Fast-forward a decade and then along came Superman; stakes were upped all round. In the director's chair was Richard Donner, hot off his hugely successful supernatural hit The Omen. Superman's massive budget allowed for some blockbuster action sequences, on both Krypton and Earth. Marlon Brando played Jor-El - Supie's dad - for a then record-breaking fee of three million dollars. Gene Hackman took on the role of super-villain Lex Luthor, for a not dissimilar chunk of change. Composer John Williams contributed a memorable score, with a title theme as instantly recognisable as that of Star Wars. And relative screen newcomer Christopher Reeve took on the dual responsibility of Clark Kent's glasses and Superman's cape.

But the key element that made this film such a game-changer was that - for arguably the first time in cinema history - film-makers took the comic book subject matter seriously. From the opening scene - Brando, Trevor Howard, Maria Schell et al sitting in judgement of Terence Stamp and his fellow criminals- the tone was set. "We're not screwing around here." the makers appeared to be saying. Grade 'A' talent in front and behind the camera. The best money can buy. No winking to the audience, no parodying of the iconic Superman figure, no resorting to cheap laughs.

Well - mostly. After the epic sweep of the Krypton and Norman Rockwell-infused Smallville sequences, Metropolis brings the film down to earth with a bit of a bump. Hackman's portrayal of Lex Luthor, together with his sidekicks, appear to have wandered in from the '60s Batman TV show. Fortunately, there was still enough good stuff going on to ensure they didn't completely derail the movie.

All the good stuff propelled Superman into being a tremendous box-office smash. There were successive dips in quality (and grosses) with the inevitable sequels - the lowest point, 1987's Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, is not just a bad superhero film, it's a bad film period. Fortunately, Quest For Peace wasn't going to be the final word on superheroes on film. Two years later, Tim Burton's darker-than-the-TV-show vision of Batman broke global box-office records and restored faith in adapting comic book heroes to the silver screen.