Superman: Mild Mannered
Hey DC fans, I’m Ricardo Butler aka Rease Val Zod aka the Black Kryptonian. And I am here to share/write out my DCU movie wishes according to the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran as the co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios by President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav.
As we all know David Zaslav hired James and Peter to be co-heads of the new DC Studios as a combo version of Marvel’s Kevin Feige rolled into one. Mr. Zaslav believes the success of DC Films would be better off copying what Marvel is doing by putting these two in charge of everything from film to animated movies, to TV shows, and even DC’s game development.
On January 1st, 2023, James Gunn announced his slate of what he and Peter have decided the first phase or chapter as they are calling it will be titled Chapter 1: God’s and Monster. I’m not going to go into the details of what movies, TV shows, and animated movies they have decided on. You can either read about it on The Holywood Reporter or you can watch James Gunns’ presentation on DC Comics Youtube Channel. So, this is the first of many series of what I would do if I were to copy/paste Marvel’s success with a DC equivalent.
Iron Man (2008)
As we all know, Marvel started their movie universe with Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man. So of course, DC needs to start their DCU with Superman. Before I dive into this, I want to say I will not be casting actors for these roles. I will be just using Marvel’s formula of success to apply to the DC equivalent, where the new DC heads could draw from for inspiration, a few plot points, and maybe get into some character motivation. And finally, I want to show how all these movies will tie together like how Thanos was trying to obtain the Infinity Stones for his plans during the Infinity Saga.
Also, let me be the first to say that I do not read Marvel comics at all. The most I know about Marvel Comics is what I have seen on TV shows, animated movies, cartoons, video games, previous Marvel movies, and whatever they did in the MCU.
To start, Tony Stark’s story was an origin story. Again, as a person who never read an Iron Man comic book I would not know how “comic book accurate” this movie is. From what I have heard from Marvel fans they say it was a pretty close retelling of how Tony became Iron Man. Of course, it was adapted for the big screen to fit into the main plans of this newly formed MCU.
Superman
If you are going to start a DC universe for live-action movies, animated films, video games, and TV you have to start with the big three; the DC Trinity, which is Wonder Woman, Batman, and of course, Superman. Not having Superman as the first character in any DC entertainment format would be very dumb. But as we all know Mr. Zaslav wants Superman as the priority and that is what James and Peter plan on doing.
James Gunn has already put out that he was going to start this new movie adaptation of Superman as a younger Superman. Not a Superboy back in Smallville, but a young Clark Kent / Superman / Kal El in Metropolis. We don’t know what James is going to do with the character. He might not be with Lois yet. Maybe he’s trying to get a job at the Daily Planet in this new DCU. Who knows the details. But we all know that this will be a younger version of Superman.
So, this origin story will not begin with a Superboy or Smallville retailing of the character. This will be the beginning of the careers of both Superman and Clark Kent for the last son of Krypton Kal El. I went through my very large Superman comic book collection seeking the perfect story that they could draw inspiration. I even went through old movies, old TV shows, and even animated movies to form an idea of what I think the general audience would love to see of a young new Superman and Clark Kent.
Superman: Secret Origin (Issues #1-6) & Superman: Man of Tomorrow Animated Movie
I think the best story for our new Superman should take some cues from both Superman: Secret Origin and the recent animated movie, part of the new Tomorrowverse as it is being called Superman: Man of Tomorrow.
Superman: Secret Origin (Published May 21, 2013) was a six-issue monthly American comic book limited series published by DC Comics. The series was written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Gary Frank.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow is a 2020 American animated superhero film directed by Chris Palmer and written by Tim Sheridan. It is the first installment in what is known as the Tomorrowverse.
Both the comic and the movie show a little bit of Clark’s upbringing and learning how he’s different. Then as he learns that he is an alien learning his powers, then moving to Metropolis to get a job as a reporter, meets Lois, conflicts with Lex, and battles Parasite. There are a few differences between these two stories and a few different characters, but we get the point of both stories. They introduce us to both Clark Kent and Superman in the world.
Mild Mannered
When I was thinking about what to call this movie that would make it different from all other iterations and adaptations of Superman across his other media appearances I came up with three options.
- Superman: Boy Scout
- Superman: Clark Kent
- Superman: Mild Mannered
What I did was literally Google the top aliases and nicknames for Superman. He had all kinds of nicknames and aliases I’ve never ever heard of like “Metropolis Marvel” and others we’ve all heard up like “Supes” and “Big Blue”. But I wanted to go with the idea that this is Superman / Clark Kent / Kal El as a sort of Year One kind of story. And most of those nicknames gave me, I’ve been Superman for years vibes.
