Ask anyone to name an iconic superhero, and Superman will be on the list. But his movies and comic book story arcs have often failed to capture the public's imagination in the same way as flawed heroes like Batman or Spider-Man. Man of Steel, a new filmic treatment arriving this summer, promises to change this. But while producer Christopher Nolan and director Zack Snyder have made their names in superhero and comic book movies, they've done so by making gritty deconstructions of the superhero mythos, particularly Snyder's adaptation of the notoriously unfilmable Watchmen.

Man of Steel promises to break that mold, whether successfully or not. In an interview with The New York Times, Snyder describes the ethos behind his new film and the process of making it. "I feel like my movies have always been very subversive, even when people haven't perceived how subversive they really are," he says. "For me, what's subversive about Superman is that it's not subversive."