Maybe a For The Man Who Has Everything type scenario where Superman is trapped in an illusionary Krypton that never exploded.

Hmm. Here we run squarely into the difference between movies and serial media like TV and comics. Movies are rare; serial media are common. This means that, peculiarly, serial media actually have the most freedom to escape convention. By which I mean that a serial medium can occasionally do a story in which the hero's supporting cast doesn't appear, or in which the hero is put into a strange milieu.

Movies are so rare, however, that they are virtually constrained to be conventional. As noted: four out of five modern films include Lex Luthor.* Could you get a studio to agree to a Superman film that includes neither Lois Lane nor Clark Kent?

FtMWHE was done as a Justice League episode anyway, so I'd actually recommend "Superman's Return to Krypton" over that, but I think for a movie, you'd be better off with something that feels more conventional in subject.

Here's where Charysuggests Terra-Man and Vartox 8)

*Luthor wasn't even established as Superman's primary foe until middle Weisinger, yet he was even included in one of the old Superman serials, giving him five out of seven Superman theatrical productions.

I don't know any specific Superman stories, but as a general fan I'd only want to see Brainiac if they can up the science fiction menace. Otherwise Brainiac is merely another smart guy. To distinguish him from Luthor, you need to make him more, well, alien.

Likewise, other Superman villains should be different enough menaces so the audience does not get bore. Parasite might make an interesting one if they have him absorb different power types in different fight scenes - electricity, radiation, vulcanism, etc. I don't know if that perfectly aligns with his actual power in the comic books (it may be more like the Absorbing Man), but it would be more interesting to see than someone who merely makes Superman weak.

However, the one superman villain, who is not Luthor, that everyone knows is Bizarro. He should be the next one. However, Bizarro is gimmicky, and the movie would need a very strong script. A possible solution is to suggest the Bizarro world is vaguely borglike and that Bizarroism is a disease, and that unless Superman defeats Bizarro, the entire planet will be infected.

Wasn't the drunk superman in Superman III almost like Bizarro?

Darkseid, though not specifically a Superman villain might work, but I'm thinking they would spread him across more than one movie.

Is there a definitive Braniac story? I don't know but Braniac does seem the logical choice, as long as he is alien.

Well, what are the basic Superman stories? There's the might+right vs mind+wrong Luthor story. Done, multiply, in the movies. There's Superman versus someone roughly equal to him in power, done with the Phantom Zoners, and, badly in the Quest for Peace. There's the Red Kryptonite story, done in Superman III.

So what's left?

Superman vs the Trickster-archetype is still out there. (I prefer Ambush Bug in the Trickster role over Mxyzptlk, but tastes vary.)

There's the 'weakened superman' story, accomplished with Red Suns, Byrne-era Red K, splitting him apart with magic, or good old fashoned Kryptonite (optionally in the Metallo or Kryptonite Man delivery system.)

There's the "superman does a bunch of strange and/or dickish things that only make sense much later due to some contrived explanation" story.

But I think that Superman's main enemy is nature: he's at his best stopping meteors, volcanoes, and tidal waves than punching Luthor's battlesuit. So I'd go with a (possibly heavily re-tooled version of) Major Disaster for a villian if I were writing a new movie.

I think if you do something too conventional you run the risk of people saying "What's the big deal?" It's Star Trek Insurrection syndrome. Now that they've got Superman coming back after the long hiatus out of the way, they're going to have to do something sufficiently different to make it seem worth doing a movie about. Going back to Krypon might do that. Killing Superman might do that, but he's just going to get better again at the end, so probably not.

If Superman was to go to Krypton, I figure either Lois would go along or she'd be having a parallel story on Earth.

Superman villains who would work in a movie: Well, Singer wanted to use Jude Law as Zod, so we know that they're keeping that option open...

