Mark Millar Again on Superman

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but one of the things this American guy [the ‘director’] said to me was that you’ve got to love Donner’s version and keep it in your heart, but we’ve got to do the new one. I said ‘What do you mean?’. He said “Imagine Donner had said ‘I grew up in the fifties and I love the George Reeves TV show – I’m gonna do it just like that’”. He said make it appropriate to the world around you now, and I thought ‘That’s a very good point’.

Chuck Allen was nothing like George Reeves and George Reeves was nothing like Christopher Reeve; the Clark Kent could not have been more different. The idea of moving it on one generation again so that it’s very identifiable to that period is a very interesting idea.

You’ve got to keep Superman as the cornerstone of it, but the world around him should be quite different.

Superman was very conflicted in Returns – almost apologist. What is the problem people have liking Superman as he is?

I actually think it’s a sign of a malformed personality, people who don’t like Superman [laughs]. In fact, nearly all of my friends say ‘Oh, I hate Superman’, and I ask why, and they say ‘Oh, cause he’s such a goody-goody’. So it’s like ‘Don’t you like nice people?’ [laughs], y’know, ‘What is wrong with you?’. And they say ‘Oh, I prefer Batman, he’s more sort of evil and bad-ass’. But who would you rather hang about with? Who’s a better role model with a more kind of positive outlook on the world? I think it’s the same kids that carve a swastika into the vestibule at school – that’s the kind of person who doesn’t like Superman [laughs].

I think the mainstream public, left and right, would go nuts for a Superman film right now, especially in this period where America ’s slightly at ease with itself…to do something that has America feeling good about itself again, and something that just has the hairs on the back of your neck standing up for the whole movie. Could be amazing…