So Long, Superman
MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2004 8:27 PM
This was pretty terrible news to hear this morning. More eloquent musings than I can provide can be found at Frolic and Detour. A couple other interesting pieces on Slate, SF Gate (on his impact on spinal cord research [via AP] and roles as hero [via AP]), and CNET News.com. (There's an amusing side discussion on CNET in the comments section on whether it's appropriate to acknowledge the existence of Superman IV.)

To say my little piece, Superman has always been one of my favorite movies, and Christopher Reeve was the main reason. Though I always felt a little bad, as if I was personally responsible for pigeonholing him into that character, making that role the only thing anyone thought of when they thought of him. It always seemed that like George Reeves, people were hesitant to see Reeve play anything but the man of steel and his deceptively unobtrusive alter ego, forcing him to be loved as people wanted to see him, but not always as he wanted to be seen. I cheered when Reeve showed up in something like Avonlea or Noises Off . . . , but it was still surprising, a jolt really, to see him outside of that cape or those glasses. Acknowledging his non-superhero talents, I'll freely admit that it was really cool for him to appear on Smallville as Dr. Virgil Swann, this reclusive, genius scientist who figured out and understood Clark's secret, perhaps more fully Clark himself, but was mindful enough to keep it safe. It was a knowing, brilliant way to embrace Reeve's position in the Superman legend without flights or tights, yet fully satisfy viewers, fans of the character, and admirers of the man, and hopefully Reeve as well.

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