Brainiac is good, especially if they keep the 'warped legacy of Krypton' angle from the animated series that resulted from the fusion of the lousy reboot Brainiac and the even lousier Eradictor characters. Darkseid's a good option. An honest to God Bizarro would be fun. To be honest, Mongul's just Darkseid reflected (he's actually just Thanos in DC drag and Thanos is just Darkseid reflected but whatever) so we can skip him.

Honestly, I'd like to see the Galactic Golem. But that's just me.

I tend to think that Bizarro would be a good supplemental threat, maybe alongside a Prankster: He provides the buffer that explains why Superman doesn't just whomp the low-power supervillain instantly.

That being said, what I'm getting is that there are very few actual Superman stories that people want to see adapted. That's interesting.

What I would theorize is that good Superman stories aren't about the individual conflict so much as the lore. Superman's exile from Earth, for example, is a well-regarded story, but its premise depends on the death of the Phantom Zone villains, and without that we don't buy Superman leaving Earth.

Similarly, individual Kryptonite stories aren't memorable; it's only their contributions to the lore that we remember. And lore is structural--it tells us what shape new stories will have, but not their details.

I would camp out in line to see a Superman movie with Vartox in it. Especially if Vartox were played by Sean Connery as a septuagenarian lech.

...Although preferably in a different outfit. Yecch--there's an image I didn't need...

I think Mr Mxyzptlk, and other trickster types, actually work best when they appear to be the villain, they are actually helping the hero. Otherwise, they become gimmicky. Tricking him to say his name may not be bad for an individual issue, but it makes for a lousy movie.

It would be much better if Mr Mxyzptlk shows up when Bizarro does only because he's trying to teach Superman how to defeat the real threat, rather than being the mastermind the super-brute is protecting. Because Bizarro does not have a mind to develop plots, the menace he provides must be intrinsically tied to him, but not dependent on him plotting - hence my "Bizarroism as an infection" idea, although several ideas could be just as good if not better.

The interesting thing about Brainiac, is that as an alien, we could have a story that ties together something about Krypton and a menace from space. In my opinion, the arrival of Brainiac should be like War of the Worlds where we don't have bacteria, only Superman, to defend us.

If there is one thing superhero movies have not done yet, which they should have by now, is place a menace that is truly world threatening. That is a big reason why the FF movie was so underwhelming. The most we've gotten is the original Luthor plot to destroy California. Many heroes lack the scope to deal with a threat to the world (Batman or Spider-Man could noit plausibly do it), but Superman certainly qualifies. Superman needs an epic threat for moviegoers to get excited about.

More seriously, I think Greg's right that Superman is all about the lore and not the stories. (Or at best about the stories that play with the lore like "For the Man Who Has Everything," which make better serial deviations from the pattern than they do standalone stories.)

That said, I'd love to see a movie version of the Darkseid story from the animated series, especially one that incorporated the "Death Wish of Terrible Turpin" elements as successfully. The final line to that two-part episode is one of the best Superman lines of all time.

I think if there is a Bizarro movie, Tom Welling of "Smallville" (is that his name?) should play the Bizarro version of Superman.

I shudder to say this, but how about Batman? There are plenty of versions of the Batman vs. Superman storyline out there. The animated one did it nicely a couple different ways and we have the comics with a bunch more. Then at the end they can join forces to fight Ras Al Lex or some mixture. Or Bizarro something or other. Isn't there a Batman v. Superman script (legit, not fanboy) floating out there?

How about classic Supes vs. non-superpowered entities? Terrorists? Gangsters? Purse snatchers? Bad Weather? Smog? Bad language? The law? The government (ala Busiek's Secret Identity version of Superman)?

Braniac heralding the arrival of Darkseid with the arsenal of one hundred city-sized meteors laced with kryptonite at his dispoal to launch differinig time-intervals.

Yes, something that threatens the world, not just the city.

Personally, I'd pay good money to see a big-screen adaptation of Elliot S! Maggin's Last Son of Krypton.

Terra Man would be a perfect villain for a movie. You could get Clint or Costne5r to play him.

