The more that slips out, the more that it seems like that Superman: Man of Steel will be cribbing a fair bit from Superman: Birthright, a 2003 twelve issue series from DC Comics that re-worked the Superman origin story a bit, something that hadn’t been done since the mid 1980’s after the continuity changing Crisis on Infinite Earths series which lead to the Man of Steel miniseries from John Byrne. While some of the basic information that we saw last years when it came to casting tidbits indicated this, it’s been even more reinforced after the Baseline Studio System updated this weekend with this new synopsis for the 2012 feature film:
“A young reporter named Clark Kent roams the world covering various news stories. When he is compelled to use his secret powers to intervene in a crisis in West Africa, he returns to Smallville to learn more about his origins and the hero he was born to be.”
The DC Comics limited series, written by Mark Waid, seems to have quite a few parallels here, which can be found just in the basic plot outline that’s listed on Wikipedia as taken from the issue summaries themselves:
“The story begins with a retelling of the destruction of planet Krypton. Jor-El laments the fact that his world accomplished “miracles no one will remember” while he is busy preparing infant Kal-El’s voyage. Kal-El’s shuttle pod fires into space moments before the planet’s destruction. Jor-El and his wife Lara regret that they will never know if Kal-El survives the journey.
Time winds forward to present day West Africa, where an ethnic conflict between the fictional Ghuri and Turaaba clans is claiming lives (this conflict is very reminiscent of the Hutu and Tutsi wars in Rwanda). Clark Kent, a freelance reporter in his early twenties, arrives to cover the conflict…
Clark returns to Smallville, determined to learn more about his alien heritage. He tells his mother Martha that he wants to unearth his spaceship. He and Martha use the data tablet that came with Clark from Krypton to examine holographic records of Kryptonian history.”
When Superman: Birthright came out, it was something that was intended as the DC Comics answer to Marvel’s Ultimates lineup that was less continuity driven and more accessible to new readers. It instead ended up being absorbed as the new canon origin and just last year was saw the Superman “new universe” style storyline come to fruition again with the Superman: Earth One hardcover, which thankfully looks to not be the basis of this film.
