Apparently, Millar wrote issues 16, 19, 22 to 38, 41 and 52 of Superman Adventures. Most of it was reprinted in four digest format TPBs.
I'm sure most have heard this already, but Mark Millar is lobbying hard to get to be the one to write the new Superman reboot movie and wants it to be an epic trilogy.
Yah that's part of the reason I'm interested in checking out his SA issues, which are generally well regarded.
Millar's outlines his ideas for Superman previously with a proposed reboot of the comic-book series. For your approval or disapproval: http://www.bluetights.net/theplanet/showpost.php?p=8918&postcount=1 There's a lot of things in there that I think Millar is way off the mark on. And based upon this and other comments he has made over the years, I don't think that he has a good understanding of the Man of Steel nor does he get the nuanced complexities of the dual identity of Clark Kent and Superman. I haven't read the SA issues, but did enjoy Red Son but that was an alternate look at Superman and I was willing to give Millar a pass on his interpretation. Although, I find it interesting that the two people who see Clark as merely a disguise, Waid and Millar, both end their greatest Superman works with the Man of Steel taking up the Clark Kent indentity in the end and abandoning the Superman one.
Well, it depends on what era's Clark and Superman you're talking about. What Millar's describing is essentially the return of the Silver/Bronze Age Superman, and particularly the return of Elliot S! Maggin's fascinating take on Superman in the '70s comics and the two utterly brilliant, long out-of-print Superman novels that Maggin wrote (both of which are online along with a couple of other Maggin prose stories here). Byrne took a very different approach to Clark and Superman, one that's valid and interesting in its own way, but the Maggin version was quite intriguing as well and just as valid. Byrne was more interested in humanizing Superman, but Maggin embraced the idea of him as, essentially, a god among men and explored what that meant. Maybe that made him a little less accessible, but no less interesting in the right hands.
Oh, I know that Millar has an affinity for the Silver/Bronze Age. I know that he wants a return to that, but his viewpoint, for me, takes it to a new extreme especially in terms of the relationship between Clark, Superman and Lois Lane. What he's outlined dosen't completly work for me. I've always thought that the relationship of Clark to Superman and Superman to Clark, over the years through all the various interpretations from Shuster and Siegal to Elloit S! Maggin to Byrne, is a much more nuanced and complicated relationship that I don't think can be just one or the other anymore in terms of Clark Kent being just a disguise. Something that I feel Geoff Johns is portraying well in his current comic-book run. And I think it's something that can be better explored in a new movie because the Donnor films already gave us the Maggin/Silver-Bronze age version. Going forward, I'd like to see a different take on the secret identity that takes into consideration the way that Clark-Superman relationship has changed and been altered over the years. Perhaps, something of what Mark Waid tried to do in Birthright. Better yet, what Morrison has done in All-Star Superman. As Pete Ross once quoted in a 1970s The Private Life of Clark Kent, "We must be careful what we pretend to be because some day we may wake up to find that's what we are." I think that quote is a good place to start to begin an exploration of who is the real disguise, Clark or Superman or are they both one and the same. I don't agree with all that Byrne did either, especially the high school superstar and athlete aspect. In fact, I do enjoy Maggin's take on Superman. One thing to mention is that Maggin was in favor of Clark and Lois getting together and married. Something that he tried to do in his run but was vetoed by the powers that be at the time. He felt, like Shuster and Sigel (their lost issue of Superman), that Lois could eventually be an assist to Superman's ongoing battle for truth, justice and the American Way. Then again, I'd have to see Millar execute before I can fully dismiss him but as it stands an outline form, I don't agree with all of his ideas. Some are, I have to admit, nevertheless interesting but way off the mark. I don't think having him do it in motion picture form is a good idea; maybe as a new series of All-Star Superman. By the way, thanks Christoper, for linking those novels and those stories. I thought they'd been lost when the Fortress history site went bye-bye. "Luthor's Gift" is one of my favorite Superman stories.
I don't agree with Millar's take on Superman, I have to say; the Kents, the idea that he's inherently alien, the take on Lois, none of that feels right.
I don't like the sound of this interpretation. I've always seen Supes are inherently humble and "human". Supes... incapable of loving Lois? No thanks. Of course, I only know Supes from the animated series (90s) and the mid 90s plus comics.
Not familiar with All-Star, but I quite liked Birthright. I thought it did a good job of balancing elements from both Maggin-era and Byrne-era Superman. I might like to see something like that. I guess I have mixed feelings about the idea of a Silver Age Superman in the movies. On the one hand, that would be too much like the Reeve movies and SR, and a reboot for the franchise should go in a different direction. On the other hand, we've had decades of the "Clark is real, Superman is a disguise" approach in Lois and Clark and Smallville -- the latter having taken it to an extreme that's become quite tiresome at this point. After seven or eight seasons of an angsty, self-absorbed farmboy Clark who shows no interest or proclivity for becoming the world's greatest hero, a story focusing on Superman as a benevolent godlike or Christlike figure might be a refreshing change of pace.
All-Star is very subtle with it, but there are a few panels that showcase that the relationship of Clark to Superman and Superman to Clark may not be easily divesive. There's this panel where Superman stands in front of a mirror that reflects the true self but he's wearing the Kent glasses and slouching. It is a wonderful visual that subtly shows that maybe there's a thrid alternative like the Alan Moore story where Kal-El has a dream that shows Clark's suit and Superman's uniform taking to him. Oh, I agree completely. I am so done with Smallville Clark who is too self-centered to be the Man of Steel. Superman Returns tried to do a more complex interpretation with the three personas of Metropolis Clark, The Last Son of Krypton (Kal-El/Smallville Clark) and Superman (the public persona) but failed in its execution since more time was spent on Lois' fiancee than on Clark or Superman. I'd like to see something different that, like Birthright, is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes-- Clark as disguise and Clark as "the real person."
Also too judgmental and suspicious in nature. He's always so quick to assume the worst of anyone, and to act all betrayed when people keep secrets from him the same way he keeps secrets from them. He believes he has a right to treat them in a way they don't have the right to treat him. All of these are very, very, very dangerous traits in the most powerful being on the planet. I expect Smallville's Clark to jump right past the benevolent-hero stage and go directly to the Kingdom Come Superman or the DCAU Justice Lords Superman, a ruthless tyrant who believes he's entitled to control everyone for their own protection and imprison anyone whose behavior he finds the least bit suspicious.
^He started off fine but digressed pretty quickly as the seasons went by. Such a promising concept but do to other forces the series let Clark turn into a stagnant, angst ridden character. You're right, I can easily see him turning into those despondent versions of Kal-El but without the transitions and character strife that those versions went through to become that way. Either that or Smallville Clark will become the Batman version in Speeding Bullets.