Man of Steel

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive (do they still use those?) and one of the most recognised icons in pop culture, its good ol' Superman! There's not much more I can add that hasn't already been discussed to Kingdom Come and back on Kal-El, so I'll just talk about the character the way I perceived him over the years.


Truth be told my exposure to comic book characters wasn't really through comic books. Television did the trick mostly, and I distinctly remember fleeting moments of the Superman films as well as being informed that Christopher Reeves had suffered his paralysing accident. Till today, Reeves was probably the best Supes ever. No one could touch him. Probably no one ever will!


Later on, the live-action show with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher was probably my longest sustained exposure to the Superman mythos. Goody-two-shoes alter ego hiding a the Superman really resounded with me and presumably every fan at the time, we could pretend that some part of lives resembled fiction - being Clark Kent of course, hearing stories of kids killing themselves trying to fly put paid to any suggestion of embarking on a superhero career!



After Dean Cain's run as Superman ended it was pretty much a dry spell for years and years. Every now and then Superman would make it to the news, due in no small part to the publicity gimmicks used in the 90s like the death of Superman, his successors, new costumes blah blah. Looking back, the effect of the 90s was pretty consistent across comics in that it was too over-the-top in trying to jive with all the fancy new-age nonsense. Superman is blue, red and yellow. Simple as that. Anything else would be travesty.



Smallville (the TV series) brought a whole new legion of fans, including me, back to the fold. And it actually did it on the strength of its storytelling and performances rather than clinging onto the Superman mythos and milking it dry as I expected it to be. Smallville did great with likeable characters, hateable characters and the high school shenanigans popular in the 2000s. My interest tailed off after awhile though, probably because Marvel was taking over the silver screen at around that time too.


I didn't catch the 2006 film and I hear I didn't miss out on a whole lot, here's hoping that the next installment of the franchise does a Batman Begins and not a Daredevil/Ghost Rider/any trainwreck comic film.


Not much more to add, except enjoy the pictures! It was fun taking these, Supes is pretty easy to photograph, the DCSH headsculpt has pretty good definition and the iconic colourblocking on the costume is recognisable even if the colours are changed, all in all, a great subject to work on!