So, I did a little digging and look up the definition of the top three I picked. It’s interesting what I found.
Boy Scout
We all know as DC fans that Superman is called Boy Scout a lot by heroes and villains alike. Looking up this word the dictionary says,
The meaning of Boy scout:
- An individual (typically a male) who approaches every situation with careful thought and skill.
- One who does everything according to the rules.
- One who is not rebellious or a rule breaker, always on time. Punctual. Polite to a fault.
If that doesn’t sound like Clark Kent / Superman then I don’t know what would. I mean this is totally Superman. And while I loved Henry Cavill as Superman, I was not a fan of what Zack Synder did to the character. You must understand TO ME, Superman is my role model. My idol. He is my favorite comic book character of all time! I love the idea and the concept of what Superman represents as “the best of us” and “what we could be”. Like, reading Superman comics, at least the good ones, gives me this feeling that I can be honest. I can be truthful. I can have integrity. I can be kind and generous and even patient with those who have tried to oppose me. So, when Zack Synder’s Superman snapped General Zod’s neck in Man of Steel I literally cried as a fan. I was like “Oh my God! What are they doing to my favorite character?”
I mean you have to understand at that time, people wanted Superman to be a bit darker and grittier so all these what-if stories and video games were coming out like Injustice Gods Among Us and Injustice 2. Parodies and knockoffs were doing these this is what Superman looks like if he was evil like Brightburn and in The Boys Amazon TV show. While I’m not knocking any of these stories because I actually loved them, especially the Injustice series (because it rebirths my love for and brought me back to collecting and reading comics again) I still love my classic and maybe corny to some “Truth, Justice, and American Way” Superman who inspires hope and change in the world!
Superman is not supposed to be dark. They got a “Dark” Knight for that. Batman has got it covered. These two characters are supposed to be Night and Day complete opposites but best friends. Keep Batman dark and gritty and leave Superman alone with his hope and optimism.
Now the only reason I didn’t go with Boy Scout as part of the title of the movie is that it doesn’t sound “cool” and I wouldn’t want fans to think of the real Boy Scouts or Girl Scout cookies for that matter. I wanted the titles to hit the heart that gives the moviegoer, especially the hardcore Superman fans an idea of what to anticipate the movie to feel like.
Clark Kent
Looking through Baby name sites for the meaning of both “Clark” and “Kent” became very interesting finds for me. As we know the creators of Superman, both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both Jewish. I don’t know how spiritual or religious they were in the Jewish faith, but as a former Bible Teacher in Christianity who understood both the Bible, Hebrew, and Greek pretty well, I know that God names things according to 1) What they are (function and purpose) or 2) according to what they must overcome. Simple example: Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means Deliverer or Savior. This name gives us an understanding of God’s purpose and function for Him. Jacob meant “Heel Catcher” which was something he had to overcome and then God changed his name to Israel which means to “Rule with God.” So I truly believe when Joe and Jerry named Superman Clark Kent they knew exactly what they were doing.
Clark: Origin and Meaning
The name Clark is a boy’s name of English origin meaning “scribe, secretary, cleric, scholar, clerk”.
What’s the first thing that pops into your mind after reading this meaning? Reporter! It makes so much sense. The creators of Clark Kent Superman KNEW exactly what they were doing when they gave him a secret identity. How about the name Kent? Let’s see!
Kent Origin and Meaning
Kent is a boy’s name of Celtic origin with pride of place on England’s South East coast. Derived from the Celtic word cant, meaning “bordering of a circle,” Kent typically translates as “edge.” Since its early utterances by the ancient Celtic tribe who first claimed its coastal location, the name has endured, gracing the tongues of many civilizations. From the Latin cantium, first described by Julius Ceasar in 51 BC, to its adoption as a surname in the 12th century, Kent has lingered on the periphery of many minds over the centuries. Today Kent remains a place of great beauty, whose borders contain traces of incredible eras gone by.
When I think of bordering or edge, I think of a man who has so much power he has to limit himself to keep himself from going overboard or going off the edge. He doesn’t want to abuse his power or use it negatively. This reminds me of the Superman speech from Justice League Unlimited when Superman is going up against Darkseid in the series finale of such an epic cartoon.
Superman says,
“I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not to break something or someone. Never allowing myself to lose control, even for a moment. Someone could die.”
This is the Superman I want to see on the big screens! He is strong enough to destroy moons but he keeps has mastered and continues to practice the discipline of not going beyond the border or over the edge because of his love for his new planet and home; Earth.
