[SPOILERS for the new Superman movie]
So I don’t know by what means, fair or foul, a fellow Discord-ian found the above image of Superman’s Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara, from James Gunn’s new Superman movie. But, let me tell you, it sure definitely answered for me the question I had since I couldn’t recall propoerly, “did Jor-El have the Superman ‘S” crest on his outfit?”
I mean, I put the question out to a few people, in fact to a couple of folks who were going to be going out that very evening to see it again, and they promised me they would check and report back. And they did, in the negative. And another pal I asked said he specifically looked for that “S” on their costumes the first time he saw the film, and did not see it.
Thus, the evidence mounted, but the screenshot clinches it. And why was I so concerned about that particular costume detail, you may ask? I’ll get to that in a moment.
I’d also like to note that my questioning certainly brought up an important factor in the success (at least, thus far) of this film — repeat viewings! It’s been a while since I’ve heard about folks going back to see the same movie again and again, given 1) COVID, 2) ticket prices, and 3) it’ll be streaming in about 4 to 6 months. This, and its opening weekend box office, seems to indicate DC may have a hit with some traction on its hands.
I mean, it’s only been out a few days, who knows what will happen a week from now, or even when the Fantastic Four movie comes out later this month, but I had been genuinely curious if the public would really be interested in yet another Superman film. And so far, the answer seems to be “yes.” Most folks seem to really, really like it.
Most folks.
I have seen some criticism of this film…by which I mean, real, sincere criticism, not the screeches of “IT’S GONE WOKE” from the usual parade of grifters out for your attention and your wallet. And the specific criticism I’m thinking of, the one I feel a little more qualified to talk about, is the demonizing of Superman’s “foreign” parents and the apparent erasing of his heritage at the end of the film.
I really, really don’t think this was Gunn’s intention, but of course once art is out for the public to see, the public is free to interpret it as per their personal thoughts and experiences. And looking at the film, particularly in the historical moment in which my fellow Americans are living, where awareness of immigration and heritage is at sky-high levels, I can absolutely understand how they can see these elements of the film in the way they do. So, please, if any of them are reading this, what I’m writing here is not an attack on them.
But what I think is happening here is that we are seeing a conflict between Superman’s allegorical weight regarding the immigrant experience and Superman’s sci-fi plot tropes that arise from his being a literal extraterrestrial. More than anything else, I think the complaints are caused by a bit of bad timing regarding this conflict.
Yes, technically, Superman is an immigrant. Even an illegal immigrant, as per this episode of Smallville:
But that aspect tends to be downplayed, especially in more recent decades. The preference appears to be that Superman, while of Kryptonian heritage, is Of Earth, as per this page from #6 of John Byrne’s Man of Steel mini-series:
There are, in fact, multiple stories of Superman resisting the imposition of Kryptonian values upon Earth and himself. His battles against the Eradicator, and his conflict with Bar-El and Lilo-El.
But obviously Superman does not reject Kryptonian culture outright. He has a Fortress of Solitude, in some versions of the story based on Kryptonian architecture, that contains Kryptonian technology. He has (in some versions) a surviving city of Krypton, shrunken by his nemesis Brainiac, which he occasionally visits. He wears an outfit that emblazoned with what is, in some versions of the story, a Kryptonian symbol.
Speaking of that symbol, I said earlier on that I was wondering if Superman’s Kryptonian parents were wearing it. So many versions of Superman’s origin story, especially of late, put that “S” on Jor-El just so we know there’s a connection between that man we’re seeing onscreen and the baby that’s about to be rocketed into space.
As you saw, there’s no “S” there, which does away with my argument that ultimately, at the end of the film, when Superman has replaced images of Jor-El and Lara with images of the Kents, his Earth parents, for display in the Fortress, it’s hard to say that he’s rejected his heritage fully when he’s still got a Kryptonian symbol on his chest. Except, we don’t know that it is. In several versions of the Superman story, it is, but here, we’re not sure.
Despite that, the idea that he’s fully rejected where he comes from is still sort of belied by thge fact he’s still surrounded by presumably Kryptonian technology, robots seemingly built from that same advanced tech, in a Fortress that also seems to come from that same tech. Granted, yes, we don’t know any of that stuff for sure, but at the very least the Fortress’s appearance evokes every other cinematic version, all of which come from Krypton science.
