Superman (2025) Comic Book Inspirations and Theories for the Sequel

3 years ago...

...I wrote a post on the comics that influenced The Batman, and shared my thoughts on the film and theories for the future. So, I figured, why not make a post on the film just like that one! I will be focusing mainly on comic books, though of course I will do my best to shout out films and TV shows when appropriate, all while integrating my thoughts and theories as I go.

If you're new to comics, I hope this film gets you to read these, but if not I hope you can give them a reread or at least have a new found appreciation, while also looking forward to what this new DCU has in store for him.

Here's a list and Table of Contents:

1. All-Star Superman
2. Superman: Birthright
3. Man of Steel
4. Superman For All Seasons
5. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
6. Kingdom Come
7. New Frontier
8. Golden Age, Oz Effect and Post-Rebirth
9. Brainiac & Secret Origin
10. AC #775/Superman vs the Elite and Superman & the Authority

Spoilers for James Gunn's Superman (2025) film ahead! If you have not seen it yet, please save this for now, go watch the film, then feel free to come back and read this part by part at your own pace!

So without further ado...

All-Star Superman

The book that writer-director James Gunn and the cast bring up and discuss most is Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman. One of if not The best Superman stories of all time, and may still be my personal favorite. Although of course the plot doesn't directly take from it, it does heavily draw from the tone, the world and characters, as well as visual style and art direction. All-Star was itself directly adapted into an animated movie, which unfortunately had to omit a lot of its best moments due to runtime and the need for a more linear storytelling structure.

Although not the first and far from the last, it's one of the biggest stories since Post-1986 to truly embrace Pre-Crisis elements, modernized for this new era of comics. This is a sci-fi fantastical world with the Fortress of Solitude having robots serving Superman, where superpowered beings, time travelers, super descendants, interdimensional threats, pocket universes and geniuses versed in science bordering on sorcery exist casually. Along with superpowered alien dogs and relatives.

Clark's humanity, vulnerability and relationships with Lois, Jimmy, the Kents and more are at the forefront. David Corenswet has cited the famous Grant Morrison quote multiple times now which I will leave here, as it speaks for itself:

"The great thing about Superman is even when you can juggle stars Lois Lane can undermine him with one cruel word. That's why we made him even more powerful than ever because everybody kept saying "you can't write a Superman story because if he can do anything then what conflicts are there" well emotional conflicts the biggest ones the things we all understand."

"Writers often say they find it difficult to write Superman. They say he's too powerful; you can't give him problems. But Superman is a metaphor. For me, Superman has the same problems we do, but on a Paul Bunyan scale. If Superman walks the dog, he walks it around the asteroid belt because it can fly in space. When Superman's relatives visit, they come from the 31st century and bring some hellish monster conqueror from the future. But it's still a story about your relatives visiting."

- Grant Morrison

Lex Luthor's pride, genius and envy are core aspects of his character here as well. On Michael Rosenbaum's (Lex Luthor of Smallville, the best in live-action before now, and Wally West of the DCAU) podcast, Nicholas Hoult called back specifically to the moment where Lex flaunts muscles to Clark as real, worked hard for, as opposed to sourced from empowerment from absorption of solar energy. Here he's a true mastermind who can replicate a 24 hour super power serum, create genetic clones, hyper-intelligent typing monkeys and more.

The film captures all this well, and truly gives us the best, most complete live-action iteration of the character with unparalleled intelligence and deeply personal and philosophical obsession with Superman. This is in stark contrast to the early Post-Crisis era or even examples outside comics as far back as Richard Donner's and Gene Hackman's Lex or with Superman & Lois' Lex portrayed by Michael Cudlitz where his personal vendetta with Superman and his own genius is downplayed. In this film, Superman is his #1 goal above all else, and while he employs scientists and engineers he is a true genius threat of his own right.

