What Is a Darker Superman?

Zack Snyder and screenwriter David Goyer actually mean when they say that this version of Superman will be “darker” than past incarnations. This is all in an attempt to make the character “relevant” again. Does that mean that the character, the circumstances, the villains or simply the tone will be taken to a darker degree than previous incarnations? My honest answer is that I expect all of the above, but to varying degrees.

Since Superman achieved such amazing success as the #1 comic book hero for over 40 years, his writers were certainly on the right track for the times. As the first-ever superhero in 1938, his comics and merchandise sales along with success in other media like radio and television made him into an icon. Eventually Batman became more popular, as did other heroes from other companies like Spider-Man and The X-Men. Before the character’s death in 1992, a good friend of mine told me about how people would make fun of him for liking Superman. Of course once he died, they were jealous that he had all of the lead-up comics sitting in a hold box at his local comic store.
Thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, Warner Brothers seems to be trying to copy the darker, grittier realism with other major characters like Superman. But that can be a slippery slope because Superman isn’t like Batman. Although they were good friends in the comics from the 40’s-70’s, when John Byrne recreated Superman for the comics in 1986, he set them at odds with each other because their methods would necessarily have to be so opposite. Superman can fly and is bulletproof, so how hard would it be to stop the likes of Catwoman or Two-Face? And Batman would have a much harder time taking on someone like Brainiac or Darkseid who could probably crush him with bare hands. The fact that Batman gets the job done by using fear and intimidation, plus that he is effectively a criminal vigilante working outside the law, meant that the first thing Superman tried to do when they met was arrest him and take him to jail. If they are so completely different, what are some of the ways that the success of the Batman films feed into success with Superman?
My friend Frankie Addiego pointed out to me the other day that we should notice that nobody ever asks if Mickey Mouse or Dick Tracy are “still relevant” even though neither have starred in movies in a long time. If Superman had such a drastic influence on every other superhero in comics, shouldn’t his relevance already be implicit?by jeffrey taylor