Superman may be faster than a speeding bullet, but thanks to another slogan he picked up in the 1940s, “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” he’s weighted with more political baggage than any of his fellow superheroes—the kind that requires dulling the needle when portraying this “visitor from another planet” as anything more than an indestructible kid.
The question of how to handle Superman on screen is more than just academic, with director and DC Studios director James Gunn’s film set to hit theaters Friday, carrying the future of DC and, to a large extent, Warner Bros. Discovery on its broad shoulders.
Given past efforts to politicize the character, one might think the studio wouldn’t want to do or say anything that might distract from the task at hand. However, rather than shy away from such a fight, Gunn leaned into it in a weekend interview with The Times of London, saying that Superman is fundamentally a story about immigrants and the value of human kindness, adding that if “idiots out there” choose to be offended by that message, “Confront them.”
Fox News’ panel show “The Five” naturally piled on, labeling the film “Superwoke” because the director took a “pro-immigration” stance, never mind the title character’s status as an undocumented visitor from another planet.
Fox News’s review highlights the sheer difficulty of relaunching “Superman,” a character whose trademark slogan resonates at a time when the definition of patriotism is hardly unanimous and Lex Luthor-like figures are trying to wrap themselves in the flag. And that’s before you factor in DC’s mixed track record with film ventures and WBD’s corporate divorce from its parents.
In this sense, Superman represents a departure from his equally famous DC sidekick Batman, who, for all his orphan angst, has always thrived on simplicity: driven by the murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne becomes a costumed vigilante, attacking and intimidating criminals.
After Tim Burton’s 1989 take on “Batman” brought the darker vision of the comics to the screen — and discarded the “Wham! Bang! Pow!” camp of the ’60s TV show — the Dark Knight template, barring hiccups like the Joel Schumacher-directed sequels, has been all but cemented.
Superman, on the other hand, has undergone several forms of complicated reinvention by those ready to take offense at anything that departs from the character’s image, usually displaying only a modest awareness of his history and, not incidentally, a fair amount of bad faith.
Parte da culpa por isso pode ser atribuída à frase “Verdade, Justiça e o Caminho Americano”, que foi introduzido não nos quadrinhos, mas na série de rádio do Super-Homem do início dos anos 40, um slogan apropriado no meio da Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Enquanto o sentimento era compreensível (o Capitão América foi mostrado perfurando Hitler nos quadrinhos durante a mesma época), aquele lema vendeu Superman – que é, afinal, um americano pelo acidente de seu desembarque na nave espacial no Kansas – com uma identidade patriótica que contou seu papel como cidadão do mundo.
O slogan, no entanto, seguiu o Super -Homem até a televisão na década de 1950 – ele até ficou na frente de uma bandeira de ondulação nos créditos – e pegou o personagem ao longo dos anos.
A força dessa associação significou que a DC causou um rebuliço ao buscar uma designação mais expansiva de quem e o que o Kryptoniano transplantado lutou sua batalha interminável. Isso incluiu um tumulto menor quando o editor do Daily Planet, Perry White, perguntou a Superman se ele ainda representava “Verdade, Justiça, todas essas coisas” no filme de 2006 “Superman Returns”, e um maior depois que o DC trocou oficialmente em “Verdade, Justiça e Amanhão melhor” em 2021, desencadeando tirados previsíveis de os quadrantes conservadores a Eager a Bashwood.
Fox News não surpreendentemente atacou a mudança então, exatamente como aconteceu agora, Com o colaborador Raymond Arroyo dizendo na época em que o estúdio prefere “politicamente arquibancada e construir mercados estrangeiros” do que honrar o personagem, chamando o movimento de “desserviço” para os fãs antes de acrescentar: “Você não precisa de kryptonita para matar Superman quando tiver quadrinhos da DC fazendo um ótimo trabalho
Onde Batman tem a vantagem de se sentir nervoso e até brutal em iterações posteriores, a batida sobre o Super -Homem sempre foi que ele é muito brega, criando um maior obstáculo para alcançar um amplo público (e jovens adultos e adolescentes) em tempos cínicos e polarizados.
Mas é por isso que alguns adotaram o Super-Homem especificamente por seus valores antiquados, recebendo a perspectiva de uma tomada mais leve depois que a versão mais pensativa de Zack Snyder com Henry Cavill, primeiro em “Man of Steel”-nos quais os filmes conscientemente resistiam.
Acknowledging that Superman could be “boring” (a sentiment recently echoed by actor Jon Hamm), The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols celebrated Christopher Reeve’s version a few years ago, writing: “If you realize, it’s what we need, what we need, that you can keep yours, that it’s about, that your toilets, that we need, and not, that we need and not, that we conflict and not, that we need and not, that we conflict and not, that we conflict and not, that we conflict and not, that we conflict and not, that we conflict and not. Autonomous metahumans.” Nichols praised Reeve’s heroism, including his promise in “Superman II” to never disappoint the president again.
“We are in the free fall, and we need someone to catch us and then smile at our naiveté when we ask, surprised, how this thing is possible,” Nichols said, arguing that America needs “a hero who can be an example to a damaged country.”
Of course, this also follows far bleaker (and more gruesome) projects clearly derived from Superman, from the horror-tinged, Gunn-produced “Brightburn” — in which puberty and superpowers turn out to be a deadly combination — to Amazon’s superhero satire “The Boys,” where the character of Homelander embodies a grim warning of what might happen when bestowing Superman-like powers upon a malignant narcissist (Insert your own parallel here).
Identifying Superman’s proper place in the modern world nearly 90 years after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the comic presents a daunting challenge for Gunn and Warner Bros., but because the character enjoys a level of familiarity few can hope to match, it’s the potential that benefits more than the risks.
As for the landmines surrounding the franchise, including those ready—even eager—to be outraged at the slightest misstep or hint of “Wokeness,” which is now an inescapable aspect of its DNA.
Such concerns may seem like an unfair burden on filmmakers whose primary mission is to deliver summer entertainment capable of justifying a reported $225 million budget that some have indicated could be significantly higher.
Yet while it’s possible to sympathize with the ancillary demands and noises, given Superman’s history, the best answer might come from a somewhat obscure but beloved superhero satire from the 1960s, producer Jay Ward’s Animated Super Chicken : “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”