Back to Superman, we also have a Clark who's the most human he's been on the big screen in live-action. Perhaps not quite reaching the depths of Tom Welling and Tyler Hoechlin yet (each having 10 and 4 seasons of TV content respectively), IMO the range of emotions and depths of his character, his beliefs and traits, for me has more than surpassed his predecessors, and I am saying this as someone who is a fan of Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill. Back to the film, Clark's Daily Planet persona clearly alludes to Christopher Reeve's but also takes much inspiration from All-Star. In general, the personas of "Clark", Superman and the real Clark all align with Morrison's view of the character too. In general his humanity, and his vulnerability in his relationship with Lois, are all very All-Star-esque.

Some final minor influences/similarities before I move on:

• The Fortress Robots of course are straight from this book. The designs aren't identical but the android look with capes and numbered crests are 100% inspired from it
• The Underverse/this version of Bizarro world may be an inspiration for the pocket universe which "Ultraman" was sent to in the end (more on him later)
• Bar-El and Lilo in particular have an attitude towards Earth that resembles Jor-El and Lara in the film, more on that later
• The presence and role of the Justice Gang in this story somewhat resembles Samson and Atlas in this story, acting as other metahumans whose purpose in the story is to contrast to Superman
• Mr. Terrific specifically also resembles Leo Quintum's role in this story. In a crazy fun sci-fi fantasy world like this, Grant Morrison determined it was important that there be a positive scientist figure to oppose Lex Luthor's mad or "reckless" use of science
• Although there are no Kaijus, there were reptile armies and giant robots in All-Star that could have inspired this.
• Of course, the mid-credits scene with Clark hugging Krypto in space resembles a something straight from this book

Superman: Birthright

Next up, another book often cited by James Gunn is Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu's Superman: Birthright. Like Grant Morrison, Mark Waid is a huge fan of the Silver and Bronze age comics, citing writers like Elliot S! Maggin, Cary Bates and Martin Pasko for their works. This is Superman's second Post-Crisis origin and perhaps one of if not the first to return many Pre-Crisis elements to the modern era. For many this is the definitive comics origin of Superman.

This marks the return of the genius scientist Lex Luthor, who is not only a master of futuristic and fantastical technology but a renowned astrobiologist who was obsessed with alien life and astronomy as a child. Sharing this passion in his hometown was childhood friend Clark Kent. For those unaware, the Smallville TV show did not originate Clark and Lex having history together in Smallville, this was a huge part of Pre-Crisis and explored in-depth especially by Elliot S! Maggin in his comics and 2 prose novels (Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday). The tragic and opposite nature of their relationship is captured most in-depth here in comics and has made a comeback in recent years as well.

Most of all, it is in this story that Lex uses and manipulates out-of-context footage, images, information and tech to fake a Kryptonian invasion to defame Superman. This is something My Adventures with Superman took after. Which leads us to the most controversial creative choice for us fans. While this film leans into the second part of Jor-El and Lara's message not being faked, it is my personal opinion that Lex is more than smart, petty and evil enough to fool everyone. This is the same person who had an army of monkeys manually trolling on social media instead of using a normal AI/bot farm for his hate campaigns lol. Fooling Terrific, his analyst friends and the Boravian President is nothing. I'll get way more into my reasons in a bit but MAWS also didn't have Clark learn the truth until season 2 and there's way too much Birthright influence otherwise. Some have also pointed out details like the drones and the design of the Luthorcorp building matching the drones and the Lexcorp building in this book. At the very least this is something James Gunn has 100% thought about.

Edit: Lol Mark Waid basically has the exact same thoughts on the twist and Kara. Hope he and James Gunn talk about it. He loved the movie otherwise. "I'm not convinced yet that it wasn't a fake out by Lex Luthor. I mean, I know it says I know Lex says in the movie this is real, but I need to have I need to...first off, I need to find out why Supergirl didn't say to him at any time in the last few years. By the way, our parents were dicks. Did you know this? Um, so I I choose to believe that if you know, in my head canon, it's a Lex Luthor fake, but that is not to cast any aspersions on the plot, the movie. I understand why they did that..."

