For some people, Christopher Reeve will always be Superman no matter who ends up taking the role in the most current version of the man of steel. That’s why this picture from zerologhy is so perfect, though some folks still don’t like Cavill’s redesigned suit all that much either. As Christopher Fiduccia of Screenrant might agree it’s kind of hard to say just who and what has been the best look for Superman throughout the years since there are plenty of opinions on the matter when it comes to who did it right, who was most impressive, and of course where the character is going to go from here. Christopher Reeve wasn’t the first guy to put on the suit since Superman showed up in the late 1930s, but he was the by far the one guy that a lot of people have looked up to ever since he did. There have been others since then but their names have been marked down in history with a little less fanfare for various reasons. Brandon Routh’s attempt was welcomed by some but not by everyone, while Dean Cain’s TV show was actually pretty entertaining back in the day. Henry Cavill certainly had the look, but the direction that his story was taken differed so greatly from what people had come to expect that it wasn’t hard to think that it would be so incredibly divisive when it came to the fans’ reactions. Tyler Hoechlin could possibly be held up as another great attempt since he’s wowed some folks, but through it all Reeve has been one of the biggest, if not THE biggest names that’s ever been attributed to Superman.
The man of steel has been held up as the be-all, end-all of superheroes for so long that he’s become something of a target as well as an idol for many fans since the idea that his power set has changed so drastically over the years has upset a few people and continued to cause some folks’ eyes to glaze over in wonder as they continually accept that he’s just that powerful. Admittedly, fighting over how strong a fictional character is and who could beat him is kind of silly at some point if you keep one foot in reality and one in fiction. But when speaking to a devout fan of DC comics it’s usually best to think of the reasons why Superman is seen to be so insanely popular. It’s because there’s not a lot that he can’t do thanks to the writers, and the fact that when it’s needed he can rise to just about any challenge that he needs to in order to triumph. With Reeve as the titular hero there weren’t a lot of limits that he was imposed with, just as there weren’t in the comics. He had his challenges, that was for certain, but anything that was posed as his weakness was eventually shored up unless it was meant to be one of the few things that he simply couldn’t work past, such as his weakness to kryptonite or his susceptibility to mental and magical attacks.
No matter who’s played Superman in the past, the one huge weakness among all of them is that the writer’s have had to play the one-up game with each other when it comes to who’s the more powerful, who’s more impressive, and who can beat who theoretically and why. Daniel Kurland of Screenrant has more on this topic. This has led to insanely high-powered heroes and villains in the comics and a great deal of controversy in the movies since with a little kryptonite, Batman was throwing down with Superman like it was no big deal. Plus, the fact that Steppenwolf was handling the Justice League fairly well before Supes came in is a huge tell when it comes to his power level since he’s kind of the ace up the sleeve at that point that can fly in and just mop up while the rest of the heroes recover. In other words, Superman has become so incredibly powerful over the years that it takes someone that’s basically a god or close to it to give him a challenge, or someone with a shiny green rock from Krypton, which somehow have been in abundance throughout the timeline.
It’s an argument that’s been made over and over, almost as much as who played the role of Superman better than anyone else, and this is largely because the writers and the directors have added to and even taken away from the legend as the years have gone on. For a long time now Superman has been the standard when it comes to superheroes since he was the first that a lot of people were looking up to and as a result he’s the archetype that gave way to everything that came after. There have been a few individuals that have played the role, but Christopher Reeve definitely made an impression in his day, enough that we’re still talking about him even now.
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