Killed in opening scene for BvS

>Killed in opening scene for BvS
>Some shit OC with your name ruining it on Supergirl
>No real lines in Donner Superman
>No real story in Lois and Clark

Why does Jimmy get such a bad rap in live action?

>never even a redhead
>the one redhead guy on the CW plays Archie of all people

He's not a natural readhead either, he just happens to be the only actor willing to dye his hair for a role.

Because they don't understand that he's supposed to be a self-insert character that you actually want to be. They are stuck on some outdated geeky idea that Jimmy never really was.

For all the bullshit mixup with the brother shit, Smallville was probably closest to an accurate portrayal for a while.

That's worse:

>the only actor willing to dye his hair (red) for a role
>not playing Jimmy

At least he got to be played by Not-Iceman for however many seasons of Smallville.

Jimmy is a character that doesn't function very well in a movie format and his role in the narrative is in competition with Lois Lane, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, Ron Troupe, and Perry White. Basically he has to compete with all of Superman's non-heroic supporting cast and it's often easier to use Lois for anything that Jimmy could add to the table.

This.
Jimmy is the down to earth application of the idea.

At least he bloody shows.
When's Rick Jones gettin' his due huh? HUH?

Right after Snapper Carr gets his due.

He's a white ginger. That's literally it.

I think Black Jimmy could have been a very interesting take on the Jimmy/Clark dynamic if the character was on a Superman tv show.

It's funny that black jimmy was taller and bigger than the dude playing superman.

I feel like Black Jimmy is actually fairly close in characterization to what Jimmy should be. It's just that they chose a bad actor for the role. Jimmy is supposed to be kind of cool but that guy looks too Chad especially for how he's been written.

That's part of the reason why I think that he'd have been perfect on a Superman show. He checks off a lot of the boxes on what we see as strongly masculine but his best friend is kind of a dork and also Superman.

I call coupon you saying Jimmy was stuffed on L&C; L&C did Jimmy Olsen the best in that they played up Jimmy bring a normal guy and not some Marty Stuff hanger on

Biggest flaw there is that I never really got the impression that he and Clark were that close. He wasn't that bad though.

Best Jimmy stories?
I've read all star and kiby's new gods already

the gorilla bride

That sounds really horrible.

I'm pretty sure Snyder's response to asking why he had terrorists murder Olsen in cold blood in the opening scene of BvS would

>Lol that was hella f*cking* epik. You actually care about Jimmy Olsen? What are you some kind of nerd?

His actual line of reasoning was that he wanted people to not expect it so they wouldn't know what to expect next. He was going for a "whoa, they killed jimmy! how could they do that! I wonder what the movie will do next!"

That's stupid.

Yeah, well it's snyder. It's what happens when you get a meathead who thinks he's smart.

People forget that Jimmy is Superman's PAL. He's the guy Superman will always make time for, maybe bring him a souvenir from his recent fight with Brainiac. He'd stumble, but he wouldn't quit, because quitters never got anywhere. He'd sometimes cheat his way into success, but afterwards he'd remember that cheaters never prosper and that the honest way is the best way.

As other people have said, his various narrative functions have been taken over by other characters: Lois, Ma & Pa Kent and (most of) the JLA are Superman's confidantes, the Daily Planet has had a plethora of supporting characters, and younger readers now have Jon Kent for their audience surrogate. Hell, Jimmy hasn't even been Superman's pal for decades - they passed it off to some bowery bum for a laugh! Not that I'm disparaging Mr. Bibbowski, you understand, but the intent was clear - having a mere mortal be Superman's pal is a silly idea... kid's stuff.

The main problem is that Jimmy's been by a lot of writers - in comics and TV - as this annoying pipsqueak who always calls Perry "Chief". The fault lies squarely with the old 50's TV show, which for the longest time was pretty much what people associated with, and where the "Don't call me Chief!" b.s. started.

Of course, Jimmy had quite a bit of development, but certain writers (Byrne and Johns are the main offenders) keep resetting him to the "Right away, Chief!" moron, and I'm damned if I know how to get him out of that rut. Offhand, I'd say giving him more of a connection to the Robins would be a good start - I remember a Silver Age story that tried to make Jimmy and Dick a team with their own HQ, but nobody did anything with it. There could be something in highlighting the differences between Jimmy and Nightwing, or maybe have Jimmy try (and fail) to be a cool big bro to Damian...

Olsen was too alpha for everyone to handle. He had to be taken out.

>Jimmy is supposed to be kind of cool but that guy looks too Chad especially for how he's been written.

Fucking this. You could easily do "black" Jimmy Olsen but they felt the need to go the mandingo route.

Honestly, Jimmy's original ongoing is pretty damn good - it got pretty damn goofy at times, but I wouldn't say there was ever a BAD issue. Of course, Kirby's run was the best, but that's just Kirby.

I don't think the Jimmy in BvS was the real, Jimmy just some spook with a stolen passport

>becomes a junkie addicted to yellow Tart 'n Tinies in Smallville
You forgot one, OP.

James Olsen on Supergirl was pretty close to OP's pic related in the first season.

The original silver age run was the best. For modern age, Nick Spencer did an issue once and Abhay Khosla's story in Superman 80 page giant.

I think the Spencer story was a backup in Cornell's Action run

He wrapped it off in some one shot.