Unfortunately, it's been confirmed that it wasn't a fake, but also that there's more to the rest of Krypton, which I theorized as an alternative as I grew to accept it as real even before the confirmation. More on that in the rest of the original article!

Man of Steel

For better or for worse, John Byrne's Man of Steel is also a clear influence. These days, many take issue with how he went too far with Clark rejecting his Kryptonian heritage in favor of fully assimilating to Earth. To many it is an insult to the immigrant theme of Superman. It is in this story that the Kryptonians are first portrayed negatively. Jor-El and Lara clearly loved Kal-El, but their values and culture conflict with Earth's and make them appear cold and inhuman. If the message is taken at face value, this is certainly the case in the film too. Their love and good will for Kal are legitimate and well-intended, even if they believed it was best for him to rule Earth. Something Smallville also did.

Aside from that it is also in this story that the Kents were first made alive in present day while Clark is already Superman. Although it's actually Elliot S! Maggin who first coined Lexcorp, Byrne popularized it in present time as the main status quo of the character, at the cost of diminishing his genius and mad scientist elements. Clark also gets his job as reporter here by interviewing himself, which he does often in the DCU it seems. Although named after the Crime Syndicate villain of Earth 3 and the Antimatter universes, Ultraman here is an imperfect, less intelligent clone created by and working for Lex Luthor, just like many (but not all) versions of Bizarro, such as the one in this story.

Still, there are clear differences too. In this era, there are no other living Kryptonians of the same universe/timeline. Supergirl is not Kara Zor-El and there are multiple "false" versions of Zod. Clark is truly the Last Son of Krypton there. In the DCU however, both Krypto and Kara exist and are in this film, and next year's Supergirl film will be taking from Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow. She was alive on Krypton, remembers it, cherishes it and loves her family. She as absent for most of the film until the end and Clark hides her identity and ownership of Krypto from even Lois. In any case, the key to Clark discovering the full truth and again accepting his Kryptonian heritage, as part of the immigrant theme that James Gunn even talked about, lies with her.

But for now, Clark's arc in this film was clear. In the beginning, he gave all the credit to why he's a hero to the first half of the message and his assumption of what remained, to the point that he seemed to be more distant to Jonathan and Martha in the beginning. It was important he at least believed the "full" message was true in order to realize that his character was shaped by the Kents and humanity, and that his actions in the present defined who he is.

Superman For All Seasons

Perhaps the second most cited book is Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman For All Seasons. Acting as a supplement but also partial retcon to MoS, this story also tackles Clark's early days, focusing more on the importance of Smallville, the Kents, Lana Lang and Pete Ross. The visuals of the Kents and Smallville are clearly inspired by this along with the tone and near-episodic storytelling style, which All-Star also had. Some of Lex's character, philosophy and Raptors also take from this. Here he transforms a scientist into the "hero" Toxin in a similar way to how this film portrays the Engineer as his creation. Lex's toxic "love" of Metropolis and view of Superman stealing "her" from him, and his view of his natural human effort being overshadowed by a superpowered alien are of course present here as well. Even Clark's arc of returning to Smallville briefly to rediscover why he's a hero also resembles this.

Lex Luthor: Man of Steel

Nicholas Hoult has also cited Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's Lex Luthor Man of Steel, which is very similar to For All Seasons in regards to Lex but dives even deeper into his psychology and motivations. Like in FOS and the film he once again creates a metahuman and corporate sponsored "superhero" who he manipulates as well.

Kingdom Come

The new crest clearly takes from Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come design. Funny enough, it isn't the first to change the black back to yellow, as this was done on the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths with Brandon Routh's Superman and in Phillip Kennedy Johnson's Warworld Saga.

A lot of us fans have been theorizing more on the Kingdom Come influence. In the end, I do think they set up similar themes and potential plots in the future which I will discuss even more for the future but at least for now, this new age of heroes in a world that's had metas for centuries still has only begun to be inspired by Superman to return to their classical ideals.

