Warner Bros. at 100: Characters of Steel Propel DC into Future
variety.comAdam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The modern superhero movie would not exist without the version of Superman limned by Christopher Reeve in Warner Bros.’ 1978 smash “Superman.” First created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for Action Comics, the Man of Steel became a pop-culture mainstay with the syn- dicated “Adventures of Superman” TV series in the 1950s.
But it wasn’t until DC Comics moved into the world of Warner Bros. and Reeve donned the last son of Krypton’s blue-and-red tights for the Richard Donner-directed “Superman” that bringing a comic book superhero to life on the big screen was seen as blockbuster business.
And the spoils were considerable: In the moment, “Superman” ranked as WB’s highest-grossing movie ever. For the next two decades, Warner Bros.
dominated superhero cinema, especially after Tim Bur- ton’s “Batman” in 1989 launched the Caped Crusader as the dark and brooding yin to Superman’s virtuous and hopeful yang.
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