The real problem arises when the sci-fi plot twist shows up, when the partially damaged final message from Jor-El and Lara is restored, and instead of simply being an expressive of love and hope for Kal-El, it reveals their desire for their son to subjugate the Earth, to take many wives and spread the Kryptonian bloodline. It makes Jor-El and Lara into villains, along the lines of other pro-Krypton adversaries like the Eradicator and (in Superman: The Animated Series) Brainiac. And Superman resists them, denies them this influence, by removing their images from his Fortress.
This is an interesting twist on the Superman story, one that we haven’t quite seen before in the mainline Superman comics. (The return of an older, crankier Jor-El in relatively recent Superman continuity may come close.) However, like I said, the problem is timing.
The demonizing of the foreign Els, who are sneaking their immigrant offspring into our county/planet in order to destroy us, only to have said offspring reject completely where he came from and meld into this new society…yeah, putting it that way, you can see why some people are upset, especially, like, right now.
I still think this is a good, solid superhero movie, with some minor issues (I don’t like one of the antagonists being killed off at the end…at the very least, they could have shown him in a wheelchair with casts on each limb to show he survived the fall). Given the number of other superheroes in the film, Gunn manages a good balance of keeping Superman the star while giving everyone else their moment or three.
I’m truly sorry what some folks saw in this film ruined it for them…nobody wanted that, for sure. There were more controversies than just this, but those are whole other posts I’m not quite ready to make yet.
At the very least we can all agree that Krypto is amazing. The Superdog heals all division.
I think your observation that the sci-fi plotting and the allegorical elements sit awkwardly together in the film is really astute.
It seems to me that Jor-El’s uniform subtlety evokes Superman’s crest with the diagonal bands running across his chest. I think Superman’s shield is probably meant to be read as Kryptonian for the simple fact that if it wasn’t then it’d probably more closely resemble Superman’s classic icon, an actual S.
An added wrinkle to the characterisation of Krypton (SPOILER) is the appearance of Kara in the final scene. She seems pretty chill! More intent on getting wasted under red suns than furthering Kryptonian imperialism. Though I don’t think her inclusion substantially alleviates the unfortunate subtext that you’ve discussed.
Krypto was an absolute delight!
Just my two cents, so that and another $5.97 would let you buy a comic book this summer: maybe this isn’t about immigration. Maybe it’s a message about Superman not taking an Old Testament stance. Because rejecting Jor-El and Lara’s message — which sounded like the biblical injunction to “be fruitful and multiply” and to have “dominion over the Earth” — also meant not embracing retribution or taking multiple wives and concubines. It wouldn’t be the first or last time Superman was an allegory for Jesus. IN fact, in his first mass as pope Leo XIV warned about “settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman.”
I agree that making Jor-El and Lara proponents of Kryptonian dominance is jarring. I think that, like a lot of things in the movie, it might be set-up for more story in the future. I know that a bunch of linguists and computer-types thought the second half of the message was legit, but that was all done off-screen and in a hurry. The haste might be hiding the fact that someone (not necessarily Luthor and the Engineer) tampered with the message. This is just part 1 of a very long-term planned universe, after all. Just a guess on my part.
A couple of other things:
— If you take Jor-El and Lara’s chest pieces together, you get a pretty good outline of the “S” symbol on Superman’s costume.
— I think this whole argument is complicated by the fact that Clark/Superman isn’t just an immigrant. He’s also adopted. And the big shift he makes in the movie is from his biological parents to his adoptive parents. He’s good not because he was told to be good, but because he was raised to be good. Neither he, nor the Kents, have done anything to deny or suppress his immigrant roots, as you mention above. So at least on that level, it’s about Americans accepting immigrants into their lives without malice — a very timely message. A slight change of focus might be all that’s needed to shift the meaning of the movie.
And again, I don’t think there’s any way that James Gunn, a super-fan of the Silver Age, would write “and marry a lot of wives to spread your seed” into Lara’s dialogue. That’s a Zod line if I’ve ever heard one.
I hadn’t considered that take, but I can see how someone could make it in good faith. I saw it as Gunn employing the “outer space invader” trope, which admittedly can be used as a metaphor for immigration.
I certainly don’t think that’s what Gunn is doing here. Instead, it’s in service of the theme plainly stated by Pa Kent: that it’s one’s own choices that make them who they are. Superman says something similar to Luthor in their final scene together. Lex has gifts that would be a boon to humanity if he made different choices.
It’s what I’ve always loved about Superman. He’s the man who can do anything, and chooses to do the right thing.
If I were to come at you about anything, it would be that you haven’t mentioned the hypno-glasses!
