I'll cop to it. Comic book movies annoy me.
Part of it is that (putting curmudgeon hat on) when I was a kid, comic books were something you got done with when you were 12.
(Curmudgeon hat off).
Part of that was that where I grew up, the drug store that was the sole source of comic books, didn't sell comic books intended for anyone older than that. The idea of the "graphic novel" was something that came in on the (curmudgeon hat back on) 2-3 TV channels we got up until I was maybe 11.
And comic book franchises - the interminable "Marvel" and "DC" series - may have their occasional high points, but they are also symptoms of Hollywood's, and maybe it's audience's, laziness and complacency.
Not to say I was immune to the idea; the Christopher Reeve Superman movies came out when I was in junior high school (I left the curmudgeon hat on for a reason) after my hometown actually got a movie theater (hat off). And I was entranced, although that. may have been a matter of Margot Kidder by that point.
Where was I? Oh, yes. Comic book movies.
The Reeve Superman series resonated with me because it was, well, the original Superman - the one that was a metaphor for everything good about America:
The thing about Superman is that it is an immigration story but also it’s an assimilation story. Kal-El comes to America, is given the very American name Clark Kent, learns how to be good through salt of the Earth Kansans, and brings order/hope to the decadent metropolis/world.
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) July 6, 2025
And when we say "everything good about America", we mean even the "including people who aren't and don't look like white kids from Kansas":
In recent years, a vintage Superman poster from the late 1940s or early 1950s featuring the Man of Steel preaching the values of tolerance and diversity has made the rounds on the internet. It surfaces whenever we need to be reminded of these values, which is quite often, unfortunately.
The poster itself was dated 1950, but DC Comics has revealed that the art, and its timeless message, date back to 1949, where it appeared on paper textbook covers “distributed to schools by the Institute for American Democracy, an offshoot of the Anti-Defamation League.” This was the same year that pages created “in conjunction with the National Social Welfare Assembly” started appearing in DC Comics featuring Superman and Batman taking on similar issues, including this famous one of Batman encouraging kids to stand up to racist bullies.
So cynical has culture gotten in the past thirty-odd years that Snopes - the arbiter of truthiness for the same generation for which Jon Stewart was the main source of news - took on the subject.
It's not a Ph.D. level thesis argument to say that the tastemakers for modern culture have been trying to "update" Superman, as they've been trying to do the same with the rest of American society; the early 2020s brought about the, er, fashionable diversity in Superman's attraction:
It was an image I never thought I would see in a comic book panel — Superman, in his signature red and blue suit, locked in a passionate kiss with another man. My gay gasp was so profound it was probably heard on Krypton, or at least in Metropolis...The release of the panel showing the kiss was timed to National Coming Out Day on Monday, Oct. 11, and announced that the new Superman, Jonathan Kent (son of original Superman Clark Kent and Lois Lane), is bisexual. The full story line will be revealed in the fifth issue of the comic’s latest series “Superman: Son of Kal-El” in November, the same book where we see Jon and pink-haired journalist Jay Nakamura in an embrace.
Well, that was daring, wasn't it?
Anyway - all this is to say that I didn't expect much from the latest reboot of Superman by James Gunn.
And that may be a good thing:
James Gunn Says 'Superman' Is About an 'Immigrant That Came From Other Places' and How We've 'Lost' the Value of 'Basic Human Kindness': 'Yes, it’s About Politics' https://t.co/X3fCHq2yGc
— Variety (@Variety) July 6, 2025
Rumors that Rachel Zegler is telling the producers to "maaaaaybe be a little less annoyingly strident" are unconfirmed at this time...
This is genius marketing. Free publicity, and people who would boycott Superman over something so dumb probably wouldn't have gone to see the movie anyway. https://t.co/NiTWrctrO3
— Ibuprofen Hippo 🪓🌲🔪🐋 (@JimJamitis) July 7, 2025
...but far from inmplausible - indeed, perhaps it's a feature, to the studios, rather than a bug (language occasionally NSFW):
I'd say "the best way to get the studios to stop this kind of audience-baiting-based marketing is to stop participating", but box office results show us people are already getting that message.
Anyway - wake me up when blockbuster season is over. I think I've seen this movie before.
