# I don't accept a flying Superman

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-accept-a-flying-superman/117327>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 4, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-accept-a-flying-superman/117327 "2002-07-04T06:11:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-accept-a-flying-superman/117327/41 "2002-07-08T23:47:56Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chronos \*  
> \*\*Quoth **Winston Bongo** :I liked _Lois and Clark_’s take on that one: What’s-his-name the editor comments in one episode “Yeah, Clark does kind of look like Superman. And folks tell me I look like Nixon, it doesn’t mean I’m him.”. \*\*

The “editor,” of course, was Perry White. In the TV show, he was played by Lane Smith. Smith once played Richard Nixon in a TV movie based on Woodward and Bernstein’s [_The Final Days_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0097354). So, not only was it a rational explanation as to why people don’t realize that Kent is Superman, it was also an inside joke.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-accept-a-flying-superman/117327/42 "2002-07-09T02:07:51Z")

</div>

Kevin Smith tells a great story at his lectures about his aborted gig writing the script for the new Superman movie. The producer–apparently a raving nutcase–gave him three criteria for the story: he didn’t want Superman to be seen in “that suit” (he didn’t like the way it looked), he didn’t want him to fly (because the special effects in those other movies always looked so cheesy), and at some point in the movie, Superman had to fight a giant spider (“They’re the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom, you know”).

He went on to suggest that a scene Kevin read to him in which the villain (I forget which one) visits the Fortress of Solitude and doesn’t find Superman there needed an action beat. “Can’t he fight some of Superman’s soldiers?” he asked. “Um, it’s the Fortress of fucking _Solitude_.” “Well, how about a polar bear? They’re the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom, you know.”

This project was eventually scrapped when Tim Burton signed on. Apparently this producer went on to make _Wild Wild West_, which I haven’t seen, but which I understand to contain extraneous battles with giant spiders.

Dr. J

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-accept-a-flying-superman/117327.md?page=2)