The status quo of what we still like to refer to as the “DC Extended Universe” frequently changes with the direction the wind blows in Burbank, so we can only ponder when we’ll again see Superman on the silver screen. For the past year, much speculation has surrounded Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan as being our next Man of Steel, so that’s the notion most often being entertained.
More often than not, digital artwork imagining what Jordan would look like wearing a cape places him in the role of Val-Zod. For those unfamiliar, that fella was the Superman appearing in Earth 2 comic books being published by DC for a time, and I did take a shine to him. The fact that he wore an awesome costume was one easy way to make me a fan of his.
On that note, the latest piece circulating once again sees Jordan suiting up as Val-Zod, and can be found below. This time, we have “jscomicart” on Instagram to thank. And from the look of it, an image of the actor taken from Fantastic Four has been seamlessly merged with one of Henry Cavill in order to allow us to gaze into the crystal ball.
In case you were wondering, Jordan himself did weigh in on this situation last February. Rather than simply playing a black Clark Kent, the fan favorite instead pulled from the source material when revealing how he’d like to put his own stamp on Superman’s legacy:
“It’s tough. I hate being a business man and understanding both sides of the situation. There is a huge upside to it. But being under that microscope, being picked apart and being compared to so many different versions of Superman. I would rather do something original. It’s cool…I’ll be Calvin Ellis. There is another Superman from earth 23… I’m a comic book guy. Calvin Ellis is earth 23’s Superman. There’s a another version of Superman in another dimension that is black already in the comic books… that exists. I think the comic book purists would accept that more then me being Clark Kent from Kansas.”
From that, you probably don’t need me to explain who’s Calvin Ellis. Still, I’ve already shown my Val-Zod bias, and I’m sticking to it. Time will tell which version of Superman Michael B. Jordan will play – if any – but we’ll continue monitoring the situation.