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I think the Christopher Reeves Superman made it okay. Brando was part of that, sure, but after all, Gene Hackman was Lex Luthor.

The big thing was, the movie looked good, and was a thrilling picture. Up until then, superhero stuff had been a handful of serials and cheap TV shows with bad costumes and sloughed-off plotlines clearly being written with no attention or care. Once somebody cared about it, it turned out okay, and proved it could be done.

Yes. at the time Hackman admitted he did Superman due to Brandos involvement. and years later Jack Nicolson probably figured since his good friend Brando did Superman (and made a crap load of $) why not make a crapload of $ with Batman....

so really Brando set the template for all the big name A listers that came after who all probably worshipped the likes of Brando, Hackman and Nicholson (Arnie, Neeson, Caine, Freeman, Spacey, Bridges, Norton, Hopkins, TLJones, Redford, Crowe, Costner, Affleck, Will Smith, and now Phoenix/DeNiro ) and of course all the not so A listers