In any case, Kingdom Come is one of the best DC stories ever of this scope, magnitude, themes and world building. Officially it's designated Earth 22 in the current Multiverse and has been revisited in Mark Waid and Dan Mora's World's Finest run. Neighboring it on Earth 21 is a world featured in a story just as great and very similar in some ways while being completely different in others...

New Frontier

Another book that's been cited by James Gunn as a source of inspiration for the DCU in general is Darwyn Cooke's Magnum Opus: New Frontier, which was also adapted to the great animated film adaptation Justice League: New Frontier, as it ends with the formation of the League. While KC leaned more into biblical, moral and philosophical themes in a possible future, NF leans into historical and political themes in an alternate past. Both get into world building and covering the entire DC Universe very well.

The Justice Gang here resided in the Hall of Justice which if you missed has a mural featuring the Justice Society of America. The JSA's history is an important part of New Frontier, as the metahuman superheroes who fought in World War II only to be forced to disband and retire after. No doubt Maxwell Lord was attempting to create a new team to fill that void decades later, with the Justice Gang name being an attempt to legitimize it as their successor. But of course, this pseudo JLI/Terrifics team is only a foreshadowing of the DCU's true Justice League to come.

It's also in this book that "Gods and Monsters" was used as an issue/chapter title, just like the DCU and is seen in the opening text of this film, while Jor and Lara's message also mentions the title of this book.

Golden Age, Oz Effect and Post-Rebirth

Squeezing quite a bit into this one segment but for good reason.

Forgive the phone taken photos from my copy of a Golden Age Omnibus, high quality GA scans aren't easy to come by

Boravia and Jarhanpur are both fictional countries straight from the comics, the former especially actually originating from Superman #2 where Superman does stop a civil war. He actually does that too even earlier with a different war in Action Comics #2, all the way back in 1939 and 1938 respectively! Creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster would be proud.

It is important to note that that while the latter's estate/nephew was attempting a legal battle over the film, the former's grandsons (Michael and James Larson) were far more supportive, attending the table read, gifting James Gunn a reprint of Action Comics #1 and acting as extras in the Daily Planet! James Gunn has said that he gave them the script to read early, and loved it, saying their grandfather would be proud, which actually got Mr. Gunn emotional, even as he recounted it in an interview.

Superman's place in interfering with international conflicts has been a recurring event in comics for almost his whole existence then. Many stories cover this but a very recent one in particular is Action Comics Rebirth's Oz Effect written by Dan Jurgens with art by Viktor Bogdanovic and Ryan Sook, which is why I cited this here. But there's more...

It's in this story that mysterious villain Mr. Oz pulls a Darth Vader and reveals himself to be none other than Jor-El, who by time travel and manipulation by greater forces, has become disillusioned by humanity's evil and challenges Clark's devotion to them. Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis would follow this up in their Man of Steel and Superman runs post-Rebirth. Kryptonians as a whole, even the rest of the House of El remained good, but Jor-El had become twisted in this timeline before being executed.

As of current continuity as seen in flashbacks and time travel (see Mark Waid's Action Comics Superstars arc), it seems Jor-El once again was never Mr. Oz. But for the DCU, if the message from Jor-El and Lara is real, Zor-El and Alura would still need to be good and loved by Kara. This situation resembles this very well.

For the Man Who Has Everything & Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

James Gunn has also cited Alan Moore and his iconic Superman works: For the Man Who Has Everything (art by Dave Gibbons) and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (art by Curt Swan). The former is a Pre-Crisis story and the latter is a Imaginary Story/Elseworlds ending for Pre-Crisis. Both have this iteration of Superman at his most vulnerable.

For the Man is a single annual issue that has Mongul trap Superman in a false reality based on his subconscious desires, in this case where Krypton didn't get blown up and he lived as Kal-El. In many ways Pre-Crisis Clark is far more connected to his Kryptonian side in general, but surprisingly here, this story actually has dream Jor-El end up bitter and discredited for being wrong about the planet's destruction, as well as having a falling out with his brother Zor-El. He ends up being the leader of a supremacist group, the Sword of Rao. So well, I think I found another possible inspiration for Jor-El here if the message was 100% real. This story was also adapted in Justice League Unlimited excellently, but notably omits that part with Jor-El.

