Despite famously sweeping Lois Lane off her feet and leaving Lana Lang head-over-heels in Smallville, Superman's relationship with the silver screen has been less of a happy fairy tale and more of bitter sordid affair, albeit one with bungee cords and giant spiders. While The Man of Steel originally was brought to life on the big screen by the Fleischer Brothers Studios, Kirk Alyn and then George Reeves, it truly wasn't until Christopher Reeve strapped on the blue unitard emblazoned with the big red S that Superman really became a cinematic force to contend with. On top of the character virtually founding and creating the superhero comic book medium, 1978's "Superman: The Movie" was responsible for launching comic book movies as we know them today. Prior attempts to bring comic books to film included thrown together serials utilizing poor animation effects, or consider 1966's ultra-campy Adam West-helmed "Batman" film, full of primary colors and wonky word balloons to compliment every punch, then superheroes as we know them today would not be filmed as realistically or with as much verisimilitude had it not been for the serious take on spandex-clad vigilantes that "Superman" and "Superman II" brought. The Man of Steel's buttered movie popcorn started to grow stale with Christopher Reeve's next super entry, "Superman III", as the freshness and fun in the first two films began to get bogged down with silly villains and a convoluted Richard Pryor story plot that gives him more screen time than Superman, in his own film!
"Superman IV: A Quest For Peace" was a financial disaster and Reeve's final outing donning the flowing cape. It proved to be the final straw to break the back of a once viable and successful superhero franchise. Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" starring Michael Keaton brought a greater level of grittiness and shrouded its hero in even more darkness, ushering in the popularity of comic properties throughout the nineties where by 1999, an even bleaker "Blade" was the talk of Hollywood. The year 2000 brought with it a wildly popular "X-Men" film, the beginnings of a brand new franchise. Soon after, Spider-Man, Punisher, Hulk, Ghost Rider and Daredevil would all make their big screen debuts in the new millennium. The disappointment surrounding 2006's "Superman Returns" by Bryan Singer is still strong enough to be able to feel without powers from a yellow sun or Spidey-senses. Singer's version of Superman bordered on angst-ridden and a tad too emo, never throwing a punch and boring audiences unfamiliar and too far-removed from the 1978 film to get Singer's references and callbacks. The raging success of the "Dark Knight" franchise has caused Warner Brothers to rethink their strategy of creating a celluloid Superman, influenced in no doubt by their rival Disney's success with "Iron Man", "Thor" and "Captain America" - all building to the unprecedented "Avengers" - WB is rebuilding Superman from the ground up. In Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel", comic book fans and film aficionados will rejoice at possibly receiving a contemporary gritty realistic Superman film they can call their own. And like "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight" before it, Man of Steel may be so great it pulls the elusive trick of transcending comic book movie-lovers aspirations and being incredibly successful critically and at the box office globally. But how? Here's the top five ways we think Man of Steel may break the mold of the typical CBM...