Comic Book Busts: "Superman IV"

After two superlative "Superman" features, the franchise sputtered badly with 1983's "Superman III." But that was nothing compared to the Kryptonite-laced stinker to follow.
"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987) found the Man of Steel battling more than just Lex Luthor. Supe had to deal with a significantly smaller FX budget, which made us long for the days when Superman was shot lying down on his stomach and scenery unspooled behind him.
Even the film stock looked sickly.
The late, great Christopher Reeve took a story credit here, as Superman scoops up the world's nuclear weapons and hurls them into the sun. If he had zapped the brains of every last nuclear scientist to erase their memories, that actually might have done something concrete. Instead, the nuclear subplot just looked pathetic. But not as silly as the new supervillain, a hot-tempered beefcake named Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) created by Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman).
My favorite scene features Luthor and his nephew (Jon Cryer, thrown in to appeal to the kiddie crowd) laboring in the Luther lab. The sequence looks like it was shot in a Sears Portrait Studio.
I'll always have the fondest memories of Reeve's Superman performances. And if you haven't seen his screen tests for the part, check out the extras on the "Superman" DVD.
But "Superman IV" should never have gone past the pre-production stage.
As The Washington Post's Desson Howe wrote upon its release - "nuclear winter seems more appealing than the prospect of "Superman V."