As for Whatever Happened, Clark actually ends the story by depowering himself after having broken his vow never to kill when he (apparently) caused Mr. Mxyzptlk's death, and changes his name to Jordan Elliot to become a human completely, but still honoring his father.

Superman: Secret Origin, Brainiac & the Men of Steel

The next three stories aren't all directly connected to each other at once, but in pairs (you'll see).

First, the first two: Superman: Secret Origin and Superman: Brainiac are both by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Brainiac is actually where the current line up of the Daily Planet was first reformed as the way it is in years in main continuity. Cat Grant, Steve Lombard and Ron Troupe have all appeared in somewhere else long before but here they all return as regular parts of Superman's supporting cast along with Lois, Jimmy and Perry. Secret Origin was published later as the new origin for Superman at the time, fully returning elements like the Legion of Super-Heroes. Although the story is not as widely renowned as Birthright, it was my personal favorite for a long time, a perfect beginner story and one that really brings back even more classic elements along with modern ones, including the DP cast.

This leads us now to more theories on the future.

What do Superman: Brainiac and Superman & the Men of Steel (the first volume arc of Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' New 52 Action Comics run, which James Gunn has cited as an inspiration) have in common?

Brainiac. The Collector of Worlds. Arguably the second greatest Superman villain after Lex Luthor and one we fans have been crying out to be on film for years now. Alien scientist, android, cyborg, Kryptonian, A.I., human psychic, nanite swarm, hivemind techno-entity, or all at once with many drones and copies, Brainiac has been it all. But his most infamous act was shrinking and collecting the Kryptonian City of Kandor in a bottle.

In many iterations, Kara either lived in Kandor or visited from Argo City, and witnessed Brainiac's great crime, traumatizing her. In some versions Brainiac himself was responsible for Krypton's destruction. In some, Zor-El and Alura survive in Kandor. In any case, Kandor and countless cities across the universe are kept captive by the Collector. The contrast in Clark and Kara's disposition to their Kryptonian heritage is most certainly an important source of drama between them in the future, whether the message was fully true or not, and like in both Brainiac stories, Clark will have to learnt to accept and save both Kandor and Metropolis, Krypton and Earth. Perhaps Zor-El can act like Alfred to Bruce in The Batman by reassuring Clark that his father was a good man or even help him recover the real message. Perhaps Brainiac is involved in the actual damaged part, or even the one who really altered it. Or even simpler, the translation wasn't faked but just straight up wrong from bias and lack of study of Kryptonian language which Kara should be able to point out. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Variant Cover by Chris Burnham

Either way I also hope to see Clark and Kara's relationship more in depth. Recently, My Adventures with Superman season 2 did it excellently, and so did Superman: Brainiac back then.

AC #775/Superman vs the Elite, & the Authority

Lastly, we have Action Comics #775's What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way by Joe Kelly, Doug Mankhe and Lee Bermejo. This story was famously adapted into the animated movie Superman vs The Elite, which remains my favorite animated Superman film. In this story, a new team of extremist anti-heroes called the Elite debut and challenge Superman on whether his methods and ideals worked for the modern world. It is this story that Superman famously delivers his speech on Dreams, and despite the title it still perfectly embodies the character even or especially with his new slogan of Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow. As James Gunn and Peter Safran said, Superman fights for these ideals in a world that sees them as old-fashioned, in the hopes he can inspire us to make them a reality in the future.

The Elite were always intended to be allusions to the Authority (the team the Engineer is a part of) which was new and rising in popularity at the time. Since then new "heroes" and teams, similar but different to varying degrees have come and gone, while the world IRL and in comics continues to have the same problems. It is the never ending battle, as its sequel Ending Battle is named after. Which is why this story will always be relevant. Even in this film the Justice Gang takes a similar but less antagonistic role, being more violent and not against killing, even executing a foreign dictator.

