Ooh, Super!

Brandon Routh as Superman in the new movie directed by Bryan Singer (of the X-Men movies), assuming that this picture is legit and not an online hoax. Obviously reflecting the sensibilities of today, the new Superman isn’t muscle-heavy. In fact, I like the lean body look—Clark Kent should join the Bikini Bodies next year.

I’m a little bothered by the size of the “S” on his chest. I find it a little smaller than what I’m used to. And what is that smaller “s” doing on his belt-buckle? Capital “S” sa chest, lower-caps “s” sa buckle? I’m reminded of The Electric Company’s Letterman: Faster than a rolling O, more powerful than a silent E, able to leap tall T’s in a single bound…. It’s a word! It’s a plan! It’s Letterman! (“Hi, I’m Letterman.”)

I remember the day the movie Superman opened. We were high school kids waiting in line for the first screening in Ali Mall, Cubao. When we got in, they played the last reel of the movie. (This happens in the lagare system—two movie houses share one print of the movie, but since both opened at roughly the same time, say 11am, one of them will have to unspool the last reel while the other unspools the first reel.) So we saw how Superman saves Metropolis—and how he turned back Time by forcing the Earth to rotate in the opposite direction. It was mind-blowing for us high school kids, never mind the illogical movie physics. It was also infuriating to see the ending first, but since the concept of reserved seating was non-existent then, we couldn’t go out of the movie house; by the time we come back for the first reel, there’d be no more seats left.

That movie had images which stuck in my mind: the justice hall of Krypton, the spinning rings, the creation of the Fortress of Solitude, Marlon Brando in a white wig, Christopher Reeve’s package. And as the movie poster promised, when the movie first revealed Superman in costume and he flew out of the Fortress, I truly believed a man could fly.

I’m not exactly as excited to watch either this new Superman movie or the upcoming Batman Begins as I was with the first Superman movie and the first Tim Burton Batman movie. But I’ll watch them just the same. Superman is still Superman and Batman is Batman.

Let there be heroes.