Superman: Red Son and Superman: Man of Tomorrow Animated Feature Films

[Yoda]

It’ll be like how JL Doom adapted Tower of Babel. The basic plot is similar, Batman’s plans to take out the JL get stolen by a villain, but the details are all different. Savage is the main villain not Ra’s, and he leads a Legion of Doom to help him with his goals.

Or like how Superman: Doomsday adapted "Death of Superman." Superman fights Doomsday, dies, and then the rest of the film largely deviates from the comics.

WB's animation teams have been pretty sly about working in comic stories into animation and repurposing them to fit a different narrative environment. They did that plenty in the JL cartoon. For instance, the JL episode "Hereafter" is basically "Death of Superman" and Action Comics #300 rolled into a 44-minute story, mixed in with the end of the show's Vandal Savage Trilogy, and it works surprisingly great.

I haven't seen JL Doom, but the way you describe it along with the Superman: Doomsday adaptation/and JLU episodes are close to what I think we're going to see. It'll be interesting to see what it turns out to be. If the pattern holds, there will probably be a behind the scenes feature on it with next weeks Justice League Dark release. If there is a stronger connection than we're thinking, I wouldn't be surprised if they focus on the murders row of artists that worked on it and just pretend the writer doesn't exist.

[Frontier]

I have to think if this is going to be in any way an "adaption" of American Alien, it's going to kinda be in the vein of the MCU or Arrowverse crossovers where they borrow some plot elements to tell a new story. Only here they are going to do their best not to even acknowledge a connection. I could see them borrowing a little bit of the Pixarish first issue for some flashbacks to his powers developing, the broad strokes of him and Lois being interns together, and the Parasite and Lobo fights. Beyond that, I don't think it's going to do more than borrow some really generalized stuff they can deny was in any way connected to American Alien. They would have announced Batman or Bruce Wayne in the cast, or Deathstroke, if they were going to do an actual adaptation.

Yeah, it's not like they can really admit to adapting it or citing it as a direct influence considering the controversy over Max Landis.

I haven't seen JL Doom, but the way you describe it along with the Superman: Doomsday adaptation/and JLU episodes are close to what I think we're going to see. It'll be interesting to see what it turns out to be. If the pattern holds, there will probably be a behind the scenes feature on it with next weeks Justice League Dark release. If there is a stronger connection than we're thinking, I wouldn't be surprised if they focus on the murders row of artists that worked on it and just pretend the writer doesn't exist.

The sneak peeks generally use comic images inter-sped with actual footage from the movie...so there might be some American Alien art in there but they probably won't draw attention to it.

[Superlad93]

I wouldn't be surprised if they focus on the murders row of artists that worked on it and just pretend the writer doesn't exist.

Very good point. I'm thinking of Manapul in particular. He seemed to have come away from the project really happy. It was to the point where he referenced it with a line in his Trinity book for early Rebirth.

[Yoda]

Very good point. I'm thinking of Manapul in particular. He seemed to have come away from the project really happy. It was to the point where he referenced it with a line in his Trinity book for early Rebirth.

Yeah, he even had that little follow up Christmas story that ended up in one of the specials they put out right when Bendis took over.

[DochaDocha]

I don't think it's gonna be American alien. In that story superman wears the costume at the very end. It looks different as well.Before that he wears a modified batman cowl and cape after ripping it off from him. Also, loved the flight goggles and flight balancing bits. It's by far the third best postcrisis origin story for me.

Does Max Landis always insist on making Batman a part of Superman's development? After he did that infamous "Death of Superman" parody, he had a video pitch for how he'd do the story, and a big part of it was having Batman train him how to fight.

[Superlad93]

Yeah, he even had that little follow up Christmas story that ended up in one of the specials they put out right when Bendis took over.

Very true. Seems like he vibed really hard with that version of the character. Really sucks that garbage people can end up making stuff that you really like.

[manwhohaseverything]

Does Max Landis always insist on making Batman a part of Superman's development? After he did that infamous "Death of Superman" parody, he had a video pitch for how he'd do the story, and a big part of it was having Batman train him how to fight.

Well, if the guy is portrayed as a brick in other media who swings his fists like an idiot Then, he does need training. I don't care if its batman, wildcat, Muhammad Ali or goku that does it. Nah! He pretty much had eveyone be part of superman's development green arrow, cheetah, green lanterns, Deathstroke, dick grayson ... Etc. I would say dick grayson was the most influential part of superman's development. Burce didn't impact much.Also, if i remember correctly agent of batman was also about further developing superman and dick grayson relationship. It just so happens superman slamed batman through a wall tore of his cape and decided its pretty cool in the is version .

