Neil Gaiman Points Out The Issue With Making Superman ‘Relevant’ To Modern Audiences

The last live-action Superman movie was 2017’s Justice League. But the last good Superman movie Either 2006’s Superman Returns, if that’s a hill you want to die on (I don’t), or Superman II, all the way back in 1981. Point is, most Superman movies are bad, but that won’t stop executives from trying to make the Man of Steel “relevant” to modern audiences. Last week, Forbes published an article about how DC Films doesn’t know what to do with Superman. The headline “DC Films Still Doesn’t Know What To Do With Superman.” (See) But it’s not the post that went viral; it’s this tweet.

— Forbes (@Forbes) November 29, 2019

The “relevant to modern audiences” quote, spoken by an unnamed source, caught the eye of author Neil Gaiman, whose acclaimed The Sandman comic book series was published first by DC Comics, then Vertigo Comics, an imprint of DC. In response to the tweet, and by proxy the article, he tweeted, “You don’t make it relevant. You make it inspiring.” Gaiman’s right. Being inspiring, and not gritty, is Superman’s whole deal. No one needs Supes listening to Billie Eilish or being called “Supes,” for that matter.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) December 2, 2019

Others responded to the tweet, including Patton Oswalt, who joked that DC should “make it super-gritty, kinda early 70s Scorsese-style, he’s a failed reporter or something and lois lane is just a figment of his imagination and call it SUPER,” and Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Vanessa Ramos, who wrote, simply, “BABY SUPERMAN.” Would watch.

— Arturo Torres (@arturodraws) December 1, 2019