While it is a good description of who he is and how he functions, I didn’t want the title to be Superman: Clark Kent. That’s because there are other characters, which we will talk about later, that I believe are essential as supporting characters to establish the city and world of Superman and Metropolis.
Mild Mannered
Mild Mannered simply means, “(of a person) gentle and not given to extremes of emotion.”
This is another definition of the Clark Kent side of him keeping himself in check. But Kal El as we know loves hard and desires to see the good intentions and potential of everyone on Earth be the best possible versions of themselves. And this is the type of Superman that gives hope to, not only his home planet but to us as believers.
Even in fan chats on social media, I expect Superfans of Superman to act in ways that say we can be Supermen and Superwomen too. So this is why I went with this title over the Boy Scout and Clark Kent.
Cast & Character Motives
I believe the cast or characters in any story help make or can even possibly break the main hero of the story, whether family, friend or foe. So while not all of these characters are necessary to make a good Superman movie work, some are mandatory for the story. So, I am going to mention a few roles, both big in small, in no particular order.
But I will start with the characters I believe have to be in this first DCU Superman: Mild Manner movie. Plus I will compare them to the MCU counterpart since we are doing the copy/paste thing of Marvel Studios to create our DC Studios. All other supporting characters can be used as optional to create this first DCU entry.
Superman / Clark Kent / Kal El: Of course, we start with Superman! It’s his movie. He is DCU’s Iron Man Tony Starks and should star in more movies than any other character. He is the face of this new DCU and as already mentioned, he is the number one priority in this new universe.
His motive in this movie is many. He’s an alien migrant trying to fit in without scaring the human population because of how powerful he is. He’s trying to find his place in this world as a regular guy from Kansas, not as a powerful god figure from Krypton. He wants to inspire hope and help in the world of man without interfering with Earth’s natural progress to grow as well as not break man’s laws while doing it.
Lois Lane: Lois Lane is the DCU’s Pepper Pots. Her motive in this movie is to get the new scoop. To be the best reporter and expose Lex Luthor when every other news outlet can’t or won’t because they fear Lex’s power and money shuts them down. She always wants to tell Superman’s story to the world so the world can understand why he’s here on Earth.
Jimmy Olsen: While Jimmy Olsen may be our Rhodey, he will not be our War Machine in the DCU. That role would be better filled by John Henry Iron’s Steel. It just won’t fit the story and motive of this character from most of the source material as we know about Jimmy. But he does end up being Superman’s Pal in this movie and he wants to make it as a photographer at the Daily Planet instead of just an interim.
Jor-El: Jor-El is the DCU’s Jarvis. But, again, he will not become Vision in this or later stories. But instead of this AI voice that runs Tony Stark’s business, he is the voice that trains and educates Superman on how to be who his father Jor-El sent him to be.
Lex Luthor: And of course, the main villain in this story/movie. He is the DCU’s Obadiah Stane. He’s the childhood friend of Clark Kent (sort of). We should meet Lex at his peak in Metropolis as a powerful rich man and inventor who is trying to help man reach their potential, sort of like Superman, but in a more twisted way. Once he learns about Superman and his stealing Lex’s thunder as he makes himself known to the world, we get a different Lex. His new motive becomes the goal of making Superman look bad as an alien invader here to enslave mankind and does everything in his power to discredit the motives of Superman to the world.
Parasite / Rudy Jones: I’m going to twist this one up a bit to make it work for the story. Rudy is our Ho Yinsen. He was Stark’s fellow captive, who grafts the electromagnet to Stark’s chest in the cave. Rudy is a janitor at the Daily Planet who is led by Lex Luthor to try to get picked of all the citizens of Metropolis to work with Lex for a day. But he ends up being an experiment of Lex’s who has got his hands on a Mother Box, which in my DCU, will be used as a means to trigger the metagene for Darkseid’s use to create soldiers for his army. I am going to choose the human trafficking concept that was used in Young Justice to be my DCU’s Infinity Stones concept which will be the singular plot running through all of my telling of the DCU stories. One of the reasons that I am using the human trafficking idea is because it is relevant and an emotional subject to our lives in this real world. It will be the underlying message of all my DCU stories.
Martian Manhunter: I know. I know. You are wondering why I included Martian Manhunter to be in Superman’s first movie. Here are several reasons:
- Alien Connection to Superman: These two are the last two living beings (or so they think) of their planets and civilizations. Wikipedia says this about Martian Manhunter: “While the Martian Manhunter and Superman shared a connection as members of the Justice League and aliens on Earth with similar powers, unbeknownst to Superman J’onn had observed the hero since he was an infant. He would enter Superman’s life several times including posing as a Kent farm laborer named Josh Johnstone and his high school Civics teacher Mrs. Klingman.” – Allied DC Superheroes: List of Supporting Superman Characters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superman_supporting_characters
- Smallville TV Show: Martian Manhunter appears in season 8 of the Smallville TV show during Superman’s formative years.
