Superman Returns

Batman has begun again.

There's a new Bond.

And Superman returns.

Unlike the former two, the first movie of the new Superman franchise does not go back to the beginning in an origin story but has the hero returning to earth after an absence (the producing powers-that-be presumably reckoned that the younger audience is already privy to and has been sufficiently primed to Superman's origins after years of watching the television series Smallville to warrant an introductory in medias res of sorts).

Brandon Routh takes up the mantle of the Man of Steel, Kate Bosworth is Lois Lane, and Kevin Spacey is Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.

In theaters everywhere June 30.

(American mythology is alive and well)