Who’s Superman?

By John Freeman on January 7, 2008

Who will play Superman? Rumour has it that while Brandon Routh, the actor who played the Man of Steel in Warner Bros. Superman Returns, won’t star in the studio’s live action movie adaptation of another DC Comics property, Justice League, he will, however, Ain’t it Cool News reports he’ll continue to star in the individual Superman movies.

Routh took some flack at the time of the release of Superman Returns for allegedly playing Superman in a “less macho” way than previous portrayals. Routh hit back hard at his critics, telling the Sydney Morning Herald Superman certainly wasn’t gay as some claimed, and neither was he.

The Justice League movie will reportedly be its “own experience”, which is to say it won’t reach out to the other existing DC Comics movie franchises such as Batman. This makes business sense — Warner won’t want to ‘taint’ their other superhero franchises if the new Justice league outing isn’t a success.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.