The romance of Superman and Lois Lane has been one that took way too long to get them together. It did however get one thing right in that Lois had to actually fall in love with Clark Kent. Superman is what Clark can do and a way for him to open up another side of him, but everything that makes Superman who and what he is, not biologically since that came from his Kryptonian heritage but as a person, comes from Clark Kent’s upbringing. As one of my favorite Superman stories highlighted, you can’t have a proper Superman without Clark Kent. He became who he is thanks to the love of Jonathan and Martha Kent.
And then there’s Lois Lane. First introduced in the same Action Comics #1 that Superman was, and in the same story, Lois was also Clark’s love interest. While she fell quickly for the powerful and caring Superman it took longer to see Clark even as a friend and longer (and a rebooted continuity) to want to be his wife. That love triangle aspect has all but faded from Superman’s multiversal continuity but it’s still an important part of their relationship’s history. which Zack Snyder of course did away with in his misunderstanding of Superman. Of course, as this morning’s article link showed he doesn’t get Batman either, while looking into that article I found one from Screen Rant that showed one other mistake, and this is one that Snyder isn’t alone in making.
I’m linking to the second page of a two-page article about Snyder’s original intention for Justice League; not the infamous “Snyder cut” his fans are begging for but the original script he and the screenwriter turned in, rejected by Warner Brothers due to the many complaints about how dark and un-fun his previous two DCEU movies were. The first page sets up the reasons but the second tells his original plan, which included Lois Lane being killed, leading to Superman’s turning evil. To be fair, in Synder’s original idea it was because Lois’s death led to his being openly influenced by Darkseid’s famed “anti-life equation”, so at least someone did their research. For a change. However, it’s not the first time I’ve seen this story and I’m worried it’s going to get old really fast.
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Shazam! And Quality Versus Adaptation
My introduction to Captain Marvel, the original, was in the Filmation Shazam! television series, both the live-action and the cartoon teamed with Filmation’s Hero High as the Kids Super Power Hour With Shazam!. Done right, Billy Batson is wish fulfillment for kids, as they get to do all the fun kids stuff and all the fun grown-up stuff while getting to have cool superpowers and still have a normal life from time to time. Also, Billy got to have his own radio show, which was big at the time of his first appearance in Whiz Comics #2.
Of course when the New 52 came around (and even before then as the reign of DiDio began) the kind and optimistic Billy was replaced by a smart mouthed punk kid with a heart of gold, and from what I’ve heard Geoff Johns refuses to let anyone fix this mistake. Also, interpretations like Young Justice seems to play up the “kid in a man’s body”, like it was a superhero interpretation of Tom Hanks’ Big. I discussed the problems with that when the upcoming Shazam movie was still in development hell and we thought we’d never get one. The problem isn’t whether or not the story would be good but whether it would be a good adaptation of the source material. Of course if you don’t care about the source material, like the base concept, and don’t have the imagination or guts to create something original you’ll do anything you want and the heck with the fans. We’ve seen it time and again in Hollywood, and Professor Geek goes into why this is not cool in this commentary.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on March 27, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged Billy Batson, Captain Marvel (DC Comics), commentary, Shazam (character).
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