First Look at New Superman

So we were recently treated to the first image of Henry Cavill as the new Superman. When I first found out that Zac Snyder would be directing the latest Superman flick, I was honestly a bit worried. (We’ll talk in more detail on this later) So finally a chance for Mr. Snyder to calm my fears. The good news is the picture doesn’t do anything to make me worry more about the project. The bad news is it doesn’t make me feel better either.

Let's analyze the image:

(c) Warner Bros.

Well the essential elements are there: red cape, blue suit, S-shield. The, umm, below the belt area is conveniently in shadow so we don’t have any info on the red undies status (a hot topic of fanboy debate). A few interesting details: Superman’s hair. It’s kinda …big? Maybe it’s the angle or something, but it seems like he’s rockin’ the Elvis do. Also, he seems to be missing his signature curl. i realize that it could look pretty forced and cheesy, but I think it could also be done naturally. I mean I'll be darned if I can ever get all my hair to stay in place. (Yes, I am nitpicking) The next thing that’s interesting to me is the choice of the S-shield. We don’t get a very good look at it, and when I first saw it I thought it reminded me of Jim Lee’s less than loved version of the symbol. When I got online and reminded myself what Jim Lee’s logo actually looked like, I realized it had more in common with the Earth-2 Superman shield. (Whatever that is)

One more thought. The picture overall is darker than what we’ve seen from Superman films. Now I realize that this is just a single image. It’s a dark bank vault, maybe he knocked the power out busting in like that. It’s a teaser image, so they don’t want to give everything way right off the bat. OK. I’ll reserve judgment for now. But I don’t want to see a dark Superman film. Sure, give me something different from every Superman movie we’ve seen since 1978. But dark isn’t the way to go. I’d say take the recent Captain America film as a guide. It took itself seriously, but wasn’t dark.

Well there’s still a lot of time before the 2013 release date, so here’s hoping the next pic will boost my confidence a bit more.