Superman vs. ‘Brightburn’: The Experts on How the Man of Steel Can Rise Above the Darkness

A Battle of Ideals

Michael J. Hayde, author of Flights of Fantasy: The Unauthorized But True Story of Radio & TV’s Adventures of Superman, observes, “There was a time when nobility was central to heroism. We had Sgt. Friday, the ideal cop; Perry Mason, the ideal lawyer; James Kildare, the ideal doctor; Superman, the ideal superhero. They weren’t meant to be imperfect, they were meant to inspire. Since then, we’ve been persuaded it’s pointless to try and emulate such heroes, so let’s make them flawed, like we are. The argument is that it’s more ‘realistic,’ but it’s done more harm than good. Now cynicism has replaced idealism. We’ve lost respect for politicians, for police, for anyone in authority, because we’re constantly looking for frailty and failings among them. When you’ve been tuned in solely to human misery, to greed, to power that corrupts, how can you believe anyone is capable of selflessness? And if you don’t believe it, why would you ever strive for it yourself? I fear looking up to heroes has become passé and we are so much poorer for it.”

“The complaint,” adds Steve, “for those who don’t ‘get’ Superman is that he’s too good, and therefore boring and ‘uncool.’ These people are usually fans of the antihero archetype, preferring the darker characters like Batman, Wolverine, Punisher, etc. So to ‘fix’ Superman — like he needs fixing — they try to turn his story towards this type of model: ‘How cool would it be to see Superman turn bad?’”

This is a philosophy which obviously plays into Brightburn. Says James, “I love this movie because it’s an entirely new take on the superhero genre. It is something we have never seen before. It’s coming at the superhero movie from a pure horror angle. It’s also a more honest way of coming at the superhero myth, because there’s something terrifying about the idea of a super-powered alien that would come to Earth. In every way we watch this movie, he is a ghost, he’s a demon child, and we treated the movie exactly like that.”

Cynicism Enters the Equation

For Joe Kelly, a writer whose credits include the TV shows Big Hero 6: The Series and Ben 10, as well as the animated feature Superman vs. The Elite (based on his classic comic story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?”) this has clearly been a road the character has been on. “In the ’40s,” he says, “he was a representation of hope and born out of frustration. But by the time you get to the ‘80s, this sort of cynicism drops in. In The Dark Knight Returns, writer/artist Frank Miller uses him as this kind of tool of fascism, which works for that particular story. He gets a little microdot of being redeemed in that story, but he’s pretty much played as a sucker, right? And that starts to infiltrate how people think about him. Then you get to today, and I think over the last decade, there’s a growing sense of frustration and anger and discontent about things that are happening around the world. And it’s not just here, and it’s not just the last two years.

“So,” elaborates Joe, “you have a character that is so idealized, and I think people have a misperception of Superman that he’s perfect, so to tarnish the perfect thing, because we live in an imperfect world, is a natural impulse. I get it as a writer where you want to try and say something new about this character or illustrate a point about him, which is what we did with ‘What’s So Funny,’ but pulled it out at the last second, my take being that you need that beacon of hope. We should never give up hope. But there’s a lot of people that are kind of feeling beat up, so they use Superman as the extension of anger or discontent with how the world is, or as a mirror saying the world has become ugly. That’s what drives a lot of this, but it really is like low-hanging fruit.”

When They Get it Right …

Jim Krieg, a writer for the shows Green Lantern: The Animated Series, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Justice League Action, as well as the animated features Batman and Harley Quinn, Reign of the Supermen and Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, muses, “It’s funny, but I can’t relate to people who don’t see the ‘Big Blue Boy Scout’ and say that’s a real person. It means they don’t know anybody that nice, which makes me sad. I think we absolutely need that guy. He’s an ideal and he’s been around so long that most of us can picture or hear what he would say or what his point of view would be in almost any given situation. He would always choose the right thing. He would always choose to be kind. He would always choose to self sacrifice. He would choose to give the other person the benefit of the doubt and defend those being oppressed. He’s an absolute necessity and it’s why he resonates.”

Now it needs to be said that, when it comes to Superman, the comics oftentimes are still trying to play up the notion of the character representing hope at the heart of chaos. Tyler Hoechlin has brought forth a more traditional take when he appears as the character on the CW’s Supergirl series and, for the most part, Superman’s handled well in various DC animated films. But there is definitely another side as well: there remains a fascination by filmmakers and creators to take him darker, largely because they — and the same can be said for the studio behind it all, Warner Bros — have come to believe that the character is too “innocent” to engage modern audiences, whose tastes run darker. It’s certainly not a new argument.

