Superman 2000

[stargazer01]

SUPERMAN 2000

A plan to revitalize

the Superman franchise

for the new millennium


The updated Superman Thru The Ages site has put up the rejected Superman 2000 pitch from 1998 by Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Mark Millar, and Tom Peyer.


You can read their proposal here:

theages.superman.nu/History/2000/SUPERMAN2000.php


I still haven't read it. I'll comment on it later. But I'm glad to know that that site is back up again. superman.nu/

[Matt in the Hat]

Clark eats bouef bourginon? The man with a code against killing eats murdered animals? Regardless of his farm upbringing, can we justify a Superman this aware and attuned to life in all its forms being a carnivore? Though there’s no need to make a direct, on-stage issue of it, file this thought away; his diet would be beans, pulses and windfall, if anything, and his body would be capable of extracting maximum energy from these simple foods if not solely from the sun’s rays.

Yeah, Mark waid simplified this in Birthright and made him a vegetarian. And threw in the perspective of seeing "auras", though it was used before. I thought when Kobe Asuru died in it, showing off the aura fading, was really good.

How we dissolve the marriage and still be true to the fact that it happened is the one instance where we’ll have to sail close to the cosmic reboot dock--more on this below--but hopefully this time the change will be organic and satisfying and will have a magical, romantic feel rather than the cold, surgical procedures of the previous era’s retconners.

Yeah, going back on it all and just doing a cosmic reboot thing is a bit hypocritical. Why denounce it if you applaud it happening 15 years before.

Also, now seeing what's happened with the Spider-Man books after their magical mindwipes, would it have been taken seriously? I don't think you'd have gotten the readership with such a move back then.

[Valentine Smith]

There's some fascinating stuff in that proposal...much of it got used in other things. It's a real admirable attempt to reconcile EVERYTHING that makes Superman great. Not all of it would have worked, but I really would have liked for this to happen.

Lots of Waid's stuff ended up in "Birthright", which was a remarkable misfire, especially when you consider that you're unlikely to find a more dedicated Superman scholar than Mark Waid.

Much of Morrison's stuff (the sci-fi stuff, the weirder elements...ESPECIALLY Bizarro) ended up in "All Star Superman", which I personally think is the best Superman comic of the last 15 years. A wild, psychedelic, sci-fi romp, where Superman just gets to BE Superman...unencumbered by continuity, a marriage, or anything resembling realism.

Some of the other ideas have clearly been appropriated by Geoff Johns for his recent (fantastic) Action Comics work, and his upcoming "Superman: Secret Origin"

Even the most recent Johns/Busiek/Robinson/Rucka Superman stuff seems to lack the unified editorial vision that this proposal had going for it from the get-go.

I love this proposal, and it's a fun read.

[Deleted]

Yeah, definitely was.

I dunno, losing the red underpants? I just...I can't imagine him without it, but maybe it'd be better?

This would've been a heck of a revamp. What a passionately written proposal. I don't like all of it but it's all definitely, as Vallyboy said, fascinating.

[fggafagas]

With all the support I see for the Fleischer Superman suit and the Kingdom Come suit, I'm starting to get the impression that the S logo we've had for like 60 years isn't so well liked. Afterall, that's the primary difference between those suits and the current suit.

[crazy_asian_man]

Great post, stargazer-

Except for losing the underpants thing, I thought it was a fascinating proposal all the way around... and it's interesting to see elements of it still survive in the 'alternate' Superman comics anyhow- as was mentioned with Morrison's ideas in All-Star and (it seems) a number of other ideas incorporated into the Geoff Johns version.... though I definitely prefer Johns' idea that the Legion of Superheroes helped Clark/Supes deal with his powers*, rather than the other heroes of the time.

((* But I admit I always loved the reciprocal nature of their relationship... Supes' influence created the Legion centuries later, and the Legion helped influenced Supes to become the hero he would become by their friendship growing up))

[Matt in the Hat]

Yeah, Legion definitely works better.


And i can't help but mention Spider-Man again, and thought that DIVORCE was the most realistic thing to have done to get rid of their relationship and have pretty much since the clone saga.

Lois and Superman can easily work as a team now, and shows what the K Metal story's potential couldve been.

Also, does Jimmy know the secret still in the comics? I remember he found out when he briefly got powers.