What's Next for the Man of Steel?

Ok, so if you're a diehard DCEU fan like me (meaning you like MOS and BvS and not only WonderWoman), there's a good chance that you weren't blown away by Justice League. Yes, the film accomplished what it set out to do, namely unite the core members of the league and also bring Superman back from the grave to join his costumed cohorts in time to save the world. I enjoyed the film for what it was (a straight-forward superhero action film), but I still find myself feeling shortchanged by the thought of what this team up of DC's greatest heroes should've been: an epic cinematic masterpiece. The film's weak box office performance is proof that studios need to let their directors make the films they set out to make rather than forcing them to readjust their films in a desperate attempt to mimic another, massively popular comic book film universe (which shall remain nameless).

In light of the failure of Justice League, DC's best move going forward is to focus their attention on the solo films, which they seem to be doing. The end of this year will see the release of Aquaman and next year will bring us both Shazam! and the sequel to last year's critical and commerical darling, Wonder Woman. Amidst the frenzied speculation, Superman's cinematic future remains a heated topic now that he's back from the dead and acting more like the confident and optimistic version of Superman many fans are used to seeing. Even with the debacle of mustache-gate (which was just a result of bad timing and CGI) Superman's return was seen by many fans as the highlight of an otherwise flawed film. Superman's more grounded portrayal in the previous films might not have been everyone's cup of tea (I loved how he was portrayed in MOS and BvS), but love for the character himself seems to be the highest it's been in decades, evidenced by last month's outpouring of love for Krypton's last son on his eightieth birthday.

These factors, along with the very vocal demands of fans such as myself, indicate that now's the time to deliver a proper standalone sequel to Man of Steel. Fans have speculated over a possible sequel since that film premiered in 2013 and fiercely debating who the villain could and should be. Admittedly, I myself have spent far too many hours contemplating what might be in store for the Man of Steel next. Here are a few of my favorite ideas for which villains and storylines I'd love to see explored in a Man of Steel sequel.

First off, I can't be the only fan who longed to see a satisfying explanation for Clark Kent's miraculous return to life in Justice League. The film did a nice job of covering his resurrection (using the Motherbox to essentially jump-start the Kryptonian ship's regenerative amniotic chamber), but we got zilch explaining Clark's return to civilian life after being dead and buried back in Smallville. I feel that a Man of Steel sequel must explain how he returned to his secret identity as Clark Kent, bespectacled investigative reporter at the Daily Planet. Perhaps they could say that Clark's body was never found when he covered the Doomsday fight and only an empty coffin was buried in Smallville. The mourners who attended his open casket funeral (Perry White among them), probably wouldn't mind vouching for Clark's absence given that all of them most likely knew or at least suspected that he was Superman and already knew he was a hero. It might actually be cool to have Perry White know Clark's Superman and protect his secret yet still be able to berate him at the Planet.

There's also another direction the sequel could take regarding Clark's return to society; he could abandon his bespectacled alter ego altogether. Something similar happened to Superman in "The Death of Clark Kent" a storyline which took place not long after he returned to life in the Superman comics. In the story, a guy named Kenny Braverman, a schoolmate of Clark's back in Smallville who always lost in athletic competitions to young Clark, becomes a villain named Conduit and, after deducing that Clark is Superman, sets out to destroy him by attacking his friends and loved ones. Kenny Braverman made a very brief appearance in Man of Steel as the jock bully who was trying to get young Clark to fight in one of the film's flashbacks.

Although fans (myself among them), have been dying to see popular Superman villains such as Metallo, Brainiac, or Mongul finally brought to life on the big screen, Conduit might be an interesting villain for a more personal Superman story in this potential sequel. It could be interesting to see a villain wage a personal war of vengeance against Superman by attacking Clark's longtime friends back in Smallville such as Pete Ross and Lana Lang, thereby drawing Superman in. As his name implies, due to military experimentation, Conduit is a living conduit of energy which he can fire off in dangerous, concentrated blasts. In the comics, he can also discharge surges of Kryptonite energy, so he'd also be a physical challenge to Superman.

