This Week is Just Super, Man

On Tuesday, DC Comics released an animated short on their YouTube channel celebrating 75 years of Superman, from his original comic to this summer’s "Man of Steel", with its sequel "Superman/Batman" to begin filming this weekend at the East Los Angeles College Weingart stadium in the US. 

Superman was created by writers Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, two high school students living in Cleveland, Ohio in 1933. They sold their concept and character to Detective Comics in 1938 and on April 18th that same year, Action Comics #1 introduced the world to a man who wore a blue outfit, red cape and red shorts with a yellow and red S symbol emblazoned on his chest who stood for truth, justice and the American way.

It is Action Comics #1 where the 2 minute animated short begins. The short highlights some of Superman’s famous stories spanning his 75 years in comics, his early TV and film appearances and ends with his latest interpretation in DC comics and the 2013 film reboot "Man of Steel". The director of "Man of Steel" Zack Snyder also directed this animated short along with the DC animated universe boss, Bruce Timm.

"The idea was to start with Siegel and Shuster and end with Henry Cavill, stopping at all the high points and iconic moments in between," the creator of Batman’s and Superman’s animated series said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Timm told of how it was Zack Snyder’s idea to do the entire history of Superman in a minute “But we said, 'Okay...whoooo.' We started working and quickly realized there was no way to do it, even in a minute”, leading to the 2 minute run-time and that other actors who played Superman like Dean Cain from “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” and Brandon Routh from “Superman Returns” to be cut out. 

Speaking of Zack Snyder, principal filming for “Superman/Batman” begins this weekend.

In a report given out to students of the East Los Angeles College in their online campus newspaper it states that “Warner Bros. Pictures new untitled Superman/Batman project comes to film at East Los Angeles College Weingart stadium during halftime of the Oct. 19 Husky football game”.

Filming will be for “a football game between Gotham City University and rival Metropolis State University”, the home towns of Batman and Superman respectively. 2000 students have been asked to be extras in the crowd that will be given special t-shirts designed by Snyder himself.

But what is my thoughts on the superhero that can be defeated by a tiny green rock from his home planet that has lasted 75 years I hear you ask?

Well, to be honest, I have never really been into Superman. For a superhero, he was too super. He has so many powers that it’s hard to keep track of sometimes, from one minute being able to move an entire planet to being so fast he is able to go back in time to save the woman he loves.

But if anything, the superhero genre wouldn’t be what is today without the man who wears his underpants on the outside.

Without Superman selling so well on news stands by fascinating people with his stories of heroism against imaginable odds, for the oppressed and his ability to do what no mere human can do, we wouldn't have Batman or any other superheroes we know and love today who were created to match or beat the popularity of Superman and DC comics.

And to this very day, Superman continues to grow in popularity with thanks to each re-interpretation of the character DC creates, such as his New 52 reboot in the comics and in films such as “Man of Steel” and “Superman/Batman”; retelling the story of an orphan boy from a far away and destroyed planet who came to Earth and found his calling to be our planet’s protector. To be the best man he could be. 

To be, a Superman.

I’m a nerd and this was my rant.