Which leads me to the latest major entry to be covered in this post, Grant Morrison and Mikael Janin's Superman & the Authority, the last Superman story by the Mr. Morrison. It is here that Superman gives a chance to old former villains, anti-heroes and young heroes to join him to become something better. Perhaps this will be a big influence in the future too.

And that's it!

As of writing I have only seen the film once with family and plan to watch it two more times with different friend groups, so I may have missed plenty more possible inspirations, connections and theories. For example, it is known that Tom King was a major influence to James Gunn as they are personal friends, and his Woman of Tomorrow is being adapted for Supergirl. That being said, I couldn't find a concrete, specific and direct connection to his work such as Up in the Sky. If you do find or realize something I haven't laid out here yet, feel free to share!

If it hasn't been clear already I loved the film, and I think it's probably the best theatrical Superman movie overall, but how they handled Jor-El and Lara was something I had an issue with like many others. Over the course of writing this, while I still believe (70-90%) and hope for a Birthright twist, I have come to accept the possibility that the full message is real but 100% believe they were not representative of the whole House of El or Krypton, in the same way Lex Luthor does not represent all of humanity. Whether it's Mr. Oz, For the Man Who Has Everything or Smallville, it's not unprecedented and it was important for Clark to show his humanity and define himself by his actions first. Either way, here's hoping Clark and Kara get more into this starting with Supergirl next year and hopefully a second Superman film. For now, I think I need a rewatch before giving a score, grade or proper ranking compared to small screen and animated films.

Thanks for reading!

Link to Post on Reddit

BONUS:

Weeks after originally writing this and after 4 watches, I've grown to accept the one problem I had with the film, look forward to what comes next even more and just really love this movie. Something I didn't talk about much here but did in discussions before and after is how James Gunn truly respects, communicates, cooperates and takes from comics and their creators. Almost every creator here has been mentioned and so many more by him in interviews and online, he's previously interviewed and befriended Grant Morrison and has brought many comics creators onto set and to the premiere. News is that, compared to other CBMS, Superman actually has lead to an increase and interest, not just in previous films and TV series' but also indeed comics. So great to see as a comic book fan.

Additional comments and ideas from weeks after

Some Reddit comments I made related to the film I'd like to archive here too:

On Clark and Lois:

On rewatch, it’s important to note how their differences are important and help them be better.

• Even if they end up just making out on screen, in the end Clark offers Lois an interview instead of interviewing himself, and later he writes an article on Mali instead, showing he learned his lesson on that whole thing and is willing to learn and change. Just before that his speech to Lex about his humanity included admitting he makes mistakes but tries his best.

• Lois on the other hand, like everyone else, actually is inspired by Clark’s character. He sees the good in everything and that also helps her do the same. She wants to be more like Superman in that sense, to do more good despite what the world thinks. Because “that’s the real punk rock”.

Basically, like practically every modern version of their relationship, they realize their differences actually complete each other. The hopeful farmboy and the cynical army brat. It helps in this case that Lois also meets Jonathan and Martha and sees his room in Smallville for the first time. It helped her see the human source of what shaped his character.

On inspiration, in the movie and IRL

The film inspiring people of all ages to do better in real life after shows they got it right. Doing good deeds right after watching the film felt awesome not gonna lie lol.

On Mark Waid's take on the twist. He otherwise loved the movie:

Lol Mark Waid basically has the exact same thoughts on the twist and Kara. Hope he and James Gunn talk about it.

"I'm not convinced yet that it wasn't a fake out by Lex Luthor. I mean, I know it says I know Lex says in the movie this is real, but I need to have I need to...first off, I need to find out why Supergirl didn't say to him at any time in the last few years. By the way, our parents were dicks. Did you know this? Um, so I I choose to believe that if you know, in my head canon, it's a Lex Luthor fake, but that is not to cast any aspersions on the plot, the movie. I understand why they did that..."

