{"id":66133,"date":"2025-07-15T00:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66133\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T00:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T00:08:13","slug":"superman-identity-crises-fascist-space-holograms-and-a-super-furry-animal-discuss-with-spoilers-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66133\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: identity crises, fascist space holograms and a super furry animal \u2013 discuss with spoilers | Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Gunn\u2019s Superman is a curious film: so earnest, so heartfelt, and so defiantly weird it sometimes feels less like a reboot of the world\u2019s most iconic superhero and more like an elaborate fan project. Most of us will be relieved we\u2019ve said goodbye to the heavy metal space Jesus of the Zack Snyder years, and that Gunn has avoided paying too much retro cosplay tribute to the Christopher Reeve era. This is undeniably a Superman we\u2019ve never seen before on the big screen: a Kal-El who\u2019s deeply human, flawed, and more likable for it.<\/p>\n

The new Man of Steel, played with boyish charm and the right amount of golden retriever energy by David Corenswet, spends most of the movie juggling black holes, battling clone siblings, and dealing with the looming realisation that his space dad might have been one bad day away from full-blown genocide. And yet there\u2019s always the sneaking suspicion he would break off from all this in a second if you asked him to fix your router and play Enya until your existential dread subsides.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a deep dive into the new movie\u2019s themes and revelations, as we all try to work out whether Gunn has reinvented the superhero film \u2013 or just lovingly detonated it.<\/p>\n

Clark Kent arrives late to the superhero party<\/p>\n

We\u2019re used to Superman<\/a> being first on to the scene. In Richard Donner\u2019s 1978 classic, Kal-El was greeted with wonder and open-mouthed awe by a terrestrial population who had never seen anything like him. But in the new DCU, we learn that superheroes have been around on this version of Earth for centuries. Superman isn\u2019t even the first of his kind in the modern era, and this completely recolours how people see him \u2013 presumably because, across those decades, the whole \u201cmetahuman\u201d thing must have had as many PR disasters as miracle saves.<\/p>\n

Costumed anomaliesThe Justice Gang \u2026 from left, Nathan Fillion (Green Lantern\/Guy Gardner), Isabela Merced (Hawkgirl) and Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific). Photograph: Warner Bros Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the Justice Gang: Nathan Fillion\u2019s Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Edi Gathegi\u2019s Mister Terrific, and Isabela Merced\u2019s Hawkgirl. We\u2019re never quite sure if they\u2019re supposed to be the good guys, or just government-licensed super-Narcs with branding. But their presence amplifies the sense that humanity has yet to get its collective head around these costumed anomalies. And who can blame them, when Gardner is a one-man HR complaint, Mister Terrific delivers every line like he\u2019s moderating his own Ted Talk, and Hawkgirl has all the enthusiasm of a substitute teacher on the last day of term?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s clearly a fair amount of suspicion around superheroes \u2013 a tension that\u2019s exploited by the villainous Luthor to portray Superman as a ticking alien timebomb in a cape.<\/p>\n

Superman as the ultimate immigrantWhy is Lex so determined to take Kal-El down? \u2026 Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor). Photograph: Warner Bros Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

Did you buy the evil tech bro\u2019s raging hatred and distrust of the Man of Steel? This is one pillar of the Superman mythos that Gunn chose not to jettison, but I would have loved to know quite why Lex is so determined to take Kal-El down, especially when there are plenty of other metaheroes around to interrogate, sideline, or frame for an alien tech conspiracy of your own making. Is he just livid that Superman keeps saving people for free, completely devaluing the scalable, app-based rescue model Lex had soft-launched in beta? Does he secretly loathe the idea of a being who can fly, lift mountains and still doesn\u2019t own a single crypto wallet? Could it all boil down to the unbearable truth that Superman became Earth\u2019s most beloved figure without raising seed funding, writing a thought-leader thread, or launching a podcast?<\/p>\n

Much has been made of erstwhile TV Superman Dean Cain\u2019s horrified reaction<\/a> to Gunn imagining the last son of Krypton as the ultimate immigrant hero (even though this has been part of the superhero\u2019s identity since at least 1938). But if this version of Luthor really is supposed to be a cipher for Maga views on alien invaders, isn\u2019t he a strange one? He\u2019s certainly too polished and corporate to convincingly stand in for a movement that would more likely have live-streamed that bit where they storm the Fortress of Solitude.<\/p>\n

