Tom Mankiewicz described his performance on the commentary track for Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut as always playing Superman, but, when he was Clark, playing Superman who was playing Clark Kent.

More recently, a slightly different take on the re-cutting of films was seen in a 2006 revision of the 1980 film Superman II.

More than half of the footage filmed for Superman II by the originally credited director ( Richard Lester ) has been removed from the film and replaced with Donner footage shot during the original principal photography from 1977 – 1978.

There was a reference that Jim Henson tried to sneak into Heaven only for him and Kermit the Frog to end up in a flat rectangle prison ( similar to General Zod in Superman II ) as Kermit begs for them to be released.

Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in Superman II

Gene Hackman portrays Lex Luthor in the 1978 Superman film, along with two of its sequels, Superman II ( 1980 ) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ( 1987 ).

In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Luthor is portrayed by Kevin Spacey, set sometime after the events of Superman II.

Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, he denied them permission to use the footage.

However, after Brando's death, the footage was reincorporated into the 2006 re-cut of the film, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.

Later in the 20th century, the falls was a featured location in 1980s movie Superman II, and was itself the subject of a popular IMAX movie, Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic.

The updated versions of Superman II and the Star Wars Trilogy would be examples of films similar to a re-versioning.

* Superman II ( 1980 )

Production on Superman II began before Superman was completed, and had to be halted to concentrate on getting the first movie completed.

After the first Superman film was released in late 1978, the Salkinds went back into production on Superman II without informing Superman director Richard Donner ; they placed Lester behind the camera for the completion of the film.

Although Donner had shot a majority of what was planned for the film, Lester jettisoned or reshot much of the original footage so that he could claim sole credit for directing Superman II.

** Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, who emulated Reeve's performance.

Christopher Reeve's appearance altered slightly between playing Superman and Clark Kent

This was followed nearly two decades later by a fifth film called Superman Returns with Brandon Routh giving a performance very similar to Reeve's.

In contrast to George Reeves ' intellectual Clark Kent, Reeve's version is much more of an awkward fumbler and bungler, although Reeve is also an especially athletic, dashing and debonair Superman.

The ban on Christopher Reeve's Superman having a relationship with a human while retaining his superpowers is entirely absent in the world of Lois and Clark.

Front projection was chosen as the main method for shooting Christopher Reeve's flying scenes in Superman.

It has been mass produced on souvenirs, lent its name to a Superman villain, appeared on The Simpsons to demonstrate the redemption of a murderous character named Sideshow Bob, incorporated into Hare Krishna chants and adapted for Wicca ceremonies.

Feeling that Clark is the real person and that Clark is not afraid to be himself in his civilian identity, John Byrne has stated in interviews that he took inspiration for this portrayal from the George Reeves version of Superman.

More recent stories ( post-Crisis ) often feature the general public assuming that Superman has no secret identity due to the fact that he, unlike most heroes, doesn't wear a mask.

The 2004 limited series Superman: Birthright has a young Clark Kent study the Meisner technique to move seamlessly between his Clark and Superman personas ( dropping his head, lowering his shoulders, and talking in a lighter tone as Clark Kent, while standing straight and talking in a deeper tone as Superman ).

* Another reason given in the 1987 story " The Secret Revealed " was the public simply does not know that Superman has a secret identity, considering he does not wear a mask, which implies to most that he has nothing to hide.

A new element that has shown up recently is the fact that most people only know of Clark as a name in a byline, and only see Superman from a distance, if they see him at all.

" It has also been implied, especially in the ' alternate future ' story Kingdom Come, that the Clark Kent persona is symbolic of the values taught to him by his wholesome Midwestern parents, the values he holds most dear: his instinctive knowledge of right and wrong that allows him to adopt his Superman persona, without being consumed by the moral implications of his actions ; Superman is the means through which he can bring this example to the world.

Clark Kent has also been depicted without the Superman alter ego.

The film has a fair amount of quasi-Biblical imagery suggestive of Superman as a sort of Christ-figure sent by Jor-El " to show humans the way.

The indirect " Christianization " of Superman in the Reeve films ( admitted by film producer Pierre Spengler on the DVD commentaries ) has provoked comment on the Jewish origins of Superman.