A Reddit user I regularly discussed things with and used to talk to on Twitter as well before I went private also talked about this and how he, like others, saw the film as "destroying" the immigrant aspect of the character while also not being a fan of the speech. James Gunn also affirmed the legitimacy of the Message during this time. These are some of my comments responding to him:

#1

Well to be fair to him and us, this is Lex. The lengths he went and the lies he made to defame Superman beyond this are well portrayed. He only ever said it was real to the President of Boravia, a political leader he was working with that Superman already physically got to before and not someone in his inner circle. Lying to him to prevent a leak makes sense (though he failed to prevent Eve from leaking things lol).

As for the immigrant theme, ngl I was afraid of that and may have agreed at first but as I reflected and wrote here, true or not (and I still prefer it not be ideally to be clear) I see that it ultimately doesn’t. There’s a lot of discourse on Twitter (which I see you’ve been interacting with) as well including those who argue it doesn’t destroy the immigrant aspect at all. All of our (defenders) main points are more or less the same but I found the best one to say it is this thread from this user who himself is an actual immigrant. To sum up:

• Clark still identified as Kryptonian, still cherishes his Fortress, Robots, cousin and her dog as his own etc.

• Jor-El and Lara still loved Kal dearly, intended the best for him, and it’s ultimately their foreign culture and values, not to mention ironically seeing Earthlings as aliens, as well as the threat of extinction that lead to them giving that mission

• That does not excuse it being evil but it is applicable to reality. An immigrant still respecting and loving parts of their culture but struggling and rejecting others is a very real part of that experience.

• He also brought up how out-of-context it still is and everyone automatically generalizing it for all Kryptonians (he points that out as ironically kind of racist in and of itself lol)

• Which relates to my point that it’s almost certain Zor-El and Alura did not agree with them and raised Kara differently for her to be who she is.

As for the speech towards the end, now this is where I always disagreed and others have also covered in depth, like in this thread. The mistake here is reading “human” as in “homo sapiens from planet Earth” and projecting this as a direct allegorical analogy of assimilating to America. But that’s not what the speech was about or what “human” means exclusively. Clark already rejected being a representative of the US earlier in the film and it’s Lex who views aliens as ”the other”, “inhuman” in the sense that they don’t deserve to be seen as people at all. Clark’s speech isn’t about where he comes from (only those who know his secret identity know he was raised as a child in Smallville), it was about him having emotions and struggles, and learning to live with them everyday. It’s about having a soul. Which is true for Kryptonians too, which he knows as he shows emotional concern for Kara as #4/Gary notes. Kryptonians are just as human as us Earthlings. Honestly, I loved that speech (James IMO nailed it and David acted his butt off there too) so it’s unfortunate that some people saw it that way.

Overall, I do think Kara appearing at the end, Clark hiding her and Krypto’s existence this whole time, and her not being there to debunk or confirm the message, was his way of hinting at there being more to it too. If the message is fully real, this is almost certainly like the scenarios I listed in this post (For the Man and Oz, not just MoS), which helped warm me up to it as I remembered and wrote about.

Edit: Unfortunately the sub doesn’t allow direct links to Twitter, hope those alternative ones work, if not I can DM them to you.

#2:

1) I respect your perspective, but I still disagree. I guess it helps that I don’t see the word “human” being exclusive or primarily about literal Earth Homo sapiens in general, at least in the context of fiction. Whether it’s because of my experience with other sci-fi and fantasy universes that use “human” that way, or just philosophical understanding of what “human” means.

Still, Clark never says “I’m as Earthling as anyone!”…”but that is being an Earthling!” John Byrne style, and everything in between is about emotions, internal conflicts etc. Not his place of origin. It was never about denying his heritage but affirming his own personhood. It’s about his heart and soul. David basically acted perfectly as Clark having this impromptu breakdown about how he can feel and struggle with mistakes but still in the end having compassion for Lex in his last line (“maybe someday you’ll see it’s yours too”). Remember this is in response to Lex “dehumanizing”/“other”-ing him this whole time, expressing envy while calling him a Martian and Venusian even when Clark corrects him and says he’s Kryptonian.