(Harrumphs) The hypno-glasses (and Superman’s ‘super-hypnosis’ power generally) are still bad, morally questionable even, regardless of what Gunn thinks. (Harrumphs again)
I agree with Thom that another aspect of Superman’s story is about “nature versus nurture”. Superman comes from a highly advanced world which can certainly be read as superior to Earth. Superman might have seen himself as superior to humans, more intelligent, as a saviour figure…but he does not. Why? Because he was raised by Ma and Pa Kent to be humble and kind. He doesn’t see himself as superior to humans; he does heroic deeds because he feels that he owes humanity this because of his great power, and that it’s the right thing to do. His gifts make him a servant to humanity instead of superior. He simply wants to fit in with his fellow-humans.
I think that aspect is being played up, that Superman is who he is not because of being born with genetics that allow him to have these amazing powers, but because he was shaped by being raised to have certain positive values.
In that sense, it goes to the very heart of Superman’s creation during a time when Nazism was looming. The Nazis talked about “Aryan supermen”, and two Jewish comic creators created a true Superman of their own. This interpretation of Superman repudiates the physical and mental perfection/genetic-purity ideals of the Nazis, as Superman becomes not a creation of “nature”, but it’s a product of “nurture”. I think Jor-El and Lara can be read more in light of Nazism than in the light of the immigrant experience. They preach, “You are born better, you have a right to rule lessers.”, but Superman rejects this ideology because he was raised better.
While watching the film, I did have the thought that, man, somewhere out there is the world’s biggest Jor-El fan, and they are going to be so pissed off at this movie.
I’m going to be very curious how they reconcile this with you-know-who showing up to get us to the next movie at the end. I imagine a long convo is in the offing.
A take I really like on Superman’s origin in general, is that is that the theme isn’t so much ‘Immigrant’ or even ‘Refugee’, but one of ‘Adoption’.
Kal-El, homeless and without anyone to care for him and raise him, is adopted into a family who instills in him values, and places him within a culture. As he grows up as ‘Clark’, he identifies with the culture around him. Then, as he matures and learns of his adoption, he discovers his heritage, and goes off to discover that part of himself. He learns that he is a product of both ‘families’ and of both ‘cultures’.
He learns to celebrate his birth-family and their culture, while still embodying the dominant culture and heritage he has been raised in. He views himself as an American, while still knowing, and being influenced, by his foreign heritage.
On the one hand you could see Jor-El’s message as representing “Replacement Theory”, in which immigrants are nefarious and harmful, and Superman rejecting it.
On the other hand you might see Jor-El as supporting an “Gotta impregnate ’em all” eugenic baby mania like Elon and various far-right figures, and Superman rejecting *that*.
Or you could see it as something else I haven’t accounted for.
I love how the hypno-glasses were handled: discussed as they were a real, serious, actual thing (for people who would otherwise have a hard time getting over the glasses disguise) but also told to us by a grade-A idiot in Guy Gardner. So maybe they exist, maybe they don’t, maybe the truth is somewhere in between.
That looks more like Noah Wyle than Bradley Cooper.
This is the first time I’m hearing that people are interpreting Superman refusing to be a conqueror as Superman rejecting his heritage. I disagree with that notion, but I can see how others would come that conclusion.
I really like the movie, especially the fact that Superman acted as he did because he cared about the people and animals around him. Superman should always be motivated by altruism. I had my quibbles, which I won’t get into unless Mike posts about the other controversies, but none of them were enough to wreck the movie.
I haven’t seen that take anywhere until now. Most people love how pro-immigrant and pro-Palestine it is.
What’s really shocked me is how everyone else seems to believe the Engineer/Luthor translation.
@Joe Gualtieri: I’ve seen reviews in which people played Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, and I thought the character was pitched wrong. He was too flamboyantly evil, got too angry too quickly, and was outsmarted too easily. The Engineer in the comics is a self-made superhero (or anti-hero, depending on how you look at it) with a cool demeanor. The movie version- owing her powers to Luthor, and being his angry henchwoman- didn’t work for me.
It’s me, the Jor-El fan out there. Here’s my two cents.
So I didn’t interpret Joe-El and Lara as villains, it’s a bit more subtle than that. They are sending a message to what they assume will be the last survivor of their dead planet. They are encouraging a last minute hail mary play so that something, anything, will survive of Krypton.
Which if it’s a great place, we can’t blame them.
I think we are used to a lot of modern deconstructions (including Man of Steel) where Krypton died because in essence it became corrupt and failed, they destroyed their own environment or they were so politically rigid they couldn’t even get it together to evacuate the planet. John Byrne also gave us a Krypton devoid of love and even human touch, it was not a paradise at all. In essense the message was “they deserved to die”, which carries baggage of it’s own.
