Superman IV: The Quest For Peace Movie Special (1987)
Writer: Bob Rozakis (Adapted from the story by Christopher Reeve, Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal and the screenplay by Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal)
Artists: Curt Swan, Don Heck, Frank McLaughlin, John Beatty & Dick Giordano
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Rating: 
For this week’s installment of “Review Corner,” I’ll take a look at the movie adaptation of 1987s “Superman IV: The Quest For Peace” so I got to say that this special is TEN TIMES BETTER THAN THE MOVIE ITSELF……..and it’s quite a godsend!
Here’s some background- After both 1983’s “Superman III” and 1984s “Supergirl” failed miserably at the box office, the producing team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind sold the Man of Steel’s movie rights to Menahem Golem and Yoram Globus, the owners of Cannon Films, the studio that churned out many low-budget movies that dominated the box office in the 80s, and soon after they lured back Christopher Reeve with the promise of letting him come up with the plot of the movie- Nuclear Proliferation! along with the return of Lex Luthor and a new villain based on Superman’s DNA- The Nuclear Man as well as the subplot that sees the Daily Planet being taking over by David
Warfield, a tabloid tycoon who takes over the Planet and names his daughter, Lacy Warfield as the new editor.
So this special showed you what a fantastic movie Quest for Peace could have been and I enjoyed what Bob Rozakis did in structuring the story as he added the many needed layers that were left on the cutting room floor, such as the appearance of the 1st Nuclear Man (Which is a weird Bizarro knockoff) and making Superman’s fight with the second Nuclear Man more entertaining such as adding in the deleted tornado scene and doing away with the pesky “Wall-Building Vision” that Superman used to rebuild the Great Wall of China; And with that, I give Rozakis a lot of props for making this special feel like a true and honest Superman story and not that of a cheap and disastrous movie. I also liked the artwork provided by both Curt Swan and Don Heck and I love how, in this special, you got to see their art shine and for Rozakis, he must’ve been on cloud nine working with two comic legends, especially Swan, who’s known as one of the top Superman artists to date, although I did think it was weird that David Warfield didn’t look like Sam Wanamaker but that of an aging Tony Stark, it did strike me as weird but the story here is a bonafide hit so it’s nothing for me to overthink or nitpick any further.
With this adaptation, it shows all of us that this could have been the big-budget Superman movie that Cannon should have done which would have let to more great superhero movies being made under their banner but the studio’s cheapness was their worst enemy as the movie’s $35 Million budget was cut into a paltry $17 Million (Apparently, Menahem Golem didn’t believe in making a movie with a $30 Million budget); And if you would love to see the real version of “The Quest for Peace” then this special is for you, even after Christopher Reeve, Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal wrote a script that had so many promises but fell short thanks to Golem and Globus, The movie adaptation is without a doubt, an absolute masterpiece.
Well, that’s it for me. I’ll be back with another review next week. Until then, I will see you next time.
About Author
