Superman Returns movie poster, 2006

Even if the movie didn't do as well as some reviews say, this movie virtually sparked the comic book hero movies. This was the first Superman movie to come out in the 2000s; 19 years after Superman 4 (1987). Because of how popular this superhero is, his culture and representation of who he is is spread out through many different outlets other than comic books, such as video games, music, and movies. Many other movies that are not even related to Superman, have different allusions such as the gesture of Sloth in the movie The Goonies, who rips off his shirt just how Superman did in the movies.

This clip from Smallville Season 9 Episode 21 – Salvation is a fight between Clark (Superman) and Zod, and the battle gets pretty intense with Zod trying to kill Clark. Smallville is about a young Clark Kent trying to find his place in his early years. Many different struggles go on between Clark and his inner self, because deep down he knows there is something more to just him being Clark Kent. He finds out through different situations that he does have these alien powers like no other human being, and puts these to good use some of the time. During this season (Season 9 which Salvation is the last episode of the season), Clark knows about his powers and wants to go to the Fortress of Solitude earlier in the Season, but decides not to because he wants to cut ties with the people he knows before he leaves, in the meantime, Zod is causing all of this mayhem in Metropolis so Clark needs to stay a little longer and ends up fighting Zod in this big battle. Smallville is the best representation of what Clark Kent would go through in his adolescent years if there was an actual Clark Kent in real life. In a way, it went off of what the Marvel concept was, to take a character and show that this person does go through things like a regular person does normally in situations, and that there are problems in this person’s life and they have to resolve it within themselves.

This movie poster of Superman Returns is like no other, where it shows how great of a superhero Superman really is. Superman Returns is the sequel to the movies of Superman that came out in 1978 and Superman II which came out in 1980. This time around, this motion picture did really well in the box office, compared to the other Superman movies that came out previously. If you look closely in the movie poster, you can actually see the peninsula of Florida and the outlining of the United States. What we learn from this is that Superman is in the atmosphere of Earth, and he is looking out for the people that are in the United States, and no other superhero can do this, protect all the United States of America. This movie is a good representation of how Clark comes back to the world after leaving his love, Louis Lane, but when he does come back, it seems that she has moved on with her life. Compared to what we can see when we read a Marvel comic book, we see that Clark is going through some hardships in his life, even if he is the strongest person on Earth and can shoot beams from his eyes and blowing away tornadoes with his breath.

The Goonies is your classic "terrible 80's movie." With its cheesy humor, terrible graphics, and a predictable story line, this movie, though not the best, is a classic. It follows the story of 4 young boys, some teenagers, a few Italian mobsters, and treasure hidden by the famous pirate "One-Eyed Willie." Throughout the story, the boys and the teenagers follow a treasure map that they found in an attic; soon after they start looking for the treasure, however, the Fratellis (the Italian mobster family) were quick on their tail. In the end, spoiler alert, the kids get the treasure and defeat the Fratellis.

The Fratelli family was made up of 4 members: Mama (no other name is given), Jake, Francis, and Sloth. Sloth's character development throughout the movie is the best out of the entire movie. At the beginning, Sloth is portrayed as this terrifyingly aggressive monster, After discovering Sloth's love for superhero movies and for Babe Ruth candy bars, you grow to absolutely love Sloth by the end of the movie.

Sloth's love of superheroes is evident during the "fight scene" on the pirate ship (which is the clip attached). Sloth was torn between defending his mobster family, or his newfound friends (the 4 younger boys). After some time debating, he chose the 4 boys. The Fratelli family knew Sloth wasn't on their side, and that they were in trouble when Sloth ripped his shirt open, revealing the popular Superman logo on his chest. 

This obviously shows that Superman has had an impact on different forms of media for quite some time. Without Superman, Sloth wouldn't have been inspired (like lots of young people) to do "the right thing" and defeat the villain (the Fratelli family). This also proves how universal the Superman 'S' logo is. Sloth doesn't speak much (he can hardly speak at all). With minimal dialogue, I can guarantee that everyone watching knows that once Sloth reveals that logo on his chest, there's about to be some justice served.

Superman theme by John Williams’ is a very known song relating to Superman in the media. John Williams’ is an American composer who has made music for popular films such as Superman, Starwars, and Jaws. Even though there are no lyrics, Superman theme made a huge impact on the Superman movies. It has a very unique melody during the whole four minute and 30 second song. There are multiple instruments used in the song. Instruments like trumpets and horns were used in the song. The song is meant to represent different themes of Superman. The themes are stability, strength, heroism and love. Just instruments are representing them all. The beginning of the song starts out with loud drastic trumpets. The loud instruments are to be made to start the song out strong. The love theme is during the middle of the song where the instruments became less strong and more suttle. There are string instruments playing during the love theme. With the melodies constantly changing, the music is made to show that Superman is a fighter. The end of the song is to represent anticipation as if something huge is about to happen. John Williams wanted the song to capture every part of his film. Overall the main point of the song is to “effectively captures the film character’s features in musical terms: his unstoppable power, triumphant heroism, stabilizing presence, and capacity for romance” said by John Williams. 

This clip from Superman: The Mechanical Monsters demonstrates the trope that Superman started of changing in a phone booth. Superman changing the phone booth has been adopted by many other heroes as a means of changing from a normal, everyday citizen to a superhero. One example of this is in the Deadpool 2 teaser, titled No Good Deed, where Wade Winston Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) runs into a phone booth and attempts to change into Deadpool before the criminals can get away.

This clip from The Dark Knight Returns is a fight between Batman and Superman. The idea of Batman fighting Superman is generally simple, Superman just overpowers the normal human right? Not exactly. This fight comes from one another’s fears that the other is getting too out of hand, with Superman posing too much of a threat to humanity as a god while Batman’s methods are getting too extreme. The fight can be summarized as Batman using a powered suit to be able to fight Superman with Superman “losing” in the end after Batman spares his life and dies.

What made this important is the fact that Superman did lose in the end, that he almost died. Superman is seen as an invincible character but was later introduced with the weakness to kryptonite to not make him omnipotent and to have human characters, such as Batman or even Lex Luthor, be able to defeat the Man of Steel.

During the entire confrontation between the two, Superman is holding back on his friend. Superman remained a just hero with honor. Based on the power Superman has the fight could have been over in seconds with Superman standing over Batman’s dead body, however Superman is constantly saying that they do not have to fight, that it doesn’t have to be like this, and even as Batman is striking down a weakened Superman, Clark warns Bruce of his heart going into cardiac arrest which ends up killing him. Showing that even though Superman was ordered to capture Batman or kill him, he showed mercy and compassion for someone who genuinely wanted to kill him.