{"id":260906,"date":"2025-07-13T06:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T06:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260906\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T06:36:15","slug":"superman-is-not-anti-american-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/260906\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman is not anti-American propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

When James Gunn, the director of the new Superman film, said this month<\/a> that the franchise is an immigrant story, it provoked predictable ire<\/a> from Right-wing commentators. According to their narrative, this is yet another instance of a cherished American cultural symbol being turned \u201cwoke\u201d by liberal Hollywood executives whose sole purpose is to impose their political views on viewers.<\/p>\n

Gunn was alluding to Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on \u201cillegal aliens\u201d, and Superman serves here as an avatar for the refugees and immigrants who are targeted by MAGA. In the film, he is demonised by his enemies as an \u201calien\u201d and a \u201cKryptonian\u201d, accused of trying to destroy human society from within. The villainous Lex Luthor, meanwhile, is presented as a techno-utopian capitalist with more than a passing resemblance to Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

Despite the Right-wing outrage, Gunn is fundamentally right that the Superman mythos has always been a metaphor for the immigrant experience in America. Earlier versions of the story presented the character as the ideal immigrant of the early 20th century, one who had excised any traces of his heritage and fully assimilated into becoming a patriotic citizen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Superman was raised in the heartlands of Kansas by a modest yokel couple \u2014 and not in a major city, where most immigrants lived \u2014 to buttress his all-American bona fides. Indeed, it was Clark Kent\u2019s move from Smallville to Metropolis which produced the bigger culture shock. American history is as much about internal migration as it is about welcoming newcomers into the country. From the Gold Rush to the Great Migration of black Americans, US citizens have always been a people on the move.<\/p>\n

Later versions of Superman, including Gunn\u2019s film, do more to emphasise the character\u2019s double consciousness of being at once alien and human. Is his real identity Clark Kent or Kal-El? The director\u2019s comments about Superman being an immigrant caused an uproar partly because it de-assimilates the character and places his \u201calien\u201d status above his American identity in a way which reflects current debates around multiculturalism.<\/p>\n

The contemporary case against immigration largely focuses on the idea that the immigrants now entering America are very different to the idealised immigrants of yore. Today\u2019s newcomers are usually eager to embrace their hyphenated identities, often showcasing a diaspora nationalism even if only in aesthetics. This is why images<\/a> of Mexican-Americans protesting Trump\u2019s deportations by flying the Mexican flag riled up the MAGA crowd: it seemed to confirm their suspicions of disloyal \u201caliens\u201d living among them.<\/p>\n

Superman is not just a symbol of the immigrant story but a parable about American power. He embodies a hope for liberals and neoconservatives alike that the nation has a providential mission, that its strength should be used to stand for freedom and justice against tyrants and evildoers. In Gunn\u2019s film, Superman, being a naive idealist, unilaterally involves himself in distant foreign conflicts to defend small peoples against larger forces without understanding the unintended consequences these interventions might ignite. Put simply, his good versus evil framework does not allow him to take a realist approach.<\/p>\n

Superman\u2019s story is all about how America is a land where anyone, no matter their origins, can begin anew. They can transform into someone entirely different, and defy any idea that their destiny is decided from birth. James Gunn\u2019s Superman may not be the best version of this tale, but it is not anti-American. Instead, it is just the latest iteration of a modern American legend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When James Gunn, the director of the new Superman film, said this month that the franchise is an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[1439,2766,77,3063,40,19919,3943,11187,3283,980,4169,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-260906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cinema","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-james-gunn","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-non-classifiu00e9e","16":"tag-none","17":"tag-optional","18":"tag-superman","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114844544732753654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}