[bat39]

Definitely getting some American Alien vibes here, but not a lot. I agree that this is probably an original story, borrowing a few elements from the later issues of that series. Maybe there will be some Smallville flashbacks based on the first issue.

The one image we have kinda screams "old-school" and "retro". Superman looks like a younger version of the Superman from the Superfriends cartoons! American Alien certainly didn't fit that classic mold of Superman.

I'm guessing this is a reboot of the DC Animated Movies verse, rather than a prequel to Justice League War.

[stargazer01]

I liked when Death of Superman used some references to the movies, visuals or lines. I like it. I think it's smart and it attracts subsets of fans from all eras. I need another great shirt rip please! I love it.

Also looking forward to some Metropolis Clark scenes trying to hide he's Superman. Will Lois find out? Hmm

[DochaDocha]

Well, if the guy is portrayed as a brick in other media who swings his fists like an idiot Then, he does need training. I don't care if its batman, wildcat, Muhammad Ali or goku that does it. Nah!

If Batman does a lot of mentoring for Superman, it kind of breaks the "Big 3" or "World's Finest" dynamic of equal(ish) partners.

Also looking forward to some Metropolis Clark scenes trying to hide he's Superman. Will Lois find out? Hmm

It's a classic Superman element that's been largely missing from movies for the past 13 years, save a scene here or there. Would be nice to see again.

[Frontier]

Does Max Landis always insist on making Batman a part of Superman's development? After he did that infamous "Death of Superman" parody, he had a video pitch for how he'd do the story, and a big part of it was having Batman train him how to fight.

If it helps, his Batman is also a colossal tool...

[Vordan]

If it helps, his Batman is also a colossal tool...

You seen that Agent of Batman script? I only saw parts but wow was Bruce a douche in that, and Clark was a total moron. Kinda glad it’s never getting made.

[Robanker]

You seen that Agent of Batman script? I only saw parts but wow was Bruce a douche in that, and Clark was a total moron. Kinda glad it’s never getting made.

For what it's worth, I think the "Agent of Batman" thing referred to Dick Grayson. As I understood it, a big part of the story was to revolve around Batman's treatment of Dick through Clark's perspective. I don't remember where I read that, but it sounded interesting at the very least. Regardless, pretty glad it's not coming out for a myriad of reasons, Clark being an idiot just adding to that list.

[manwhohaseverything]

If Batman does a lot of mentoring for Superman, it kind of breaks the "Big 3" or "World's Finest" dynamic of equal(ish) partners.

We all get tutored by our friends once in a while. It's not like being mentor anything. Clark so far is a farmboy, who moved to city. He got his stuffings beat out of him by lobo because he got nothing. Now, he decided to get into it. Actually, get into it. I don't particularly care about titles. What i want is character to be something great. This is an arc that should be done postcrisis superman and setup in a way that's sustained in direction. I know there is mongul. But, that training wasn't setup as sustainable direction. Out of the big three of dc or in general,superman has the worst movements. When batman moves it feels like a shadow coming to get you. When spiderman moves it feels like amazing acrobat or a creepy crawler. Wonderwoman had better action than man of steel. Which went dbz level, but clark was still whaling around his hands. Dbz has great fights. The movie even critics it. Why is clark like that? Because he needs to be the farmboy disconnected from all this.

"i trained my entire life. I was bread to be a warrior, kal. Where did you train? On a farm?"

In an action genre, that's pretty bad. Getting out of that perception is needed. It's better to do that with development and with character that people would accept/keep in mind for a sustainable direction.

" hey! Remember when batman trained clark. That was cool. ain't it? So he isn't just a strong brick" .

It makes sense too. postcrisis superman is older and more postive peter parker who is an overdog and has a messiah complex with less focus on "amazing" parts and is all about "development" and "maturing" . Thankfully, landis basically flipped the switch he made what spidey great "the selfish choice comes first and then the altruistic one". And that too in a postive and endearing way like for spidey. He removed the overdog thing and the messiah complex . He goofs around. He is immature. He makes faces. Talks to a kid (dick grayson) like an equal. He fraudulently uses bruce's identity . He gets drunk.

He Finds a girl like him,a beast. It's wierd,i never thought i would say chettah and clark can be a great couple. It's different, but it sorta fits. A fenrir wolf and a cheetah .It isn't the standard beauty and the beast stories. Where as clark is all about taming his impulse, minerva decides not to go with clark after all.

[Gaius]

If it helps, his Batman is also a colossal tool...

Yeah, I liked seeing an instance where Batman is completely outclassed by Superman but I don’t care for the two’s first proper encounter is them being dicks to one another and ending in a fight.