But a much more old fashioned representation of Krypton is that it was a super advanced civilization (better than us mere humans) with a sudden and unexpected end- people didn’t believe Jor-El because nothing looked that wrong, how could the planet blow up? He must be wrong, come on guy.
And Jor-El and Lara love their child, they love each other. Young parents flinging their kid into a lifeboat, hoping and praying that someone good finds him.
“Please remember us, don’t let this be the end, don’t let Krypton truly die” is the message. “Do whatever you have to on Earth to survive, do not let this be our extinction”.
Yeah, they aren’t perfect from Earth’s POV.
But Pa Kent is 100% right when he tells Clark he makes choices every day. He doesn’t HAVE TO preserve whatever was bad about Krypton, just the good, he’s alive and here now and can do things the way he wants, he’s not chained to something that truly is dead and gone.
I also really enjoyed hearing spoken Kryptonese, that was a nice touch. Bradley Cooper was good casting, nice cameo surprise,
Okay, I finally saw the Superman film, and also read the Progressive Ruin post regarding it, and everybody’s comments and reactions to the film so far.
I think that, while it is not perfect, this is the Superman movie that the times we are currently living through call for. Moreover, it is most likely the third best Superman film made to date–after the iconic “Superman the Movie,” and “Superman II.”
It is a film made with great love by a comic book nerd for comic book nerds who love actual comic books and comic book cliches, tropes, lore, and in jokes. That is its greatest strength.
The casting is pretty much pitch perfect. David Corenswet nailed Clark Kent and Superman. Nicolas Hoult nailed Lex Luthor. But some of the greatest joy came from seeing Rachel Brosnahan as a very Margot Kidder-esque Lois Lane, looking like she stepped right out of the late ’70s wearing Diane Keaton’s wardrobe from “Annie Hall.” Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, and basically the whole Daily Planet ensemble was great. And I loved the classic throwback moment of Perry White grumpily telling Olsen: “Don’t call me chief!”
The “Justice Gang” was also great. Nathan Fillion actually made me want to see more of Guy Gardner–a character I always thought was a waste if time in the comics (and, actually, an eventual Guy Gardner/Hal Jordan or John Stewart stand off would be great in a future film–or, better yet, a Guy Gardner/Batman “one punch” moment!) Isabela Merced as a divebombing while screeching battle-hardened badass Hawkgirl was also great–although I hope we will see Hawkman in a future film as well. However, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific has got to be the breakout star of this film and should proceed immediately to his own solo film or a “Justice Gang” film franchise.
Anthony Carrigan looked great as Metamorpho–and the CGI displayed his powers well–however, I don’t think he captured the personality of Rex Mason as portrayed in most comics I read. I don’t find fault in his acting, but rather in Gunn’s script, for not giving sufficient screen time to explain much about Metamorpho’s backstory, and even later when he is with Sapphire, there is no dialogue between them. But at least a classic Silver Age Bob Haney character has finally made it to the big screen!
It should also be noted that to the extent that the “Justice Gang” seems to somewhat be a mash up of ideas from the various Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatties Justice League series, and The Terrifics series from the DC Rebirth era, James Gunn has kinda beat the soon to be released Fantastic Four film to the punch in terms of having a “dysfunctional family” quartet on screen first (and Mr. Terrific has Reed Richards’ level genius plus Sue Storm Richards-esque force shields–albeit generated through T-spheres or other Terrific-tech. Also, Metamorpho has the “freak” factor, which is sone what akin to Ben Grimm’s situation. And both Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl can fly around, not unlike Johnny Storm. Gardener can also generate plasma blasts/constructs through will power–not exactly “flame on,” but “green on,” or “green screw you,” as scene in at least one scene in the film). Well played, James Gunn!
As far as plot points and the script, I only find a few faults. The biggest one has already been talked about–Jor-El and Lara as Kryptonian supremacists. I think that this was an unfortunate choice on Gunn’s part, and it would be better if it turned out that General Zod had somehow manipulated the tapes. Also, how will this play out in terms of Supergirl’s characterization in future projects? Will she be a Kryptonian supremacist, or was Zor-El a kinder, nobler Kryptonian than his brother?
The absolutely most disturbing thing in the film to me was Malik’s fate, and Luthor’s cold bloodedness in that scenario. But also, I don’t think that the Bronze Age Superman in DC Comics I looked up to when I was young, or Christopher Reeve’s film version of Superman, would have let that happen. He would have concocted a way to outmaneuver Luthor, perhaps giving him false information to buy time. But he didn’t. And then later, when Superman confronts Luthor he sermonizers about how Luthor could make better choices? Come on–he should have been telling everyone present about what Luthor did to Malik and how Luthor is twisted and irredeemable. The fate of a good man, Malik, is much more important than the fate of the evil dictator Vasil Ghurkos, by the way–Hawkgirls are gonna Hawkgirl!
