Superheroes and Darkness

http://www.avclub.com/articles/man-of-steel,96613/

If Superhero is the genre, then "darkness" seems to be the approved subgenre for anything that comes from DC source material. Marvel perhaps started the wave with X-Men, which dropped the yellow costumes and added black leather instead. After this, however, it was really Raimi's light and comedic Spider-man that started the wave of successful Marvel films that has already lasted longer than a decade. Indeed, there have been dark moments, but all-in-all, the tone for Marvel has been colorful, comedic, and character-driven. The exceptions are certainly The Punish and Ghost Rider, but I don't think anybody would argue that these were the mistakes. The Hulk films, which blur the borders, are also shoddy in quality.

Quite the opposite is true of DC films. When Nolan started with Batman Begins, he took a note from the Blade series, and went for darkness. Instead of loud characters, bright colors, and moments of comedy, DC opted for character archetypes, shades of grey (morally and literally), and thick plots. Among this wave are also Graphic Novel adaptations like V for Vendetta, 300, and Watchmen, which took a very bright comic with dark themes, and made the whole thing dark. The lighthearted attempts by DC failed miserably, with Green Lantern as the primary example.

So, there is the challenge of Superman. The brightest of the bright, occupying the world in red underpants, and citizen of the bright and cheery Metropolis. The first attempt at this was to make Superman into an emotional love triangle drama. By putting the girl of his dreams out of reach, the darker skies seemed justified in Superman Returns. That said, aside from the fun of the newspaper office, all of the life and character of the Reeve movies seems gone from this dry film, with Superman having the same sterile character as Mr. Rogers. In the latest Superman, Man of Steel, it seems that the darkness has still not been abandoned. The question is, of course, will it work this time? The trailers are more promising, and it seems that the creators were less concerned with justifying darkness, and instead just had the courage to make the film how they envision it. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up with the other dark DC films.