I suggested, rather coincidentally on June 30, that maybe Superman Returns wasn't the sequel to Superman II. Maybe it was the sequel to Superman II: The Donner Cut. After watching the two movies in sequence this week, I think this theory may be right.
(see old thread here:
http://superman.nu/smf/index.php?topic=2772.0 )
I haven't read the Superman Returns comics that come between Superman II and Superman Returns, but as things stood, Lester's version of Superman II
couldn't come before Superman Returns, for a number of reasons.
1) The Green Crystal. In Superman II the green crystal was found in the rubble, and used to return Superman's powers to him...only it didn't show how this happened. In the Donner Cut, the same scenario occurred, but with extra footage showing how it happened. How could Luthor use the crystals in Superman Returns if they had been destroyed? Perhaps they weren't destroyed, thanks to Superman's time reversal in the Donner Cut.
2) In Superman Returns, Kitty remarks to Lex in the Fortress that he's acting like he's been there before. He pauses (similar to Lois' deja vu moment at the end of the Donner cut) but does not respond that he has. This suggests that it probably never happened, if for no other reason than the fact that Lex wouldn't use the same trick twice. It's likely that he never escaped with Mrs. Teschmacher the first time, and never got the opportunity to track "alpha waves" to the North Pole, until now.
3) At the end of Lester's Superman II, Superman promises the President to never leave them again. And then he does, if Superman Returns is the sequel. But if it follows the Donner cut, Superman never broke any such promise.
4) The Baby...which is the more likely Superman scenario?
Scenario A, Lester: Superman sleeps with Lois, super-kisses the memory away, and 5-6 years later she discovers that her child is Superman's, leading her to assume that Superman has probably raped her at some point..or
Scenario B, Donner: Superman and Lois mutually agree to end their relationship, Superman travels back through the time barrier to keep it from happening, but hooks up with her some time later...as Superman, not Clark. This results in a super-lovechild.
5) "The Son becomes the Father..." Superman never heard this in his adult life, according to Lester's Superman II. But according to Donner's, Superman retains the memories of the Jor-Elogram saying this before giving him his powers back.
So...did Bryan Singer ever see the Donner Cut footage? Yes:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=91990Tom Mankiewicz: "I’ve met Bryan Singer a couple of times and he said when he was doing X-Men he would go back to his trailer and just watch Superman all the time. He wanted to bring Superman Returns back to the sensibility of the first Superman. Bryan used to come down and visit us in the editing room over the summer when we were putting this new cut of Superman II together again with [film editor and preservationist] Michael Thau."
If you watch Superman, Superman II: The Donner Cut, and Superman Returns in sequence there is a great deal of clarity. Not so with Lester's film.