I thought the first “interview” scene between Lois and Superman was poorly scripted. Again, this was not a mature, level-headed Superman as shown in the classic Christopher Reeve films or in Bronze Age Superman stories. In fairness, the preamble to the film said it was something like three years in to Superman’s career, so maybe he’s still supposed to be green, but he came off in that scene as super defensive and super immature when Lois grilled him on the Boravia stuff.
But, I think there was a lot of stuff the film got right. The Kents were presented beautifully as loving parents who had instilled Clark with clear values, and the heart to heart scene with Pa Kent is one of the best moments in the film.
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor is almost a perfect amalgamation of and allegory for the venal narcissists, tech-bro billionaires, and rancid anti-migrant bigots and their goons creating chaos daily in our nation over these last months.
One of the most jarring scenes in the film was Superman surrendering himself to Luthor’s suited up henchmen, whereupon he was cuffed, manhandled and put in a (pocket universe) detention center–literally embodying the migrant experience under the current authoritarian regime that is trying to shred Due Process, The Rule of Law, and the U.S. Constitution. And I think that will be one of the defining momentd of the film–moreso than bad Kryptonian parents–the plight of powerless and dispossessed immigrants victimized by intolerance, which Superman assumes in that scene. That’s the “Ecce Homo” moment for me. That and Superman’s goodness, and hope–and even Guy Gardner’s ultimate goodness in coming to the rescue of the oppressed people when I thought he was hopeless.
Just saw the movie, and loved it. The Silver Age vibes make me think that later stories will resolve the Jor-El/Lara thread, which is so unlike the characters.
I especially liked the immigration and adaption material, and the setup of new characters. Hawkgirl was a bit poorly served perhaps, but there’s only so much screen time.
@Andrew Davison
I actually thought the film could have used an extra twenty minutes or so. That way we could have found out more about Hawkgirl–is this iteration supposed to be from Thanagar or Earth? We could have also had a brief explanation of how Metamorpho came to be, and how Lex captured him (I did notice at one point Superman was shown in Simon Stagg’s building, yet Stagg was never mentioned). This exposition could have happened when Rex and Joey were reunited with Sapphire or when Rex joined the “Justice Gang.” Another angle would have been for Clark, Lois or Jimmy to get the exclusive scoop on Metamorpho’s backstory.
I can see some Silver Age vibes, such as the prominent presence of Krypto, but I actually think the movie had more Bronze Age/early 1980s vibes and it almost seemed like a film adaptation of a DC Comics Presents story (which also makes me think that DC should release facsimile editions of those issues of DC Comics Presents which featured Superman and Metamorpho, and Superman and Hawkwoman).
I was also a bit surprised that we didn’t get any brief cameo in the film of, say, the back of Bruce Wayne’s head, cast in shadow, monitoring things from the Batcave; or maybe Doc Magnus, The Challengers of the Unknown, or the Chief and the original Doom Patrol, kind of harkening to Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier.
I guess we got some CW Arrowverse vibes, in that I noticed “Big Belly Burgers” and “Jitters” coffee ads/billboards were shown in the film.
I also think that instead of the text blurbs at the start of the film it would have been more effective to have The Monitor, The Spectre, The Phantom Stranger, Nabu, Morpheus, Madame Xanadu, or some other cosmic, celestial or supernatural entity narrate the whole age of “Gods and Monsters” and Superman has been in action for three years thing.
And, although I don’t think it will happen, what if, down the road, we get a Earth-1/Earth-2 Crisis-type film where the heroes of Gunn’s DCU crossover with the Justice League, Birds of Prey, Shazam, Black Adam, and the Justice Society from Snyder’s DCEU?
DC needed a hit after one under-performer (Aquaman 2) and two bombs (Flash & Black Adam) in a row!
That dude looks too young to be Jor-El! But the costumes look good.
@Snark Shark
It might have bombed, but I think Black Adam was actually pretty decent. The Rock turned in one of his better performances, and it was enjoyable seeing an iteration of the JSA (especially Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate), although it would have been cool if Jay Garrick and Alan Scott had also been on the team. It probably would have performed better if people didn’t know in advance that The Snyderverse was being cancelled. Also, The Rock would have made a great Namor over at the MCU.