The Shaw Festival, an annual theater festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada began as an eight week run of Don Juan in Hell ( as the long third act dream sequence of Man And Superman is called when staged alone ) and Candida in 1962, and has grown into an annual festival with over 800 performances a year, dedicated to producing the works of Shaw and his contemporaries.

Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

It is famous for being the ultimate natural weakness of Superman and most other Kryptonians, and the word Kryptonite has since become synonymous with an Achilles ' heel — the one weakness of an otherwise invulnerable hero.

Originating in the Superman radio show series, the material is usually shown as having been created from the radioactive remains of Superman's native planet Krypton, and generally has detrimental effects on Superman and other Kryptonians.

His goals typically center on killing Superman, usually as a stepping stone to world domination, which he has articulated as a stepping stone to domination of the universe, demonstrating a truly unbridled level of megalomania.

Superman first ' sees ' Luthor in a cave which Lupo has gone into to contact him.

Superman manages to save Jimmy Olsen, but Blaze succeeds in killing Jerry White, whose selfless sacrifice saves his soul.

In the 1950s George Reeves series, Clark Kent is portrayed as a cerebral character who is the crime reporter for the Daily Planet and who as Kent uses his intelligence and powers of deduction to solve crimes ( often before Inspector Henderson does ) before catching the villain as Superman.

Despite the fact that parallels between Captain Marvel and Superman seemed more tenuous ( Captain Marvel's powers came from magic, unlike Superman's ), the courts ruled that substantial and deliberate copying of copyrighted material had occurred.

The K-metal in the story was a piece of Krypton which robbed Superman of his strength while giving humans superhuman powers, a plot point which decades later made its way into the TV series Smallville.

He returns in Superman # 4, first trying to use a stolen Earthquake machine and challenging Superman to a duel of his science vs Superman's powers, which Superman wins ; however, this was just a distraction to allow him to steal the machine.

He and Superman had originally gone to the world to have a proper fight as Superman did not want to appear cowardly after Luthor over a radio challenged him to a fight, as this planet had a red sun meaning Superman lost his powers there.

" in Superman # 199 ( Aug. 1967 ) which featured the first race between the Flash and Superman, two characters known for their super-speed powers.

Among them was an explanation of why the natives of Krypton perished if they had possessed super powers on their native world ( as was the case in the earliest versions of Krypton outlined above, although this only became a problem once Superman — and by extension anyone from Krypton — was portrayed as increasingly powerful, able to withstand nuclear explosions, contrasted with his original power level in which a bursting mortar shell could penetrate his skin ).

* Krypton was very briefly depicted in the first Fleischer Studios-produced Superman cartoon in the early 1940s as " a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens where civilization was far advanced and it brought forth a race of Supermen whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection ," implying that all Kryptonians had Superman's abilities even on their own planet.

For example, DC's oldest superhero character, Superman, the lone survivor of the destroyed planet Krypton, originally could not fly ( he could instead leap over an eighth of a mile ), and his powers came from having evolved on a planet with stronger gravity than Earth's.

While she can fly and possesses super-strength ( like Superman ), she also has psychokinetic, shape shifting and cloaking / invisibility powers.

Shortly after they adopt Linda Lee from the Midvale orphanage, Superman reveals his cousin's identity to them, so they are aware of her powers.

* Major Glory ( voiced by Rob Paulsen )-An uptight, by-the-book hero, who resembled Captain America, though his powers roughly mirrored those of Superman.

The producers of the show decided to make Superman more believable by limiting his powers so that according to them he could probably be killed.

In the year 3008, the Earth's sun has turned red and several failed Legion applicants who were born on Earth have banded together to form the Justice League of Earth under the leadership of Earth-Man after he claims that Superman was a human who gained his powers from " Mother Earth ".

The show's premise is that the Legion travels back in time to recruit Superman in their fight against crime in the 31st century, but they go a little too far back and recruit Superman before he has had a chance to fully develop his powers.

Superman may be seen as a continuation of the foundling tradition, the lone survivor of an advanced civilization who is found and raised by Kansas farmers in a pastoral setting, and later discovers his alien origins and uses his powers for good.

Oppenheimer has all the typical Superman powers, including X-ray vision (" see-through vision "), super strength, invulnerability, flight, heat-vision (" very hot vision "), and super hearing.