The world’s most recognizable superhero has also proven to be the most difficult for filmmakers to deal with. While the 2000s have been a Golden Age for superhero films, with the blockbuster successes of Marvel’s Spider-Man (2002-2007), X-Men (2000-2011), and Avengers (2012) franchises, and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012), a plethora of screenwriters, directors, and producers have repeatedly been stymied by how to achieve the same level of box office success and appeal to comic book devotees and mainstream audiences in bringing a proper adaptation of Superman to the big screen. One of the key elements of a successful superhero film, similar to all genre films, is its timeliness. A genre film, contained by what Leo Braudy calls its “conventions of connection” (435), limits itself to a certain set of archetypal characters and plots in order to function as a symbolic and relevant discourse on a limited set of philosophical and social problems. However, whereas other superhero franchises have melded their fantastic characters with some degree of social relevance, Superman has, for over a decade now, been impervious to this same kind of topical reinterpretation. Most noteworthy is the critical and commercial failure of director Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns.
Arguably, this conundrum has been solved with the release of the David S. Goyer-penned, Zack Snyderdirected Man of Steel (2013). Making Superman germane again was accomplished by repurposing the traditional storylines, characters, and themes from the comic books for a new generation of audiences in order to comment on the times and the most significant cultural pressure points of 2013. The film did this through a combination of religious and political subtext addressing the American national mood and self-image, along with a stylized, deconstructive narrative format. The end result was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2013, with a $662 million worldwide box office intake (“Box Office Mojo”), and controversy that, as of this writing, continues to inspire debate in the Superman fan community.