The Man of Steel is preparing to return to the small screen in animated format in My Adventures with Superman, an anime-style adult series that premieres this week on Adult Swim and that seeks to connect with a more mature audience compared to Superman & Lois, the other current project of the character available on The CW and which has a more family-friendly tone.
However, being one of the most popular heroes within the DC mythology, the Last Son of Krypton will also soon return to the big screen in Superman: Legacy, the first official film of the new DCU from James Gunn and Peter Safran. And although this movie will seek to start a new canon for the franchise, which will also include animated productions, series and video games, it seems that there will be common ground between the next Clark Kent and the one in My Adventures with Superman.
After the announcement of the first projects of the first phase of his DCU, entitled Gods & Monsters, Gunn revealed some of the comics that inspired him to build the new path that DC Studios will take and one of the main ones was All-Star Superman, one of the titles that Jack Quaid took as inspiration to build his version of the character for the new animated series, as revealed by The Boys star to Collider:
“Oh yeah, definitely. I read All-Star Superman, was a big inspiration. I think with that one you really do get to see how absolutely genuine that character is. Superman For All Seasons does a similar thing. Those were two really big inspirations for my rendition of Superman. What I liked about this version was he’s Clark first, you know. He starts off like Clark isn’t a persona he puts on in order to be more appealing or to have people underestimate him. Like that’s who he is deep down, and he’s still figuring out who he is as Superman, all the while juggling being an intern at a newspaper, and he very much wants to be a reporter as well, which I think is so cool.”
What’s All-Star Superman About?
Published between 2005 and 2008, the comic collection was written by Grant Morrison and drawn by artist Frank Quitely, and sought to give the character a fresh and different story. Far from telling his origin story, the plot finds Superman already working as a hero, once again saving the world from Lex Luthor's evil plans.
However, when he rescues a team attacked by a clone of Luthor while they were researching and exploring the vicinity of the sun, Kal-El suffers an overexposure of his cells to solar energy, which grants him new power but also starts killing him slowly.
With his life on the line, Superman decides not to reveal his tragic fate but does confess his true identity to Lois Lane. She doesn't believe him at first, so he decides to take her to the Fortress of Solitude and makes her drink a liquid that gives her abilities similar to his for 24 hours to help him fight crime.
Because of his crimes, Lex Luthor falls into prison and Clark visits him to interview him, and there the villain confesses that Superman is dying so that the journalist publishes it, without knowing that they are the same person. After apprehending Luthor and his ally, Solaris, after the former's escape from prison, Clark writes the story about Superman's death but dies while finishing it.
However, Zor-El offers him the chance to return to life, which he does to save Earth one last time, leaving open the possibility of his return. Superman: Legacy will probably not adapt the plot faithfully, but will take some relevant elements to build its story.