By: Russ Burlingame on January 24, 2013
Following this week’s revelation that Jimmy Olsen might be reinvented on film as a woman named Jenny, all brought on by a visit to the Man of Steel IMDb page, we wondered who else might be appearing–or at least credited as appearing–in the film.
We found a handful, including five actual Superman characters and one DC character that could be (but almost certainly is not) hiding in plain sight.
We’ve got a little list here, and some speculation as to what role these characters might play if they were to appear in Man of Steel.
Bear in mind, as we’ve said over and over again throughout the Jenny Olsen affair, that IMDb is not always the best source of information, so take this story as being for entertainment purposes only.
Ken Braverman
There are a few things at play with Braverman.
He was a high school athlete at Smallville High who always came in second to Clark Kent. Later, when he discovered that Clark was Superman, he became enraged becuase it seemed to him that he had been using his powers to “humiliate” Braverman for years.
Eventually, it was discovered that Braverman was born on the same day Clark’s rocket had crashed in Smallville, giving him Kryptonite-based powers. This device was later appropriated by Smallville for a great number of villains, but in the comics Ken Braverman’s Conduit was really it (unless there’s a pre-Crisis equivalent we’re forgetting). He had a techno-organic set of powers that included the ability to channel Kryptonite radiation.
Conduit appears to have been created as a result of changes to the timeline following the Zero Hour event, and was a short-lived villain in the comics. It’s possible that at least initially, all we’ll see is Braverman as a high school athlete.
That said, his kryptonite-based powers and armored look certainly feel very much like a more modern interpretation of Metallo. Could this be another hint at the long-rumored existence of that villain in the movie? Certainly it’s not hard to imagine the same military experiment turning out Metallo and Conduit.
Certainly setting up for a sequel can’t hurt, either; both Metallo and Conduit would be natural adversaries for a kryptonite-driven Man of Steel sequel that sees Lex Luthor working with elements of the military concerned about trusting Superman.
Whitney Fordman
Smallville’s star quarterback on Smallville and, later, a member of the U.S. military, Fordman seems uniquely suited to be a through-line in the Superman story considering the prominent role that the military seems to be playing in Man of Steel.
The football angle is interesting, as Ken Braverman and Clark Kent played on the football team together in the post-Crisis version of Superman (you know–the one that kicked off with John Byrne’s Man of Steel and ran for years under the title Superman: The Man of Steel). Could the trio be set in scenes together as teens?
And what of Whitney, who was killed in action in Smallville? Could he be a dramatic human loss in the big war against Zod’s army?
Pete Ross
Lana Lang’s future husband and, one day, Lex Luthor’s running mate when the villain became the President of the United States. A “Young Pete Ross” appears credited, although no older equivalent appears on the list. This is more than likely because Ross isn’t a part of the Metropolis part of the story (really, he’s best known as Clark’s romantic competition in Smallville) but it’s equally possible that either the “Young Pete” credit is inaccurate or that Warners isn’t ready to release who plays grown-up Pete just yet.
It’s also worth noting that Jack Foley, the young actor reportedly playing Pete, is a heavyset, red-haired white kid as opposed to Sam Jones III’s fit, African-American Smallville interpretation, seen at left.
Kelor
A Kryptonian service robot. Other notable ones include Kelex and L-Ron.
The existence of these robots, or at least one of them, in the movie would serve a couple of purposes; it would once again drive home that this is categorically a science fiction film, and it would explain one of the nagging questions we’ve had ever since the recent Man of Steel trailer dropped: Who’s Clark Kent talking to, in what seems to be the Fortress, prior to ever becoming Superman? He asks someone–we had speculated Zod for lack of a better guess–about his origins. Maybe it’s one of the Fortress robots.
Steve Lombard
A Daily Planet sports columnist, as seen in All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Interestingly, before taking up journalism, Lombard was a quarterback for the Metropolis Meteors football team. There’s that football theme again…!
…and a bonus…
Captain Carrie Farris
This one’s a long shot, but it’s hard not to notice the similarity to the name “Carol Ferris.”
Yeah, we don’t think so either. But people were commenting about it on IMDb and we didn’t want you to think we didn’t notice.
