5. A Transformed Narrative
From what we have seen so far, the Man Of Steel film is giving us a changed cinematic version of Superman, different from the one that we have grown to know and love throughout the years. His home world of Krypton appears to be in the midst of civil war, General Zod has not been banished to The Phantom Zone, and Pa Kent is apparently not so keen on his adopted son becoming someone greater who can protect mankind, fearing backlash from the human race. With all this being said, these changes are not without some precedence. While Man Of Steel will have some minor changes to things we are very familiar with, like Lois Lane now being a redhead (she's originally a redhead in the comics!) or Jimmy Olsen now (probably) being a female character; in more recent comics, however, the General Zod character was re-written and was no longer a captive of The Phantom Zone; in fact, he was alive and well inside the Bottle City of Kandor, created and held captive by Brainiac, which was subsequently freed by Superman, and thus the planet of New Krypton was born. General Zod then takes control of New Krypton in an effort to re-establish their culture, again leading their military and forcing Superman to rejoin his people and leave Earth behind. While most of these changes did not ultimately last, they were a great part of the recent Superman storytelling that has taken place in the comics, prior to the New 52 relaunch. And while the story of Krypton's ultimate demise has been told, retold, and reexamined over the years, one thing has always remained the same: the planet eventually no longer exists as Kal-El is shipped away. Whether destroyed from within at the hands of an artificial intelligence created by Superman's father Jor-El (which was an alternate version of Brainiac), or falling victim to the perils of planetary instability, Krypton has always crumbled. Man Of Steel will show us a world in the midst of civil war, and Kal-El will be exiled from his homeworld for being of natural birth on a planet where genetic engineering is the mandate. This is an updated and dangerous change to make to the Superman origin, but it will serve as the driving force behind General Zod's hunt for Kal-El in the new film. But for Clark Kent, Man Of Steel will be his journey to self-discovery...