What Don’t We Know About Superman’s Movie Return?

http://smallville.wikia.com/wiki/Jor-El_%28Kryptonian%29

Scroll all the way down to the section labeled “Later Years” and you'll see an image of Jor-El and Lara's placing Kal-El on the ship. The color of their sleeves seems to be in line with Birthright, but following that publication's failure the producers clearly went in a different direction.

I liked Superman Returns too. What's with all the haters?

Don't know if you're still reading, but in case you are…

Yeah, I know about the interesting path that led Wolfman to working on the show. He even has an amusing anecdote about how the TV folks had no idea he worked on the comic and were surprised that he already knew Jenette Kahn when they tried to introduce him to her during one meeting. My point was that him being there as main story editor really gave the pre-Crisis changes a leg up in getting incorporated in the show. It's not comparable to Birthright's situation.

Many of those Bronze/Silver Age or MoS elements used in Smallville are ones shared in common with Birthright. (That's as to be expected, as Waid was deliberately trying his best to incorporate the best of all worlds; unlike certain other writers, he wasn't so arrogant as to desire to throw the baby out with the bathwater.) How exactly do you tease out what was a BR influence and what wasn't? By your logic, LOIS & CLARK's use of Clark Kent as the real identity/Superman as the disguise wouldn't count as a MoS contribution because it first came from the George Reaves show. (In reality it's from neither. According to the show head's commentary on the DVDs, she thought up the idea independently.)

Plot and character aren't as easy to separate as you make it out to be. Metallo's a character, but his debut storyline — of a scientist turning someone into an android and inserting a Kryptonite power core into them, only for the robot to betray the creator, then try to kill Superman using the power core — is the same as his original pre-Crisis debut. That's plot. The two stories are only the same when reduced to their generalities, but of course the same goes for Birthright Clark's travels around the world and pre-BR Clark's.

You do know that Byrne credited the George Reeves show as an influence on the MoS reboot, specifically his portrayal of Clark, right?

You should also take into consideration that the reason the name of the show was “The New Adventures of Superman” is because it was, basically, a new version of the old show, hence the “new”.

That said, the show was clearly based on the MoS reboot, from Clark coming first, to the Kents being alive, to the use of Cat Grant, and the transformation of Luthor into a metropolis mogul.

I would recomend to you that you buy this http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=50744565482%201%20DIRECT

It has a one-page introduction by Byrne in which he details the effect Superman had on him, when he first became aware of the show, what he thought went wrong with the concept that it required a reboot, etc, etc,… it’s the kind of thing that is missing from Birthright.

It’s called “Superman: A Personal View by John Byrne”, it’s a one-page intro printed on the interior back cover of the comic.

See, Byrne didn’t wait for the trade to list his influences, or speak his mind, like Waid did. He put it out there from the start…. then again, unlike Waid, the purpose of his project was clear from the on-set. It didn’t start as one thing and then turned into another, like Birthright did.

Enough of Zod. Figure out something new for crying out loud. It’s been done to death, and it’s BOOOORING!

If they want a good ‘Begins’ story use some of the ideas from the first story arch from Superman Confidential. The idea of Supes freaking out in lava because it’s not killing him, but he doesn’t know what to do was pretty interesting.