Superman is generally considered the simplest superhero. Not just because he’s the model by which the American superhero genre was eventually defined, but because his most consistent feature over the past 85 years is that he’s good. He’s a good dude who wants to do good, and when the going gets tough, he tries his best to stay good. This, of course, provides a conundrum for writers and creators: a story requires an emotional arc, so how do you make Superman, the eternal Boy Scout, interesting? So far, the movie that best answers this question is the original 1978 Superman, the only Superman film to completely trust in the idea that Superman’s efforts to do good are inherently interesting.