‘Superman vs. The Elite’: Message Delivered

As noted, Joe’s 2001 “What’s So Funny….” features a team of super-powered vigilantes who arrive on the scene and become the subject of global popularity through their crime-fighting methods, which include the execution of criminals. Their approach is put in direct contrast with Superman’s. In the end, it seems that the Man of Steel has been pushed so far that he’s adopted their methods as he takes out the Elite one by one, until it’s revealed that it was no more than a ruse to show the people of Earth how pointless and dangerous hatred and vengeance can be. The concept was actually inspired by another ultra-violent comic called The Authority and its postmodern take on superheroes.

“It was flat out saying, if you believe in any of the stuff that heroes are traditionally supposed to stand for, you’re an idiot,” relates Joe. “And that was what pissed me off, because I actually like dark material. I like mature material and most of my taste runs in that direction in terms of what I like to write and consume. But this attitude just, again, pissed me off. As a result, the script for ‘What’s So Funny…’ was kind of banged out super fast and was totally written with this righteous indignation of, ‘I’ll show you what it would be like without Superman!’ And it really came from the gut.”

Taking Some Dark Twists

Joe had originally discovered the character in the form of Christopher Reeve in 1978’s Superman: The Movie, as well as comics from his youth. “I really grew to love the character over the course of time, because of what he represented,” he says. “Once ‘What’s So Funny …’  got out there, it really blew up. What was sort of remarkable was that all that stuff that I was feeling, apparently other people felt it, too. And the way that it came across was that people didn’t realize that was how they felt. When people spoke to me, they were, like, ‘I really was taking Superman for granted, thinking he was silly or whatever. Then when you gave us a Superman that murders people, I didn’t want it and I was pissed and scared and nervous.’ I’m so proud of that, because, again, I have no problem with dark superheroes, it was just the idea that those ideals are stupid. That really gets me upset. And then you get to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in 2013 and he’s basically, like, ‘Yeah, of course Superman would snap somebody’s neck. What’s wrong with that?’”

But it isn’t just Man of Steel (although things seemed to get worse in the follow-up, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Henry Cavill’s Superman looked less than joyful every time he had to do something heroic). The comics have given us Red Son, which imagines a more totalitarian Superman landing in Russia instead of America, and there is the video games and comics called Injustice, where, after the Joker manipulates Superman into killing Lois Lane and their unborn child, the Man of Steel flips and declares himself emperor of Earth, taking over the planet.

A ‘Bewitched’ Comparison

Jim concedes, “There’s some interest in seeing the nicest guy in the world, or someone we’re used to thinking of that way, come to a moment when he’s pushed too far and he unleashes. There’s always something interesting in seeing the characters that we know through a dark mirror. It’s a taste of Jekyll and Hyde, which is different than, say, the evil Captain Kirk from Star Trek. Now Jekyll and Hyde is a story about just splitting a guy into two; a guy we don’t really know. But the strength of television or any kind of serialized material in an ongoing story is that we get to know these characters inside and out. We know them the way we’re used to seeing them and they definitely act a certain way. And the stronger that character is, the more shocked we are when we flip that on its head.”

“Think about Samantha on Bewitched,” he continues. “She was always so sweet and kind, amusing and empathetic, but then she was replaced by her lookalike doppelganger, Serena, who’s wicked and mischievous and up to no good and selfish. Seeing that is fascinating. It’s a thrill to watch someone misbehave from the way we’re used to, because we’re used to seeing ourselves in the characters we watch on television or experience in comics or movies. So part of us wonders what it would be like to have the powers of these characters and unleash them. It’s exciting to think about.”

One Superman for Kids, Another for Adults

Stan Berkowitz, who has written for the TV series Superboy, T.J. Hooker, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond and Justice League Action, opines, “When you’re a child and you read about Superman, you do not want a dark version of the character. You want him to be a good guy who’s always helping people. My Superman — the Superman of my era — was the George Reeves show, and the structure of that is that he was the older brother and the two younger siblings were Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. One or the other, or both, would get in trouble and older brother Superman would come in and help them. And that works phenomenally well for children, because you want to live in a world like that where someone’s going to come help you. But when you get older and you read comics, that’s too simple, too childish, a dynamic for you. The older reader starts to think, ‘There are a lot of gray areas in the world; we’re bad and good kind of blended together.'”

