It seems he’s truly super. Overexposure can’t sap his staying power. He’s nearly 70 years old in Earth years, but age has no effect on his vitality. And he doesn’t need juice to keep those muscles bulging!
The man in the red and blue tights is popular, all right, making his latest appearance next month in the Bryan Singer-directed feature, “Superman Returns.”
But there’s more. Since arriving in the pages of Detective Comics in 1938, Superman has emerged as the ultimate symbol of the American dream, an immigrant who leaves his devastated homeland to reinvent himself in a land of new opportunities.
Now A&E Network tells the story of this alien from a doomed planet in “Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman,” a two-hour documentary premiering at 6 p.m. Monday.
Created during a turbulent decade that saw the rise of totalitarian dictatorships, gangsterism and the Great Depression, Superman soared as the unflinching champion of truth, justice and the American way, a superhuman (if imaginary) embodiment of American ideals.
Narrated by Kevin Spacey, who plays Lex Luthor in the film, this documentary also hears from his “Superman Returns” co-stars Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth; as well as Margot Kidder, who appeared in “Superman: The Movie”; and the director of that 1978 film, Richard Donner; plus Dean Cain, star of TV’s “Lois and Clark.”
