Ah….they don’t quite seem to get it do they? The WSJ is printing a story that Warner’s are trying to combat Marvel’s dominance in the comic book adaptation area with trying to formulaically copy the Batman franchise to other comic properties such as Superman and Wonder Woman. This just smacks of blatant stupidity.

“Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.”

This is plain stupidity – there is little “darkness” about Superman. The character is just dull. The fact that he got top honours in the recent Empire’s Top 50 Comics Characters indicates how little understanding there is for the creation. Incidentally, 83% of Empire readers voted Superman to be lower.

I am not a huge Superman fan primarily because he is dull. The few Superman comics I own are multicoloured tales that neither captivate nor offend. They are boring, and that pretty much sums up 2006′s Superman Returns; you enjoy it while it is on screen, but it is predominantly forgettable. And to think that Bryan Singer jumped ship from what was surely going to be a different beast with X-Men 3 to do that breaks my geeky heart.

You cannot reboot Superman and make him darker as there is little darkness there. The way to make Superman a success is to take the character driven elements of growing up in a difficult situation, having difficulty adjusting and yet trying to the right thing. In many ways, the original Richard Donner films covered that pretty well, although the first Spider-Man took the concept to a new level. Also, I think there is little for “humans” to identify with. He is an alien who can pretty much do whatever he wants, but doesn’t – there’s no spark to the character at all.

A Superman reboot could work well, but it ain’t Batman. You’d think they would know that, right?!