Speaking of firing off blasts of Kryptonite, Metallo seems like an obvious choice for the big villain of a Man of Steel sequel. The Kryptonite powered rogue has been a fan favorite for decades who's overdue for his cinematic debut. Since Man of Steel and Justice League both dealt with alien invasions, the time's probably not right to have another alien invader like Brainiac or Mongul in the picture, as great as they would be. Given that Metallo is traditionally powered by a Kryptonite heart, perhaps the Kryptonite spear which killed Doomsday could be salvaged and re-purposed by military scientists to power a super soldier like Metallo as a deterrent to Superman. They could even bring in General Sam Lane, Lois's estranged father as the overseer of the Metallo project and one of the few people who still fears the damage that Superman and all these new Superhumans on the scene may cause in future conflicts.

Another popular villain who could work well in a Man of Steel sequel is Bizarro, the imperfect replica of Superman. The goofy, opposite version of Bizarro would never really "fly" in the more grounded world of the DCEU, but a more straightforward Superman clone engineered from some of Superman's blood recovered from the Doomsday battle might work very well, especially if the clone was initially created by well-meaning but reckless geneticists to serve as a replacement for Superman after his death. If they somehow managed to implant false memories into the Bizarro Superman's mind, he would end up thinking he's Superman and consider the real Superman to be a threat. A sympathetic antagonist like that would be a good foil to Superman, plus it'd be cool to see Cavill play a warped version of the character. Obviously, there's a lot of directions they could go with the Bizarro idea, but this is just a jumping off point.

Of course, whenever Metallo or Bizarro are present in the Superman mythos, Lex Luthor is usually not far away, given that he's traditionally been the one manipulating these characters to take down Superman. However, since we just saw Eisenberg's Lex in the awesome after credit scene of JL, it's probably safe to assume we won't see him in a Superman sequel. It appears they're saving him until he and Deathstroke can assemble the Injustice League or Legion of Doom to take on the Justice League in what hopefully will be an eventual JL sequel. Historically, Superman films have been overloaded with Luthor, so having him as the main villain in a Man of Steel sequel might be overkill, although I see no problem having him as the silent partner/puppet master secretly pulling the strings for Metallo or Bizarro.

The hulking purple-skinned alien tyrant Mongul has always been one of my favorites and it would be awesome to see Superman stranded on Mongul's home planet, Warworld, and forced to fight other warriors in the gladiatorial arena, but this concept was just done in a film which came out a little before Justice League, a film part of that other superhero movie universe that shall remain nameless. It's too bad because it'd be an awesome and very comic book accurate storyline to tackle.

Among all the rumors swirling around in the storm of speculation regarding a Man of Steel sequel, one which keeps reappearing is the possibility of Superman taking on Black Adam at some point down the road. Whether this will come to fruition at all or whether it'll be in a future Shazam film or in another Superman film remains to be seen, but there's no escaping the idea. I for one would greatly prefer Superman to throw down with one of his established villains in a Superman sequel, but if Black Adam is the way the studio wants to go, there's really nothing we fans can do to change their minds, as history has repeatedly proven.

There are a few other storylines and villains I'd also love to see explored in a sequel, but this piece would just go on forever if I jumped into those. Suffice to say, there are so many compelling places that the Man of Steel could go in subsequent films. Luckily, it seems that although his contract is up after he makes one more appearance as Superman (presumably as a cameo in next year's Shazam!), Henry Cavill has often expressed enthusiastic interest in portraying Superman in future films. His love and respect for the character radiates out of him and as an avid comic book reader, he's well versed in what's currently happening in the DC universe. He's been quoted as saying it's very much his desire to do a Man of Steel 2 and that there's still alot of the Superman story he wants to tell. He even gave hints that there are behind the scenes conversations going on right now regarding a potential sequel.

As the first and oldest Superhero, there's no shortage of great material from which to pick and choose and given Cavill's love of the character and the passion already put into developing the DCEU, we've only just scratched the surface of the Superman stories which can be told. Now that Superman has come through his dark night of the soul and completed his initial character arc begun in Man of Steel, he can move forward into the future confidently as the hero and inspiring beacon of hope that fans have always known he was. The future looks bright for the Man of Tomorrow.