Great post over-all, but specifically
>Offhand, I'd say giving him more of a connection to the Robins would be a good start - I remember a Silver Age story that tried to make Jimmy and Dick a team with their own HQ, but nobody did anything with it. There could be something in highlighting the differences between Jimmy and Nightwing, or maybe have Jimmy try (and fail) to be a cool big bro to Damian...
I remember that Silver Age story... I actually had an idea for a Nightwing & Flamebird mini-series. Robin would be Jimmy Olsen's sparring partner, training him how to fight hand-to-hand so he's less dependent on Superman, they'd bond over getting no respect, and the fact that both their superhero BFFs are kinda overprotective, leaving them behind to train while they go off to deal with the REALLY dangerous missions that require the World's Finest. So they decide to strike out on their own, reinventing themselves as a sexier, younger, hipper alternative to Batman & Superman. Imagine Dick and Jimmy cruisin' for fly honies or dancing at the What-a-Way-to-Go-Go Club between cases.

The biggest hang-up I had about the story was that it wouldn't fit into any continuity, but nowadays they've retconned the NTT run completely and Nightwing was never even a Titan, so maybe...

Other than being butthurt about killing Jimmy, why is it stupid?

>but nowadays they've retconned the NTT run completely and Nightwing was never even a Titan,

They retconned it back in like a year ago with Titans Hunt

>pretty close
He wasn't a redheaded freckled white man.

Because it doesn't make people think anything can happen. It's just shitting on people who like Jimmy to make them feel bad. Deaths don't actually raise the stakes at all because we're so used to violence in fiction.

>Because it doesn't make people think anything can happen.
Killing Jimmy surprised me so it worked for me.

I feel like you're probably in the minority then. But regardless that's the reason people feel like it's stupid. It didn't happen for them.

Most people didn't even realize it was supposed to be Jimmy. He was a bearded, 30something CIA agent. Not exactly what the name "Jimmy Olsen" conjures. I'll bet it was done for the same reason "Jenny" Olsen never got called by her last name in MoS - so they can walk it back later when fans cry out against it.

Late response but this is one of the more strange ones I've read.

>No real story in Lois and Clark

I was rewatching this because they were doing reviews at the Superman Homepage and I was able to stream them. Jimmy actually gets several main leads - it's very clear that he and Perry are subordinate to L&C but he definitely got episodes that focused on him or something he was either in trouble for, or trying to help someone, or where he was helpful in doing research or some such that helped break the episode problem.

Cat's only had one live action iteration, since the Supergirl show really has (as they did with making Maxwell Lord the Lex Luthor avatar) is an far older -- given Lucy (and therefore Lois'), Jimmy's, Clark's age -- stand-in for mentor (Perry), mogul (Morgan Edge) and who really knows, but it was the far further than ANY version of canon Cat.

Ron and Steve have never appeared in a live action show and really do not need to.

If Lois is Clark's or Superman's love interest and fellow investigative reporter (so either work partner or work competitor), there is plenty for Jimmy to be able to do. He wouldn't be a significant co-lead or support - a good example would be Big Bang Theory. While the four guys and Penny are considered the leads, with Amy and Bernadette being lesser characters, the show really is Sheldon/Leonard or Leonard/Penny, with a lesser extend the first choice with the other two guys. Jimmy could easily fill some of the same type of roles in a series that Howard or Raj fill, or that Amy or Bernadette fill. It really depends on where in the life cycle of Clark's career it is.

In the DECU, it's pretty clear that unlike the Donnerverse or Superman Returns, Snyder has no interest in secret identities. Unlike Nolan Bats, Bruce Wayne doesn't need to be a dilettante, drunken, womanizing Brucie, and Diana isn't an ambassador, etc. Likewise, Clark can never be Clark as he died.

Jimmy was great in Lois and Clark though. Even got entire episodes dedicated to him every now and then. Off the top of my head I'm sure I could remember several: when he some organization was going after him and attempted to turn him into an assassin via mind control (that was two episodes I think), the one where he had a hit put on him, the one where he turned into an old man (actor was the one from the old TV series), and the one with his dad who was a spy. Also, he and Perry usually had the B plots of the other episodes focused on the title characters, so I don't know what you're on about.

Jimmy hasn't been prominent in the comics for decades, so it's not exactly isolated to the films. The New 52 actually raised his relevance, but Rebirth shot it right back down to nothing.

People already didn't care about Jimmy Olsen. Moviegoers wouldn't even know who Jimmy Olsen was without previous franchise knowledge, why should they be shocked and distraught that this nobody died?

>Rebirth

That's entirely due to Superdad. It would be interesting if, as I believe they are, having Lois actually come back to work full-time at the Planet and Jimmy starts to realize she's not New 52 Lois but someone else and starts to investigate it.

Superdad was clearly Jimmy's friend and vice versa in the pre-FP era, there's several runs that make this clear - it's just that this Jimmy was Superbro's Pal, not the one that Superdad knew. And presumably Clark cannot come back to work at the Planet, given all the Depowered Clark, Death of Superbro stuff, etc.

The could also do back-ups or a mini with Jimmy taking over for Clark with Cat's web portal/site.

You know they're not going to do that.

Reborn will probably smooth it over.

For a post friendship, now an adult take on Jimmy I think he works pretty well.

They actually name the character in the director's cut. They sliced the footage where he is named from the final theatrical cut but restored it for the extended version.

Also, Jimmy was originally supposed to be a cripple who lost his legs when Zod/Superman fought in MoS and be a walking "Fuck You fanboys" soap box for Snyder to shit on fans who hated the last act of MoS, via having him white knight Superman's decisions to trash Metropolis/kill Zod.

I remeber hearing about Jenny then being so confused when I saw the film and she was nothing.

Snyder is undiluted shit. It's impressive.

Steve appears in Man of Steel. He's short and kinda bald though.