I'm not a Superman fan, but the new film might make me one
Despite being a DC fan since a young age, I’ve never been particularly fond of its golden boy Superman but my god, Superman (2025) might just change my mind.
When I say I’m not fond of Superman, what I really mean is I’m not fond of the way he’s written in most forms of media. Like many, I’ve grown tired of “What if Superman was evil?” and “What if Superman was Space Jesus?”, and instead long for a story where he’s just a farm boy from Kansas trying to do right with the gifts he’s been given.
That’s exactly what Superman looks like to me, so I’m surprisingly excited for the film in July.
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Superman feels like a breath of fresh air because so many prior incarnations of the Man Of Steel have just felt, well, wrong, like Man Of Steel for instance.
I don’t want to be mistaken; I think Henry Cavill was a fine Superman and he definitely looked the part. You can also tell he cared very deeply about the character so it’s a shame he won’t be able to put on the cape again until the inevitable Infinite Earths crossover film. I’ve got to be honest though, I really hated the character of Superman in Zack Snyder’s DCEU. He got better towards the end but I mentally checked out of Man Of Steel shortly into the fight between Superman and Zod.
In case you still haven’t seen it, these two titans go head-to-head in Metropolis, with the world at stake if Superman loses. Stylistically, it’s an incredible sequence and the actual combat is breathtaking. It gets a lot of hate for how much death and property damage ensues in the battle, but that’s not what I have a problem with. After all, Superman is still in his early days of superhero-ing and Zod does a good job of tactically boxing him into the environment. The problem I have is when Zod kicks a tanker of fuel at him, only for Superman to effortlessly hover above it, turn around, and watch as it careens into a building and explodes. He makes no attempt to stop it and then just watches the destruction unfold, and that really rubbed me the wrong way.
That’s not to say that you can’t have dark or realistic versions of the character - it's art at the end of the day, and god knows Batman has had just as many interpretations, many of which have been glaringly different from those before and after. What I am saying though is that Superman is at his best when he’s human. Very few interpretations of the character outside of the comics have pulled this off, though shining examples include Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League: Unlimited and Superman And Lois.
One story that really stands out to me is an episode of Justice League: Unlimited called ‘Comfort and Joy’ that sees the superhero team disband for Christmas. Because he has nowhere else to go, Clark invites his colleague J’onn, AKA Martian Manhunter, home to spend the holidays with him. Clark introduces him to Ma and Pa Kent, they share stories of past Christmases, and J’onn gets to experience family life on Earth. It’s a great episode, but it aired in 2003 before it was cooler to make Superman a tyrant or murderer for shock-value.
Despite not yet seeing the film, David Corenswet’s version of the character already strikes me as the kind of guy to invite his superhero friends back home for some quality-time together, and I love that.
I’ve got high hopes for Superman. James Gunn seems to know the character well and I’m already sold on Corenswet’s performance; I think he’s going to be fantastic. In the build-up to the film, I’m going to be brushing up on Superman comic lore as well as rewatching some of his more popular animated and live-action stories. Who knows? I might even walk out of the film’s premiere as a Superman stan.