I think Superman vs Jesus would be the Greatest Story Ever Told.

Gasp, as Jesus turns wine into kryptonite!

Shudder, as Superman freezes Jesus's feet to the Sea of Galilee!

Of course it would all be a misunderstanding caused by those wacky scamps The Time Trapper and Pontius Pilate. Jesus and Superman in the end would team-up and take them down.

It would have a sad ending though, what with Jesus dying and all... but since he would be dying for the sins of all mankind, it would all be cool.

Director Mel Gibson, I should think...

And how about Superman vs Osama bin Laden?

There would be a twist though...

Osama would really be... The Ulta-Humanite!

Directed by Oliver Stone.

And Superman: Blue and Grey...

Superman gets hit by a meteor, which causes him to travel back in time to the Civil War. It also causes him to split into two Supermen. One Blue. And One Grey. Each one takes up a different side to the Civil War (Grey Superman being a firm believer in State Rights!). This causes the Civil War to last 75 more years. At the end though they reconcile their differences and team-up to clobber Hitler.

And finally... Superman vs Sunshine Superman!

Arthur "Nuff said!" Spitzer

I think Brainiac as the boss robot or alien in an alien invasion of giant robots would be schweet.

Myxy would be fun if the A plot was some sort of Lois and Clark relationship thing, and the B plot was the whacky 5th dimensional alien.

I'll see your Last Son of Krypton and raise you Miracle Monday.

If you want to see Sean Connery as Vartox, rent Zardoz. (Writer disclaims all responcibility for what this will do to your retinas).

I think that a version of "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" would be a kickass movie. Superman's morality vs. "heroes" who like to just go and "git-r-done", kill bad guys, and whatnot.

If you want to see Sean Connery as Vartox, rent Zardoz.

Er... yes. That was rather the point.

I'd like to see a movie of "What's so Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?"

And in other news, I must really hate Warren Ellis these days.

I'd also like to see a Superman movie that's nothing but Jimmy Olsen screwing up.

Depending on how Fantastic Four 2 presents Galactus and the Silver Surfer, any invasion-from-space story might have to be reworked -- but it would be fun anyway. I'd almost like to see Maxima wanting some super sex ("I'll take the soup!"), considering the platonic relationship Supes and Lois have at the end of this movie.

I'd really like the invader (Brainiac or Darkseid, preferably) to have contributed to Supes' rocky landing in Smallville, like he's just gotten through fighting them off and thought he'd taken care of them, but was still too weak to do anything but crash. That way, when the invader's mothership appears over Metropolis, Superman can have an oh-crap reaction along with the rest of the world.

(Naturally, Supes fighting the invader's forces would also reveal just how well he's learned to use his powers in those five years away.)

I was thinking of something more corny, along the lines of Brainiac plucking Kara Zor-El from the remains of Argo City and making her his super-enforcer, but aside from it sounding like hokey Jeph Loeb, it would definitely have drawn comparisons to Galactus and the Surfer. I do picture Brainiac maintaining a menagerie of each race's last survivors, maybe including Maxima, and "testing" them in various ways on his vast, Warworld-like vessel. (Wasn't that the setup for Superman Animated's Lobo two-parter?)

Using the Forever People to lead into the Apokolips/New Genesis conflict would also raise the question of whether he (or the kid) would be happier on New Genesis.

Brainiac and Doomsday.

Yeah, I know, you hate the idea already, but it'd be great.

Reading some of these ideas got me to think what if HBO did a Superman (or other superhero) series? I would not want the language or graphic sex of the HBO series, just the production values. But over the course of a 12 episode season of hour long episodes, we could have a threat build each season (Brainiac in one, Darkseid in another), ample time to develop the Superman mythos, and character development episodes that could showcase a non conventional threat (like fil talked about). The schedule would also allow multiple villains per season without feeling the story was too crowded.

Special effects are at a point where it could not be too expensive, and by using unknown, but talented actors like the other HBO series do, the costs could still be contained.