Kevin Smith has some advice for DC Comics and Warner Bros.

Copy Marvel.

And he hopes that starts with this week's Superman relaunch, Man of Steel.

"I wish that DC would just flat out be like, 'We're just going to steal Marvel's plan since it seems to be working for them,' and then just do the same thing," the filmmaker and geek guru tells QMI Agency. "They've got characters and they can do a Justice League movie as well."

And from what he has seen, the Clerks filmmaker - who wrote the almost-made Superman Lives for director Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage in the 1990s - thinks director Zack Snyder and star Henry Cavill are on the right track.

"I liked Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, I thought it honoured the Dick Donner versions, but what I've seen from Man of Steel has pulled me right in," says Smith. "There is one moment where Superman is speeding Lois Lane away from danger and we get a glimpse of her face and to me it looks like she's saying, 'If this dude slows down we are dead.' If you can show me something that beautiful that brings me as close to the comic book experience as humanly possible, you've got my money."

Smith is happy to talk Superman - he recently filmed an ad for Gillette giving his theory on how the Man of Steel shaves - and he no longer wonders what if his version, which featured Brainiac and a giant spider, had been made (you can watch more about that experience below).

"I've been talking about Superman forever," he laughs. "Zack Snyder, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams definitely capture the essence of everything I look for in a comic - thrill, hope, fantasy, and a heavy grounding in morality."

But it can't all be Big Blue. Smith, who self-released 2011's Red State, is preparing to shoot his last movie, Clerks III, the final instalment in the adventures of former convenience store clerks Dante, Randal and Jay and Silent Bob.

Announced last year, Smith says the film touches on everything he's ever done.

"And not just the movies," he chuckles. "It'll reference my comics, podcasts, Superman ... my entire mythology."

Smith is also prepared to go the DIY route if the Weinstein Company passes on making Clerks III.

"If they say no, then I'm going to try and finance it myself ... I would love to take the risk. That's how I started my career, I bet on me. I just got a bunch of credit cards and said, 'I'll pay for this myself.'

"Now that we're here years later, and I have access to money, I don't mind betting on myself again. And if s--- gets real desperate, I'll call up Mr. Argo" -- i.e.: Ben Affleck -- "and be like, 'Dude, help.'"

And he predicts he's going out on a high note.

"I know for a fact it's going to be the best movie I ever make. Some people are going to say, 'How can he say it'll be better than Clerks?' Well, in the words of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, 'Just watch me.'"

Twitter: @markhdaniell

Email: mark.daniell@sunmedia.ca