In the opening sequence of “Superman” we see the titular hero struggling to breathe as several of his internal organs have been ruptured. Throughout the movie he is ostracized, suffocated and tortured. The character of Superman is about a century old; he is as American as it gets. As shown by director James Gunn’s newest outing with the character, being American is very hard right now.
A “Blade-Runner”-esque intro text is all the set up the film gives you. There are no origin stories to be found: the film accurately captures the feeling of grabbing a random graphic novel and reading it.
Superman has already been a superhero for 3 years by the start of the film. The world is so used to superpowered beings that multi-dimensional imps and intergalactic cops with magic rings are commonplace. Superman spends his days protecting Metropolis from kaiju and is idolized by the masses worldwide. His stellar reputation takes a downturn when Superman stops the fictional nation of Barovia from invading Jarhanpur. The invasion is backed by weapons contractor Lex Luthor — played by Nicholas Hoult — in a scheme to destroy Superman’s public credibility through a series of false-flag operations.
Gunn utilizes a bevy of Superman lore to build his pre-established universe. To promote the film, DC comics released a graphic novel box set of the comics that inspired the film. There are obvious inclusions like “Superman for All Seasons,” which clearly inspired the film’s tone of being an optimistic story that is weighted down the often sadness of real life. The box set has one shocking exclusion, the story “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?”
In Gunn’s film, Superman finds himself at ideological odds with The Justice Gang, a troupe of corporate-sponsored and rather cynical superheroes. While they do perform heroic deeds, they act out of self-interest. During a rampage by an infant kaiju, Superman advocates for finding a way to take the creature alive while The Justice Gang is fine euthanizing the creature. This is a direct mirror of the central conflict of “What’s So Funny” where Superman’s old-fashioned values clash with “The Elite,” a group of crass cynical modern superheroes without any scruples about killing bad guys.
When “What’s So Funny” was released in 2001 it was responding to a glut of nihilistic cape-punk comics released in the late ‘90s like “The Authority.” The thesis of the comic is that such cynical stories built off hate and spite are all very easy, while allowing yourself to dream and imagine a better world is a hard but worthwhile practice.
In recent memory a slew of evil Superman archetypes have propagated across screens both big and small: Homelander “The Boys,” Omni-Man from “Invincible,” Ikaris from “Eternals” and even Gunn-produced “Brightburn.” In particular, “The Boys” has spent four seasons portraying American ideals as being purely bigoted, imperialistic and murderous. But David Corenswet’s Superman shows that while characters like Homelander might evoke Superman, the two share absolutely nothing in common except for the ability to fly and shoot lasers. While Homelander spends his time trying to expand American imperialism, Corenswet’s Superman spends his time battling imperialists.
Corenswet is stellar as Superman and Clark Kent. An especially hard role to impress given the character’s long history of great actors playing the part. The themes of the film shine through his performance. Superman is a good man, through and through, but trying to accomplish something with any human meaning or worth comes at a great cost. He endures all the vitriol levied at him and the physical punishment and still manages to come out the otherside hopeful.
The core of what makes this newest version of Superman so relevant, he is Americana incarnate. As anyone who has been conscious throughout this year can tell you, the United States is enduring hardship. Already, Tucson has seen a slew of protests in opposition to Trump’s anti-immigration policy and ICE raids. Every week this year feels like waking up to another dire headline, but still thousands of Tucsonans turned out en masse to attend the No Kings protest and voice opposition to increasing authoritarianism.
But Gunn places Superman first and foremost as a symbol of hope in dire times. In fact, he has written this film so unsubtly that the only way you could possibly miss his point is if you had a heart attack and died during the previews.
It’s a story of good and hopeful people overcoming the ravages of war, the machinations of billionaires and an unjust government is, as the film states, “the real punk rock.”
The irony of this all, is that a movie promoting hope has been attacked by the usual suspects. Those who make careers out of farming culture war outrage have tried to make this film into their newest battlefield because Superman is an immigrant.
Conservative pundits like Ben Shapiro would like you to think that Superman is “going woke,” but none of these themes are Gunn original. The director of “Superman Returns” Bryan Singer described the character as “the ultimate immigrant.” Singer’s film was a prolonged impression of Richard Donner, who played up Superman’s status as a refugee here on Earth, as Clark sets out on a journey that ends in him embracing his heritage. In Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” xenophobes protest outside the U.S. capitol holding signs calling Superman an “illegal alien.”
Gunn has not reinvented or updated Superman in any way. He has done something better, his version of Superman is classical, using the primeval essence of the character. The power of “Superman” comes entirely from fiction’s most enduring character. No matter what time period, no matter what else is happening in the world, Superman offers a vision of hope that the world’s problems can be resolved by good people using their power in the name of “truth, justice and a better tomorrow.”
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