The following contains spoilers for Superman.
James Gunn’s Superman is finally here, and with it comes a brand new DC Universe on both the big and small screens. While there’s a lot of excitement surrounding this brand-new franchise, it’s impossible to talk about the new movie without looking back at the last time an attempt to launch a DC Universe began with a different Superman, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.
While both might be Superman movies, it’s not a stretch to say the two take very different approaches to the Last Son of Krypton. While there will be no shortage of debates among fans regarding which is the best Superman movie, debates that I’m sure will be entirely reasonable and won’t devolve into complete social media meltdowns, I am among the contingent that preferred the new film. There are numerous reasons for that, but one of the biggest is the way both films tackle similar concepts, and the new Superman comes out better by doing less.
Christopher Reeve Superman movies had become such cultural icons for the character that the one time prior to Man of Steel that anybody tried to make a new Superman movie, they just tried to make a Christopher Reeve movie with different actors.
Zack Snyder took a fresh look at Superman and tried to modernize, and, more importantly, deconstruct, the most famous superhero ever. He asked questions about just how somebody like Superman would truly be received in a modern world. The answers to those questions set the tone in the movie.
Would an alien from another world with powers beyond imagination really be welcomed and embraced by humanity? Certainly not by everybody, and Man of Steel, and the old DCEU more broadly, understand this. Of course, humanity would be scared of somebody like Superman. Even if he used his power for the good of people, there would be those suspicious of him.
Man Of Steel’s Deconstruction Went Too Far
But then Man of Steel poses another question on top of that. What if Superman were the savior of a planet that should not be saved? The question of whether humanity is worthy of being saved is largely the purview of the sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but the question can be traced back to the earlier film and Jonathan Kent teaching his son that maybe Clark saving people isn’t the most important thing Superman could be doing.
A lot of people took issue with this shift in the way the Kent family is traditionally portrayed. I didn’t have a problem with it on its own. The new Superman movie also makes some significant changes to the traditional motivations of Superman’s parents. If this had been the only major change to a “traditional” Superman story, it would have been fine.
People are, largely, terrible, after all. Even Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black can tell you that. While Superman may traditionally see the good in humanity, it’s certainly an interesting idea to see how he might react if he had trouble seeing the good in us and only saw the pettiness and hate that all too often, unfortunately, seem to take the spotlight.
Either of these questions that deconstruct the Superman character in different ways are worthy of contemplation in a Superman movie. Unfortunately, by dealing with both questions at the same time, the story gets muddy. Any attempt to investigate one of these questions runs up against the other, and as a result, neither is able to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Even over the course of the franchise, these interesting ideas aren’t given a chance to be fully realized. At the beginning of the theatrical cut of Justice League, we see a population that misses Superman following his death, seemingly forgetting people hadn’t actually loved him before. While this change was likely due to Justice League’s troubled production, the result is still a mess of a message.
James Gunn’s Superman Is More Focused
James Gunn’s Superman certainly went in a different direction from Man of Steel in a lot of ways. That makes sense. Differentiating itself from the previous films was part of this movie’s job. Still, it does borrow something from Zack Snyder’s universe, as it also sees a world where humanity is less than willing to trust Superman.
While all indications are that humanity is largely supportive of Superman at the start of the film, in part because metahumans are nothing new in this universe, when evidence is presented that indicates Kal-El may not be the savior he appeared to be, people turn on him in a big way.
However, because Superman only deals with this one question, it’s able to focus on it and make this the driving force of the rest of Superman’s story. We get to see how he responds to being shunned by the people he’s made it his job to protect. When people begin to question Superman’s motives, he doesn’t question them, he questions himself.
Superman’s Relationship With Humanity May Still Be A Factor In The DCU Going Forward
By the end of Superman, it certainly looks like the damage that Lex Luthor did to Superman’s reputation has been largely undone, but that’s not entirely certain. While most people may have come around, there will likely be those who remain unsure. It’s not like everybody trusts the media. As such, this particular storyline may not be entirely done yet.
At this point, we have really no idea where things will go for Superman. There are a lot of upcoming DC movies and series planned to introduce many more characters, so it could be years before we even see Superman again. When we do, I wouldn’t hate to see Superman’s relationship with the populace to be at least a little strained.
I am still curious what a Superman fighting to save a people who aren’t sure they want to be saved by him would do to the big blue boy scout. It’s an interesting question. Zack Snyder wasn’t wrong about that. And after this idea has been fully explored, maybe then it will be time to ask another question and deconstruct Superman a little more.