“What this means,” he continues, “is that you’re kind of curious to see this guy lose his temper. They want to see Superman’s darker side to see him access the full range of human emotions. The George Reeves Superman was a helpful guy, right? And it never went beyond that. But, again, older readers or viewers want a wider palette of emotions from any character — spite, rage, jealousy and that sort of thing. The modern reader wants to see how Superman or any character reacts to those emotions and how they handle them. And in the case of Superman, if he goes into a snit, you could destroy half the city. In a nutshell, I think that is the appeal of the darker side.”

Superman in the Time of Antiheroes

“Superman is so important,” interjects Joe, “especially when you’re feeling angry and especially when you feel like the world is a cesspool. And, yes, he’s a fictional character. For me, he’s not like some Christ analog or anything like that. I really don’t think he’s a perfect guy, I just think he’s a good guy and I don’t think that good people crumble just because they face trauma. That’s a really bleak view of humanity.”

One concern is that when people respond to the darker version, there will be more of an impulse that the writers behind these stories will be pushed further away from the more noble version of Superman and what he represents.

Stan reflects, “You know, 20 years ago, HBO with The Sopranos made antiheroes more and more fascinating. Let’s put a commercial veil over this: who’s the bigger star, Superman or Batman? It’s traditionally been Batman, the darker guy who’s got all the demons. To put some in Superman, there’s that element of commerce to make him more like that so people will pay money to see him. I know that sounds cynical, but that’s the intersection of the real world in terms of a normal person’s emotions and commerce, because if Superman isn’t commercial and isn’t selling, there won’t be a Superman anymore. I think this is DC’s way of adjusting with the time and also accepting the fact that their audience is much older than it used to be during the George Reeves era.”

The Need for Nobility

Steve, for one, doesn’t necessarily agree. “It may,” he says, “but it could also have the reverse effect where, upon seeing those darker versions, the reaction is, ‘Nah, that’s not Superman,’ and they revert to what truly makes Superman great: his brightness, positiveness, and hopefulness.”

If you don’t lean into the nobler aspects, says Jim, “You just don’t have a character. I think Marvel proved it with Captain America. I’m sure there were voices saying, ‘Oh, no, we’ve got to edge him up and make him a badass,’ and somebody, probably Kevin Feige, said, ‘No, that’s not who he is. He’s got to be squeaky clean or there’s nothing left.’ One of the big jokes people make about Superman is that he rescues kittens out of trees, which is reference to that Christopher Reeve moment in Superman: The Movie. Well, the truth is he needs to pull kittens out of trees or we’re not going to care about him when he stops missiles.”

His Role in the Modern World

So,  Brightburn‘s take not withstanding, just what is the Man of Steel’s role in the world of the 21^st Century? “I suggest he be a guy who tries to be a noble beacon of light, but doesn’t always succeed,” offers Stan. “And who runs into situations that are not black and white, but are shades of gray and it always challenges him. Like most people, he wants to do good, but then you’re faced with a world where the definition of good is not as clear as it used to be. He doesn’t have to be a darker version of himself, but simply a more mature version. A more realistic version of what someone with enormous powers has to consider on a daily or even an hourly basis.”

In the end, reflects Jim, Superman ultimately will continue. “He’s going to be in the direct to video movies that we do, videos games and, of course, comics,” he points out. “And the truth is, there is always a course correction. And he’s still going to be the character we know. When there’s a misstep to make him more ‘mature’ and a darkening up his character and people don’t like it, they’ll step away from it for a while and then bring it back and it will be, like, ‘Hey, it’s my Superman. He’s back and acting the way I expect him to.’”

“I think you have to be a very cynical person to say he’s a stupid character and try to make him better by making him a jerk or violent or angry. I understand the issue people have that he’s not very realistic, or they don’t meet very many people like him,” he closes, “but if you look closely, you’ll find those characteristics in a lot of people around you. I believe that the kind of Superman you want to see is very indicative of your worldview. If you can only relate to a dark Superman, I feel sorry for you. And I hope you don’t live next door to me.”

Brightburn opens in theaters on May 24.