While I don't really read many comics any more I'm aware that the post-crisis Clark is much less bumbling and comical than the Reeve/ Routh version and that the retention of this take on the character annoyed many viewers. But I can understand why in a big screen movie they need to make them so evidently different. In a comic, you just have to draw them slightly differently, you just have to establish that people don't confuse them or see any similarity and you're off. In a movie, if Clark is a big strapping, handsome, confident jock of a guy, then it becomes well-nigh impossible to see how people don't see through the disguise.
But it doesn't follow that the
only alternative is for Clark to be an absurdly overplayed klutz. Reeve was successful in differentiating Clark and Superman just by changing the way he stood, the way he looked at people. It was a marvelously subtle bit of character acting that just got swamped by all the over-the-top clumsiness. You could edit out the klutzy stuff and just hire an actor good enough to make the two men
different from each other, even if they both come off as competent and effective in two different ways.
One thing that's always interested me about Tim Daly's performance in S:TAS is that it seems to me that his Clark voice is actually a bit
deeper than his Superman voice, in contrast to what you'd expect. And maybe that's because Superman has to be friendlier, more accessible, brighter. Imagine a version where Clark is played as a very serious, driven, tough journalist while Superman is much more affable and warm. There are certainly alternatives to painting Clark as a bumbling caricature.
I'd certainly like to see a return to the social-crusading reporter Clark Kent from the 1940s daily newspaper strips (and, to a certain extant, in the comic books of that era). In the strips, Clark is a very aggressive journalist who doesn't let hoodlums or his editor--George Taylor-cum-Perry White--get in much of his way. It's only around Lois that Clark becomes a milquetoast, which at times puzzles Taylor.
Moreover, I want Clark to be
shown as a capable journalist and not the office buffoon of the Reeve movies. However, even if Clark is made into a "tough, hard-noised reporter", he shouldn't completely lose that earnestness that Reeve infused in the role. Perhaps Clark can be an able journalist, an advocate for the citizens of Metropolis and an adversary to those who would exploit those same citizens, who is somewhat aloof and withdrawn around Lois instead of a "bumbling klutz". But still earnest and sincere, and, perhaps, his aloofness being misinterpreted, at times, as awkward shyness. Certainly, he should remain an even-keeled person, dare I say, mild-mannered but like George Reeves's Kent won't be pushed around when it comes to getting answers.
Clark should also be used to get as far in the story where only Superman can take care of things. Kinda like the old Reeves show and
Lois and Clark. After all, Clark as a journalist can get into places and to people that he never can as Superman, which is something sorely missing in the film adaptations.
Yet at the same time I want Clark and Lois to be believable journalists not "Hollywood" cliche reporters who don't take notes and say things like "my readers want to know." Have them really do some investigative journalism, digging for documents and sources, then asking directed questions of government and business officials (Lex anybody?). Have them use a soft touch in combination with an iron glove instead of coming out like rabid bulldogs (as so many Hollywood movies portray reporters). Oh and for the love of God, don't put them in silly disguises to infiltrate some sleezy mob operation or nightclub or whatever.
Same with the newsroom. Let it look and feel like a major city bullpen, not some overly stylized Hollywood production of one. As much as I love the 1940s Art Deco look, let's bring things up-to-date. Let's show a paper losing readership, publishing management turning screws, and an editorial department struggling to cover the city with an ever shrinking staff.
If Superman is to be cast in the same mold--black hair, blue eyes, light skin--then I'd open casting to different ethnicities for the supporting cast. I think the Daily Planet could use a more mutli-ethnic newsroom. Imagine a black actress in the role of Lois Lane. Or maybe an Asian actress. Or a Hispanic Perry White. Hell, I thought casting Dean Cain as Supes/Kent--acting talents aside--was a ballsy move on the part of Deborah Joy LeVine and I applaud her for it.
