The problem was not necessarily so much that Lois would be black as it was who was going to play her: Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child. Jon Peters, JJ Abrams, and McG wanted the flavors of the moment when they were pushing their "Krypton doesn't blow up and Lex is Kryptonian in some way or another" script. Beyonce would be wrong for Lois in ANY Superman movie, let alone one that was already deliberately destroying the very fundamentals of the mythos.
(Of course, Ashton Kutcher, Justin Timberlake, and Jake Gyllenhaal were also pursued to play Superman--Timberlake previously being a Jimmy candidate--for the exact same reasons, with Brandon Routh being rejected by McG in a perfunctory round of screen tests. So this ain't anything new.)
Well, if it was an underqualified pop star pursued for her "name" status, that's different. (I didn't know any names, just the idea itself.) Remember back in the 70s when Bruce Jenner wanted to play Superman? Stick to the running, Brucey.
As for the Kents surviving into Clark's adulthood...the comics HAVE and still do use them as a crutch to keep Clark tied to Smallville as the farm boy in tights. The animated series avoided this by keeping their roles to a minimum, which made their survivial work. They weren't a constant presence, so an occasional visit wasn't a problem. But in the comics, they serve no purpose other than to ensure that Clark never grows away from the farm, that he never becomes more than just a Kansas Peter Parker.
In that respect, they were better off dead, because their deaths gave them a real meaning and made Clark a man. By dying, they became the second family Clark lost, and their deaths taught him that for all his powers, Superman can never defeat death. So yeah, I have to admit I prefer them dead, simply because Superman finally becomes who and what he was meant to be as a result. With them being alive and always being in the stories, Clark's nothing but a Smallville hick. Which is what Byrne intended, of course, but it ain't what Siegel and Shuster wanted.
Okay, granted, I live in Miami (aka "New Sodom") and I've never been on a farm
in my entire life, but at least from what I read in PARADE magazine...don't people in farm country these days have celphones and sattellite television? So, isn't the "hayseed town" stereotype innaccurate in this day and age? Combine it with Pa Kent's honest, simple "folk wisdom" and not only is it an innaccurate stereotype, but a fairly condescending one as well.
All good points, King Krypton. The more I think about it, the more I think the Kents ought to stay dead. Not because their death was a tragedy that defined Superman (Superman already has ONE big tragedy that defines him; more than that is really redundant overkill) but because their presence allows Superman to be characterized in a way that is wildly innaccurate (and fairly annoying).
It's not that I object to the Kent's survival
in and of itself, but the
purpose of their survival: to establish Superman as a product of the earth "saved" from a "shameful" Kryptonian legacy, distorting the role of Smallville as a "womb" to allow Superboy to grow and develop away from the world's prying eyes, to the dominant aspect of the Super-Mythos. Smallville isn't that; Krypton IS.
One peripheral advantage to the Kents' being dead, is that the Clark Kent character is suddenly very lonely; if he has a warm, loving Earth family to act as a support safety net that he can go back to at any point. Heck, why not make Superman's Earth family a giant 140 member Cajun clan in Louisiana?