Could it have improved by a line like “I might not be from here, but…”? Maybe, but as is it’s still great IMO and fits in context. It’s not like he sees Krypto and Kara as emotionless, or even his literal robots. Both he and Gary/#4 express concern for Kara’s emotional well-being from partying, which people overlook in the ending. Back to the speech, replace Clark being Kryptonian with any real race/ethnicity, but keep the term “human” and you might see what I mean. Like Grant Morrison said, Superman is a metaphor, and the emotional conflicts are what drive his best stories. That emotional depth and range is what’s been missing from his character on the big screen for years.

Twitter link:

https://x.com/OnsKun/status/1945977496580530538

- An actual immigrant's opinion on how the film handled the immigrant aspect and others' criticisms of it.

Here's two comments I made following James Gunn confirming the twist being real but also on Kara not knowing and Jor-El, while to him not being entirely evil, was also not representative of all of Krypton:

Finally! Glad someone asked and he responded. Glad he said this too. Jor-El and Zor-El being at odds on this does make for an interesting dynamic. Them being estranged or at least in disagreement on certain things is actually really common, but this time morally Zor-El is in the right, but I’m assuming Jor-El is still the one who correctly deduces Krypton’s destruction. That actually gives more reason to why Zor-El chose to try and save all of Argo City while Jor-El only made a single rocket.

Going to be interesting to see Clark and Kara talk about this. The contrast and conflict between how they see their Kryptonian heritage would make for some good drama and then lead to Clark finally accepting it again, balancing both parts of himself. All the more reason a Superman/Supergirl “team up” movie with Brainiac and Kandor is the best option for a sequel.

Overall, still far from ideal for me, but if they do it with nuance I can accept it as an Elseworlds. I hope Jor-El at least still loves his brother and niece as much as his wife and son.

Yeah there's a gray area here where Kryptonians are not actually Viltrumite-esque imperialist conquerors, but Jor-El, in desperation and cold scientific logic mixed with some xenophobia ironically like Lex, would see humans on Earth as inferior aliens fit mainly to keep Krypton alive. Still messed up and not my ideal characterization for him, but not entirely unprecedented. In the end he still loved his family and sent his son first and foremost to survive. Zor-El being the more compassionate brother does make him trying to save Argo City before failing and sending just Kara instead makes sense too.

As for Ultraman being "killed":

IMO this is different from Zod in Man of Steel. Yes it would've been better if we had a scene afterward were Clark regrets causing his death either way, but it's not the same. In MoS, Clark directly and brutally breaks his neck, which does really require strength also sufficient to keep Zod from killing said family. He still could have tried defeating him without killing him, which he was already close to doing. Some argue he killed him for the long term, and that's the problem. Superman would never actively kill someone when an alternative is still possible, even for the long term. Here, Clark had already extended compassion to Ultraman ("sorry chum") and defeated him before the Raptors came in, but was ambushed, had his arm broken and could have been killed himself. His action was to get Ultraman off and away from him by throwing him to a bus, which incidentally sent him to the black hole. Whether he comes back as Bizarro or proper Ultraman, the means and methods, the how and the way, are different.

Lastly, once again back to the immigrant/refugee themes, but this time on "allegory" vs "application":

This reminded me of why J.R.R. Tolkien hated “allegory” and preferred “application”, or the use of themes and symbols without direct equivalence. He wrote characters to have Christ-like qualities without actually making them Christ-figures. In the same way, Superman is still an immigrant/refugee who deals with challenges and struggles real ones do. But he’s not literally a Jewish Immigrant and Krypton isn’t Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands or Ukraine (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shsuter’s parents’ home countries, remember they’re 2nd gen). Jor-El isn’t Jerry Siegel or Joe Shuster, and neither is Jonathan Kent. Krypton doesn’t have to be perfect, and he still embraces parts of it that are good. Something I also noticed before but forgot, Clark acknowledges the Jarhanpurians were not perfect as Lois said. But that doesn't change the fact their genocide is evil and they deserve life. That's the opposite message of villifying foreigners and immigrants, it's seeing the good in them despite their flawed past or culture.