modern day, politically correct soap opera focusing on the woman with the ball-less wonder Superdupe accidentally saving the day in the end just because he happens to have super powers. Buncha crap!

George Reeves - no contest. The movie supermen were ok, alright. But none of them had the Superman physique that he had. To me, they were all too tall and skinny, no muscles.

I'll bet you never watched more than 2 episodes of the show if that is your opinion of it. You really should take another look at it if you are a true Superman fan. Soap opera aspects, sure, but that is true with any love story, which is really what Superman is.

L&C also focused on many aspects of the Superman character that were never brought out in either the CR movies or the GR series. One of the best lines from the series, "Superman is what I can do, Clark is who I am."

BTW, here is a synopsis of every George Reeves episode of Superman: Diddle around with Lois, Jimmy and Perry for 25 minutes while some lame bad guys straight out of a 1940s gangster movie hatch some ridiculous scheme (usually involving kidnapping either Lois and/or Jimmy). Then get a phone call identifying the location of the perps, duck into the same broom closet, jump out of a fake window, pretend to fly by lying on a table, then bust though a wall and bang the bad guy's heads together...Gee, thanks Superman. The End