DC has released a whole slew of animated films now, ranging from the particularly great (Justice League: A New Frontier) to the particularly awful (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths). They’ve actually sort of cornered the market on adaptations, definitively putting out some pretty darn entertaining animated films based on some of their graphic novels, including two now from Jeph Loeb’s run of Superman/Batman (which – no matter where you stand on Loeb’s work – are entertaining reads/watches). Of course, the upcoming difficulty now is that DC is putting out an animated adaptation of one of their most celebrated stories – All Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. And just like with the film adaptation of Watchmen, story telling purists are nervous as all hell about how much of the story is going to make it through – one of those purists being yours truly.
Take a look behind the cut as I take a look at the film adaptation of one of my all-time favorite stories (of all time). As a note, spoilers are discussed in comparison of what the film did different from the comic. If you’ve read the comic but not seen the film yet, or vice versa, you might want to be wary of this.
To put it very simply and forwardly: All Star Superman is the story that truly made me as a reader of comics fall in love with the character and idea of Superman. All Star Superman itself was never a strictly straightforward Superman story. There was no great conflict that had to be resolved quickly, but rather a slow burn of ideas as Superman was put to the face of the greatest enemy he’d consistently thwarted: death. As the twelve issues of the mini came out, each one told such unique stories of power and hope as Superman, the most powerful comic icon of all time, endeavored upon twelve labors to prove his heroism beyond a shadow of a doubt in the face of maniacal evil. Never before had such a fantastic representation of the character existed, and the extreme talents behind Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely made this one of the most unbelievable experiences in comics.
Of course, the film dilutes that to a point. The sad fact of the matter is is that upon watching this film, there was no way it wouldn’t actively skip out on some of the story. There is a lot to this comic, some of which really only works in the fact that it is a comic (such as Superman and Earth Q), so you’d imagine a fair bit would be missing. The comic itself is so heavily steeped in the Superman canon that it’s self referential nature doesn’t work in a film adaptation due to the knowledge one assumedly has when reading a comic. It’s the same thing with Batman: Under The Red Hood. In the comic, simply titled Under The Hood, not only do fans know who the Red Hood is historically but they also intrinsically knew the death of Jason Todd story, meaning that it didn’t need to be retold. With the film, DC can’t assume that fans who come to the movie without knowledge of Batman comic books will know anything about either, so the movie opens with the death of Jason Todd – thus actually losing the emotional impact contained from the original reveal in the comic. All Star Superman is another case of this, and while it is a self contained story, it’s still one that exists within the mythos of the DCU as a whole.
That being said, it’s not a bad adaptation all things considered. Yes, large parts of the story are cut out (the aforementioned Earth Q, Superman interacting with the bottled city, Bizarro World, Jimmy Olsen as Doomsday, the Alt-Supermen, Leo Quintum’s role severely downgraded), but for the most part the story is fairly faithful. Not to a perfect degree, no, but enough to still get some of the entertaining parts of the comic in the movie. Lex Luthor still tricks Superman into overcharging his cells, and Luthor does still team-up with Solaris at the end to reign destruction down on a mostly-mortal Superman, who in turn has to go into the Sun to save the day. Yes, things are cut out, but a lot of the ideas are there. This is still the twelve labors of Superman, and it’s still an emotionally charged Superman story, more so than any other Superman we’ve seen in a DC animated adaptation. The things that are kept in the story are very much close mirror images both story-wise and visually to their comic counterparts, and though none of it is perfect (new lines in some part, dumbed down ideas in others), when the movie gets it right, it gets it right. Heck, even Superman’s mention of acknowledgement to Robot 7’s malfunction is a pretty great tribute to some of the seeds Morrison had planted in the original story, all of which had great pay-offs for those who kept annotations. This isn’t specifically Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman anymore, but to a certain extent it is still very much All Star Superman.
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The art also largely mirror’s Frank Quitely’s work, both stylistically and scene-wise. Anyone who has a copy of the comics or trades handy might find it amusing to hold the comic open while watching the film. The care given to recreate some of the more memorable Quitely moments (even with simply Clark’s stumbling around in the opening) is actually rather impressive, and in that regards it reminisces of the great care given to the adaptation of New Frontier (which also took a fair amount of loss as far as content goes).
Of course, the loss of content to the movie doesn’t exactly help it. At the very base of it, the name All Star Superman has little to do with anything in the film as much as it did a branding in the comic. Some of the things that were taken out of the movie also have a very resonant impact, such as the loss of Regan’s scene. Fans of the comic might remember a suicidal teen that Superman saves (pictured here) named Regan, which was one of the most emotionally charged parts of the book – and it only lasted a single page. The comic itself was an exploration of Superman as an icon and a bastion of hope, and that one page solidified the idea in a very iconic image, which unfortunately the movie didn’t reproduce. It was a scene that could arguably have been inserted anywhere. Superman, with his super human hearing, could have jetted away at any time to save poor Regan, and the scene would have been a triumph within the film – but for whatever reason, it wasn’t inserted, and that’s fairly sad.
On top of that, some of the scene changes do somewhat change the inherent nature of the book. For example, the finale. In the final issue of the story, Lex Luthor has run mad with power, using his brief foray into Superman’s world as a tool for destruction, thus leaving Superman few options to defeat him. However, when he finally does, Superman takes a second to finally just punch down Lex, knocking him out and then soon after leaving. The scene is quite wonderful because throughout the entire comic, Lex had been a rather deplorable villainous character, one who Superman had repeatedly tried to reason with both as Clark and Superman, noting that Lex could have saved the world multiple times if he’d wanted to. In the film, the same is true for Lex, except at the end Superman somewhat forgives Luthor, and Luthor in turn does his best to apologize and make things better. A lot of the emotional impact is lost again here, as seeing a “reformed at the last second” Luthor is not nearly as poetic a finale as seeing Luthor knocked out flat by Superman is. The idea here is building up to that moment between the two – an apology loses that. Not only that, but having Luthor leave the formula of how to re-make Superman takes away one of Superman’s 12 labors, only 6 of which actively make into the film.
The last time DC attempted to recreate a Morrison story with Crisis On Two Earths, it was a rather miserable adaptation due to the loss of the majority the adult themes from the comic. All Star Superman, while being a much more difficult comic to adapt emotionally and thematically, is somewhat of a “simpler” story to retell, and while the film doesn’t do a perfect job (and let’s be honest – what book to film adaptation ever has?), it does a fairly close job. There are errors here, yes, but to a certain extent the film is just like reading only a few choice issues of the comic. If you’re a fan who has never read the comic, I would highly recommend checking it out before watching the film or even just instead of, because there was never any way that the film would be better – never, ever. However, for people who are already fans of the comic, the film is essentially the Cliff Notes version. It cuts out some of the more mythos-ridden elements of the story (that really serve as tributes to the incredibly impressive years of storytelling given to the character) and streamlines the story for fans, and if anything should be seen as a “companion” piece for people who are too lazy to simply sit and reread the comic. Again, it’s not awful by any measure, but it’s certainly not the same emotional roller coaster that is the comic.
My final comment in regard to the adaptation is this, and it should hopefully allow me to editorialize enough to get my final point across: if I’m laying in bed at the end of the day and am in the mood to sit down and really read and enjoy a story before going to sleep, I will always grab the book. Always. However, if for whatever reason I’ve had a long day, and I’m very tired – too tired to read – having the movie as an option isn’t necessarily a bad one to have.
