Err... I am not familiar with Mass Effect, but I know most of the references this guy uses throughout the pitch. And yes, it's cool. He also includes detailed outlines of Luthor, Brainiac (in this version, Brainiac has no discernible shape and he's basically an artificial God), Doomsday. There was a plan to include an entire section about the B-list villains (Metallo, Parasite, Mxyzptlk, etc), but unfortunately it was never completed. I don't think that every single detail of the pitch works, and of course the execution is even more important than the ideas, but at least 90% of the pitch follows what I consider the right direction. By the way, I found a way to link it. Enjoy...
http://bazzardthebazz.blogspot.com/2...tml?q=superman
http://bazzardthebazz.blogspot.com/2...tml?q=superman
http://bazzardthebazz.blogspot.com/2...tml?q=superman
It's not that this type of relaunch/reboot would necessarily rule out the most surreal elements - but my point is that one of the things Superman needs the most is a paradigm and a recognizable context on which creators could build something interesting, mature and possibly provocative for years. That's where Superman could learn a lot from Batman. You can have a bad Batman run from time to time, but once a new writer is abroad, he/she will always some elements to build a different story. They will have Gotham, Gordon, Arkham, that very specific Gotham atmosphere. On the contrary, once Bendis is off Superman/Action Comics the next writer won't have much to build on (unless they find a way to make President Superman stuff work). And I don't even hate Bendis, I actually think that he's a pretty good writer, I just think that his run never really delivered (our pal Superlad93's speculations about Bendis' run are actually more interesting than the run itself) and Superman still misses the paradigm he desperately needs.
The way I see hard sci-fi doesn't imply that we would need to know maths and physics to read Superman. I actually don't know much about physics myself and I have to take an effort to read Greg Egan's novels, but his short stories are perfectly readable and strongly imaginative. There is a short story of his about a guy who - for unknown reasons - wakes up each day in the body of a different person (a real person, with a real identity). The story has a serious, melancholic tone. Egan describes in detail how this unwilling psychic parasite thinks, what his life has been like since he was born, what normality means for him, etc.. That's what hard sci-fi/Weird Fiction/Cyberpunk/PostCyberpunk is for - more about "extreme" visions of existence, sexuality, alienness than anything else. China Miéville - who is mostly a fantasy writer - is basically a Super Grant Morrison. His works could be the most imaginative I have ever seen in literature - stuff like his Perdido Street Station novel is literally crammed with ideas and concepts, and he also uses a serious tone with a focus on political themes. He also did a celebrated run on Dial H for Hero years ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial_H . I actually think that this type of vision could be strongly beneficial for very imaginative but generally underdeveloped Superman concepts, like the 5th dimension, Bizarro World - which isn't generally much more than a comedic device - or the Phantom Zone.
Potentially speaking, Hickman would certainly be able to deliver. But again, even if it sounds like a broken record: time, creative freedom and also interest on Hickman's part are key factors. I doubt we could get much with 5-6 Hickman issues. He should use Superman as a creative-owned character, turning him inside out for at least 4-5 years.