No multiverse in sightOne Superman, one moral crisis \u2026 David Corenswet in Superman. Photograph: Jessica Miglio\/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n

It may still be year zero in the new DCU, but it\u2019s still a blessed relief that Gunn has avoided giving us portals to other dimensions, alternate timelines and cameos from moustachioed Supermen from Earth-47. This doesn\u2019t mean, however, that the comic-book weirdness hasn\u2019t been dialled up to 11, as we\u2019re still treated to a pocket universe, a dumb version of Supes who\u2019s controlled by Luthor with hi-tech drones and a manual for every single move ever seen in Mortal Kombat, and a guy (Metamorpho) who\u2019s capable of turning his own leg into Kryptonite in order to take down Kal-El.<\/p>\n

This is big, bonkers sci-fi, but it\u2019s refreshingly self-contained and also a rare thing: a superhero film more interested in identity than interdimensional travel. No collapsing timelines, no digital resurrections, and no mid-credits cameos from Nicolas Cage in a wireframe suit. Just one Superman, one moral crisis, and one very complicated crystal palace full of daddy issues. Which brings us to \u2026<\/p>\n

A sci-fi identity crisisExistential meltdown \u2026 David Corenswet in Superman. Photograph: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures\/\u00a9 2024 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & \u00a9 DC<\/p>\n

Perhaps Gunn\u2019s bravest \u2013 and most controversial \u2013 move is to completely retcon the story of how Superman got to Earth in the first place. Rather than Jor-El and Lara lovingly placing the baby Kryptonian into a space capsule and sending him across the cosmos as a gift to humanity, it turns out they targeted our solar system so baby Supes could go full Zod the moment he grew up.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, this is the comic-book movie reimagined as a sci-fi identity crisis \u2013 built out of grief, clones, and orphan guilt, then dunked in a vat of Kryptonian tech and fired out of a narrative T-shirt cannon. Rather than a Superman who descends from the heavens in slow motion to save the world with a glinting kiss curl, he\u2019s more like a farm boy in the throes of an existential meltdown, awkwardly squeezing into his dad\u2019s super-suit while discovering that his entire origin story might be a lie.<\/p>\n

Worse still, he learns this in front of a watching world that\u2019s already crowned him as saviour, symbol, and all-purpose moral compass. In moments like these, it\u2019s as if Gunn has given us The Truman Show \u2013 if Truman could fly, shoot lasers, and was being emotionally micromanaged by a fascist space hologram. Is this the new DC big cheese making Superman\u2019s backstory more interesting? Or just seeing how many daddy issues he can cram into one cape?<\/p>\n

Best in showDeserves a spin-off \u2026 Krypto the Superdog. Photograph: Warner Bros Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

Superman\u2019s best friend is an absolute scene-stealer, a brilliant mix of emotional support animal and furry missile. If anyone\u2019s going to get a spin-off in this brave new DC world, it\u2019s surely the laser-eyed pooch who could probably take out Darkseid if you gave him a chew toy and pointed him in the right direction. Later on in the movie, we find out he actually belongs to Kal-El\u2019s cousin Kara Zor-El, played by Milly Alcock, after she turns up to engage in some sarky super-banter with Superman. Apparently Kara\u2019s not around a lot because she prefers partying on planets where she can actually get drunk. This is definitely not your dad\u2019s Supergirl.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one more element of Superman that made me think that, despite the tonal unevenness, the clone chaos and the occasional Kryptonian info-dump, I\u2019m still genuinely intrigued to see where Gunn plans to take us next. Because even if it doesn\u2019t always fly straight, this is definitely a DC we\u2019ve not seen before.<\/p>\n

What did you think? Is this the rebirth Superman needed \u2013 or just an interstellar therapy session with a cape and a dog?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gunn\u2019s Superman is a curious film: so earnest, so heartfelt, and so defiantly weird it sometimes feels…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-66133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114854343871841237","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}