I’ve been happy to see the Superman shield appearing everywhere as the film gets closer to release. Amazon are selling astonishingly expensive action figures, as well as a Fight N Fly Cape that offers “amazing motion-activated sound effects that track kids’ movements”. I’m assuming it’s the sound of, um, flowing wind. I still think there’s a market for a decent quality cape. Big kid that I am, I’d probably buy one…even if it never got worn (let’s face it, opportunities would be few and far between) it’d look great hanging in the cupboard Amazon also have Punch N Crush gloves, which are a bit weird.

This week’s Wired has a great Superman article, co-written by Neil Gaiman:

Singer’s movie hasn’t yet screened in its entirety, so no one knows what he’s going to add to the myth. The few minutes of the film that outsiders have seen (watched with a chaperone, on a DVD that gets shredded after viewing) look good, a spiritual successor to the Richard Donner films from a quarter-century ago. The special effects will be flawless. But Singer’s Superman is bound to be less interesting than his Clark Kent. Of all the relationships at the heart of the myth – Superman and Lois Lane, Superman and Jimmy Olsen, Superman and his adoptive parents – the most important is the one with his alter ego.

Although not related to the film, I recently came across scans from Action Comics #1. It’s the world’s most valuable comic, and I’ve never seen the inside pages before. It’s bizarre:

Supes can’t fly and seems to enjoy wrecking stuff for no real reason. The grammar’s somewhat dodgy, and the costume art is rather different. Lois Lane is at least a proper reporter, unlike the comics of the 50s in which she morphed into an annoying whiny bug on Clark’s shoulder, continually pestering him to reveal his secret identity and marry her (these comics are very, very bad). Fascinating, though.