a silly and fun return to form for the character after more than a decade of depressingly bleak Jesus allegories and “Superman as evil” what-ifs? Yes. Does it have arguably the single best portrayal of Jimmy Olsen on screen? Unquestionably. Does “Superman” work as a great introduction to a brand new DC Universe and makes it stand out from Marvel? Absolutely.
This last bit is important because there was a lot of speculation about what would happen if “Superman” didn’t deliver the goods and how the DC Universe could build up from a failed introduction like the last time DC tried to start a cinematic universe. Thankfully, “Superman” is not just a fun movie, but it does for DC what “The Avengers” did for Marvel in bringing together different characters, different tones, and introducing a vast world that could support all kinds of stories. Seeing David Corenswet’s Superman deal with Lex Luthor is already entertaining, but doing all that while Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl help save the day makes the movie stand out as part of a much bigger world.
In what is possibly the best Easter egg in the movie, we get a glimpse at the history of the DC Universe in a mural that’s inside the Hall of Justice, the headquarters of the Justice Gang. James Gunn has already teased the existence of a popular classic hero in the DC Universe through his appearance in the mural, and now he’s teasing the importance of two other heroes for the future of the franchise.
After sharing the whole mural in full HD on social media for fans to obsess over, Gunn talked to IGN about the meaning of the mural for the future. “I will just say that in one of our scripts we’re working on, two of those characters are kind of important,” Gunn teased, without specifying which two.
