The Many Takes on Superman: Gruff, Charming or Menschy?
Superman I-IV (1978-87)
The Archetype
Christopher Reeve set the standard for a live-action Superman, creating a pop culture phenomenon on the big screen. Now the trend for those taking on the role is to find new angles on the hero, to modernize or subvert the character. Much of that can be attributed to Reeve's portrayal, which was that of a quintessential comic book savior.
His Superman is confident, upstanding and authoritative, and between his powers and his unimpeachable sense of justice, he's downright unstoppable — as when he reverses the Earth's rotation to go back in time to save a life. Whether he's posed with his arms crossed in judgment of a foe or standing fists on waist and arms akimbo at the end of a battle, there's a machismo power in his bearing. And his disarming smile and self-assured voice, which occasionally offers calm but firm scoldings to wrongdoers, paint him as a hero of the people. These early Superman movies were less about developing the character and more about reinforcing fans' love for the original figure.
Lois & Clark:The New Adventures of Superman (1993-97)
Rom-Com Superman
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
10 minutes ago
- CNET
Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answer and Help for July 19 #503
Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Is it hot where you are? Today's NYT Strands puzzle highlights words for summery weather. If you need hints and answers, read on. I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET's NYT puzzle hints page. Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far Hint for today's Strands puzzle Today's Strands theme is: Hot enough for ya? If that doesn't help you, here's a clue: Words for weather. Clue words to unlock in-game hints Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle's theme. If you're stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work: SKIM, SKIT, STIM, COME, NAIL, GUNS, GANG, SCORE, CORE, STEM, LAIR Answers for today's Strands puzzle These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: BALMY, MUGGY, STICKY, SCORCHING, SWELTERING Today's Strands spangram The completed NYT Strands puzzle for July 19, 2025, #503. NYT/Screenshot by CNET Today's Strands spangram is SUMMERWEATHER. To find it, look for the S that's the very last letter in the very top row, and wind down.
Android Authority
10 minutes ago
- Android Authority
YouTube Music is finally syncing your playback progress across devices
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR YouTube Music tracks listening history across devices, but so far hasn't offered a way to resume playback directly. With YouTube Music version 8.26.51, we're now seeing the app sync playback progress across devices. Listeners are able to continue a playlist where they left off by tapping 'Resume.' It's a fair question: How many of us are big YouTube Music fans, and how many use it because we want YouTube Premium, signed up before Premium Lite was an option, and now can't be bothered to change things? For whatever reason you're using it, Google has been giving subscribers plenty of reasons to be happy lately, with the arrival of new features like lyric sharing and offline lyrics for your downloaded tracks. Now we've got a new one to share with you — and this time, unrelated to lyrics at all! Your Google account makes it easy to access YouTube Music across all your devices, but that doesn't necessarily mean that moving between them has been super smooth. While we've been able to keep track of what we've been listening to as we move from phones, to tablets, to computers and back, so far YouTube Music hasn't offered an easy way to stop mid-listen and pick things up from that same point on another device. Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority Upon upgrading to YouTube Music version 8.26.51 (which started heading out to devices earlier this month), we're suddenly see the presence of progress bars representing our listening activity on other devices connected to the same account, as you can see in a couple of those Speed dial entries above. Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority When you tap on one of those, you'll now find a new 'Resume' option that lets you pick up playback where you left off earlier. This has been a long time coming, and while we we can't imagine this is going to convince anyone to switch over to YouTube Music — it still doesn't look like the feature holds a candle to Spotify Connect — maybe it will at least convince you to reconsider leaving YouTube Music for the competition. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
New York Times
11 minutes ago
- New York Times
A New ‘Billy Budd' Is a Pressure Cooker of Gay Desire
Billy Budd is a beautiful mystery. He is young, with a smooth and feminine face, but he doesn't know his background; all he can say is that, as a baby, he was found in a silk-lined basket, hanging from the knocker of a door. One thing is certain in Herman Melville's novella 'Billy Budd': This handsome sailor is good, gentle by nature and loyal to his shipmates, who call him Baby and find peace just by being in his presence. To Billy's 'good' Melville adds allegorically pure evil in the ship's master-at-arms, John Claggart, and unbending virtue in Captain Vere. Like the legs of a stool, those characteristics hold up the drama of 'Billy Budd,' which was left unfinished at Melville's death in 1891 and wasn't published until the 1920s. The story of Billy Budd, stammering and precious, then sacrificed to a strict idea of justice after he accidentally but fatally strikes Claggart, has intrigued readers ever since with its opacity and open-endedness. E.M. Forster called the novella 'an easy book, as long as we read it as a yarn.' But tug at the thread, and it unravels into a pile of unanswerable questions: about desire, about morality, about the microcosmic world of a ship at sea. Perhaps that is why adaptations of 'Billy Budd,' onstage and onscreen, have been so different. Each is as much an act of interpretation as translation, adopting a specific perspective, examining Billy's tragedy through a particular character or idea. The latest version, a sexy and ingenious one-act called 'The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor,' ran at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France earlier this month. It's an adaptation of an adaptation: a chamber treatment, by the director Ted Huffman and the composer Oliver Leith, of Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera 'Billy Budd.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
