Super Chronicles

Jesse Hassenger considers the highs and lows of the original Superman film franchise and how they helped to lay the groundwork for today’s big screen comic book superstars:

“The superhero boom of the past decade-plus had previous movies to learn from, with the Superman series leading the way in both sturdy classicism and oft-repeated blunders, from the origin-heavy Superman to the mission-creep sloppiness of Superman III. As a character, Superman offers a formula that may be easier to tweak than to follow; his virtue can seem so simple, and his powers so vast, that finding a story to challenge him becomes deceptively difficult.”