- Superman: Man of Tomorrow: Martian Manhunter also appears in the Superman: Man of Tomorrow movie as well in Clark’s year one in Metropolis to help him become who he’s meant to be.
- Man of Steel: Martian Manhunter has been hiding as Lieutenant General Calvin Swanwick through Henry Cavill’s Superman arc in the Zack Synderverse this whole time!
- Justice League Animated Series: In the first three pilot episodes of Justice League the animated series, Martian Manhunter was the one who mentally connected to Superman first to bring the League together.
I hope it has become apparent that DC has heavily used Martian Manhunter to connect the league! And he usually starts with Superman because they share similar backstories of their doom heritages. So that means I have decided to put Martian Manhunter in my DCU’s Superman: Mild Manner because if Superman is the MCU’s Tony Stark Iron Man, that means Martian Manhunter should be the DCU’s Agent Nick Fury who connects this team and coordinates the team just like he does in the Justice League animated series. Martian Manhunter is doing all this recruiting to build the Justice League because he has found out through his powerful telepathic mind the plans of Darkseid to use Mother Boxes to turn humans who have been trafficked into metahumans of mass destructions and/or para demons to help him find, of course, the Anti-Life Equation to take away free will from the DC Universe.
Other Supporting Character Rolls (Optional)
These characters are optional and can be placed or sprinkled throughout this first Superman story as needed. I’m not a script writer so I would not know how to write this story. But I can see some of these characters put in any story they decide to tell for the first Superman movie for a new DCU.
Jonathan Kent: I would use Pa Kent in flashback scenes like in Man of Steel or even on phone calls if you don’t want to cast an actual actor.
Martha Kent: I would do the same for Martha as I did for Jon. I don’t think they both have to be dead in this new Superman story. They are just there for him to call when he needs to talk.
Krypto: Superman’s dog can also be used in flashbacks as well. But knowing James Gunn he will bring Krypto to the big screen in some form or fashion.
Lana Lang: I would use Lana, Clark’s young life crush in flashbacks as well. In this story, she does know Clark’s powers and knows he’s Superman.
Pete Ross: Same as Lana, I would use Pete in flashback scenes only, but he does not know Clark has powers in this story.
Perry White: The first of the Daily Planet staff is Perry White. You can’t have a Daily Planet work environment for Clark Kent without the Chief Editor Perry White.
Cat Grant: While Cat Grant may not be super essential to most of Superman’s story, I believe she can be used as a competitor to Lois Lane getting from page news with her gossip stories.
Ron Troupe: Ron Troupe has been known to be the Daily Planet’s political editorialist. James Gunn loves to use obscure characters. I would love to see how he would use Ron.
Steve Lombard: Sports editor Steve Lombard appears in Zack Synder’s Man of Steel. I thought that was cool to see a live-action version of the character. But I would have preferred the more flirtatious version that tries to compete with Clark for Lois and practically all the ladies at the Daily Planet.
Metallo / John Corben: I would leave it up to James Gunn to use John Corben the man who serves under General Sam Lane as a Sergeant in the US Military who has a crush on Lois Lane. General Lane is trying to set John Corben up with his daughter, but Lois isn’t interested. In this way, there is competitiveness between Clark Kent and Corben trying to win Lois over. James Gunn can leave him this way or set it up where Lex Luthor and General Sam Lane also unknowingly use Apokoliptan Tech (a Mother Box) to turn him into Metallo in this movie or down the line in another Movie or even a TV show.
Sam Lane: General Lane could be another opposer of Superman who reluctantly works with Lex Luthor to build super soldiers for the military unknowingly using Apokoliptan Tech (a Mother Box) that triggers the latent metagene in humans like Rudy Jones’ Parasite and John Corben’s Metallo as well as other experiences. But General Lane does not know that Lex Luthor is using humans for these kinds of experiments. Lex also doesn’t know that he’s being used, or mind controlled by Darksied directly or another one of his minions on Apokolips.
And this is the first story of my DCU if I was James Gunn and Peter Safron!
Share your thoughts and comments below if you like this story or hate it? Or let me know how you would do your Superman entry into your version of the DCU if you were hired to be the CEO of DC Studios!
Thanks for reading!
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