Superman small talk while you wait in line for popcorn...

So, with literally hours to go before the most anticipated film of the year finally hits the big screen, I thought I'd celebrate this fact with a different slant.

Yes, comic to film adaptations has proven to be the economic saviour of Hollywood over the past decade. While the 'China man' mysteriously popped up out of nowhere, asking me in a straight to the point question: "Dee-Vee-Dee?" it soon became clear that this unassuming character was in fact  single handidly bringing the mighty Hollywood to its knees.

Admit it, we all at some point have watched, or bought a pirate DVD at some point. Oh, and don't act like you didn't shout in frustrated anger at the TV screen as a shadowy figure suddenly appeared on the picture, got up and decided to go to the toilet. What exactly were we moaning at? The fact we bought an illegally produced DVD for £3 from a shady China man in the middle of a car park? Yeah, they didn't exactly come with receipts. But that didn't stop me going back and complaining, to which I would get given an extra film of my choice for my troubles.

Anyway, I as always I digress. The moment I think Hollywood took back control from the shoddy pirate DVD underworld, was when they started to produce serious action flicks which required full surround and crisp images. 3-D optional. Most of these happened to be the now infamous comic to movie screen adaptations. If there is really anyone out there that would happily watch the forth coming Superman film by Christopher Nolan on a poor quality, shoddy, pirate DVD in an effort to save a buck... they should slap themselves right now, so hard that they fall off the chair.

Anyway, as we all are now completely happy again to part with in excess of £10 to £15 plus in order to watch the first instalment of Christopher Nolan's Superman. Here's a few things you ought to know that you can impress your friends with whilst you casually stand in line waiting to get popcorn.

Perry White, the editor in chief of the Daily Planet who happens to be Clark Kent's boss and a very famous and pivotal almost father-esque character within Superman's circle is NOT from the comic.  He was invented within a radio serial version of Superman in 1940.  After Perry's success via that radio serial, his character was then adopted into the comics later that year.

The 'S' stands for Superman? Well, yes, but no. It turns out it's more cryptic, with a deeper meaning rooted within his Kryptonian family... and that, hey, after all it's not even actually an 'S'.

Jimmy Olsen, yep, lovable 'Jimmy'. Clark's  work day 'bromance' interest, was NOT from the comics. He was invented for a radio serial again in 1940, purely as someone for Clark to talk to. Yes, folks - prior to Jimmy being invented by radio, Superman was indeed a complete loner sitting in the canteen eating cheese sandwiches. He was adopted into the comics in 1941, within a story called 'Superman vs The Archer', which can be found in Superman issue 13. He kind of vanished throughout the rest of the forties, and reappeared in the comics around 1953.

A weird fact about Jimmy, is that he seemed to have a penchant for cross-dressing. He went undercover in four comic issues as a woman, and took it further when he undertook drastic body transformation to become various characters such as, Speed Demon, Elastic Lad, Wolf Man, Giant Turtle Man and a human porcupine.

OK, so this could be the best thing to wow your mates about... Kryptonite, the matter from his hometown which filtered down to earth from his now exploded planet, is NOT from the comics!

Kryptonite first appeared in the radio serial "The adventures of Superman" in 1943... it was used as an excuse for the guy that used to voice Superman to take time off!

Yep, Bud Collyer wanted his holidays and this was the only way to engineer it. They cooked up a plot that allowed dear old Bud to roll out and sip on a bud by the beach... A full six years passed before this detail of Kryptonite got included into the comic under the watchful eye of Dorothy Woolfolk in 1949. The main reason was due to the fact she found Superman's invulnerability severely dull.

Yes, I never quite saw the whole point of fighting over comic book purists in relations to films... "Ahhh! that's not in the comics." Me? I ain't read no 1942 comic, so how am I supposed to know that?! But, this research has taught me that damn... I understand the purists now. Wow.

Christopher Nolan, you better rep' like you did for Batman, that's all I'm saying.





Joshua, TCC