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Lockhart Paper #1 Spangler February 14, 2012 The Death and Return of Superman Everyone is familiar with Superman: adults, kids, bears, small bits of wood,

everyone. But of all the parodies and shorts out there about the man of steel, Max Landis, writer of the 2012 movie Chronicle, crushed the competition. His seventeen- minute short entitled The Death and Return of Superman was accurate and hilarious, right down to the cheesy special effects. The mocking of a national icon, the narration, the tasteful foul language, the random cameos, and even the simple lesson it teaches us by the end all come together to make Superman actually fun. To quickly sum up, and spoilers to anyone reading Superman at this time,

this short portrays exactly whats in the title. Its a recap of Doomsday, Supermans nemesis, being created, getting jettisoned to Earth, finding Superman, and proceeding to beat the life out of him. After that, a bunch of other guys come along pretending to be Superman and kill each other, leaving one fake Superman alive. But before he can celebrate his victory, who do you think shows up? Thats right, its Superman, the real Superman. Apparently, this outraged fans to the point where the sales of Action Comics dropped so low that they never had a chance of recovering. But anyway, long story short, Superman died, came back to life (because he was never really dead), and destroyed the view of death in comics forever.

The Death and Return of Superman was uploaded onto YouTube, but was

featured on another site called the Nerdist. Yes, the Nerdist is exactly what it sounds like, a podcast haven for nerds of all fan-bases, ranging from Doctor Who to Doctor Horrible. Created by comedian Chris Hardwick, the Nerdist accepts videos for their podcast from all different types of nerdy entertainment. Of course, DC Comics would be right up their alley. The whole purpose of this short is to inform the audience of how absolutely ridiculous comic books can be on occasion. It blends sarcastic, slapstick, slightly crude, and referential humor in a way that keeps you laughing from beginning to end. The first thing you need to know when coming into this short is that its

basically a Superman roast. In fact, the first lines the narrator, or Max Landis, says are, Nobody gives a **** about Superman. You dont give a **** about Superman, even if you think you do. Now, Superman lovers, hold onto your tights. This is meant purely for comedic purposes. Landis goes on to show how ridiculous the death and return of Superman actually was by using brash comments and hokey visuals. One of the key elements of this short film is that basically no one except

Landis speaks. But before you think, Uh, boring, its not as it seems. Most of the short is acted out and filmed with the actors mouthing the words, but Landis speaks with them when their lines come. This adds hilarity to the short that seems sub-par, but actually makes the short the gem that it is. For instance, the first cut-away from Landis is to the late 1930s when Superman was first created. The timing blends seamlessly, while the over-animated faces the actors make compliment how

sarcastic and glib Landis sounds. The over-acting is another thing that makes this video a riot. These actors are pretending to be superheroes and super villains, not the King of England or a girl with a very distinct tattoo. The crazier, the better, it seems in this instance. A little nuance that still kills me is the state of Max Landis. He seems so

flustered, so fed-up with Superman that hes drinking throughout the entire short. At one point, when he reveals the fact that Superman never actually died, the camera does a close-up of his glass as he shakily pours more liquor into it. Now, sometimes people go too far with language to the point where its not funny anymore, like over-using an already not funny joke. But Landis has it down to the point where you can feel his frustration and anger with the language and still find it funny. Everyone knows a well placed s***, or f***, can go a long way. The cameos are one of the best parts of this. There are a variety of people,

from online sites, such as Luke Barats and Joe Bereta, a comedy duo, to sketch actors, like Zach Cregger from The Whitest Kids UKnow. And then there are the bigger names. Mandy Moore plays the leading lady Lois Lane, while Elijah Wood plays Hank Henshaw, one of the faux Supermen. Elijah Wood gives one of my favorite performances of his to date with this short. He does well with being absolutely insane. Chris Hardwick himself pops up for a minute, as does Simon Pegg, from Star Trek, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and many others. But all of these characters and plot devices help lead to one giant realization at the end. Death is forever broken in comics. Max Landis comes to this conclusion

about a minute before the end of the short. He has this anecdote from his father,

which was basically you can do anything you want to any character you want and bring them back whenever you want because they dont f****** exist. So, no matter what, any character can come back from the dead as long as you give them a good enough excuse. Actually, the excuse doesnt even need to be good, apparently. But because of this, it seemed impossible to kill any comic book character because they just kept coming back. And thats what Max Landis was trying to get through to everyone and he did a phenomenal job doing so. The Death and Return of Superman is a fantastic short and definitely worth the seventeen minutes out of your day.