In less than a month, on July 11, the latest Superman film adaptation will have its premiere. The director of the production is James Gunn. The film is set to launch brand new DC cinematic universe headed by the aforementioned artist. This will be an unprecedented initiative in cinema, where the voice of the artists and the vision of the director is most important and the productions are treated first and foremost as art, rather than a commercial product.
The film, despite the lack of success of the previous attempt at a screen adaptation, is breaking records in popularity. The trailers are the best viewed promotional materials in Warner Bros history, and ticket pre-sales are already providing a great financial opening. Why is there suddenly so much movement around a seemingly outdated hero, and why is this particular film causing such a stir. In this article I will try my best to answer this question and show how unique this character is in our culture.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s…
Actually, where did the concept of a “superhero” come from in the first place? With this question we should go back to ancient mythologies and the ideas of gods and heroes. People have always manifested the need to create stories about powerful people capable of accomplishing the impossible and about their adventures, troubles and mutual disagreements. Of course, in those days it was also related to faith and beliefs. But what else are ancient pantheons if not the first “universes of superheroes.”
Throughout the following centuries of our history, this tendency manifests itself relentlessly. From figures of legends to knights slaying dragons. This is how we arrive at the turn of the XIX ant XXth century and the rise of Pulp Fiction – stories printed on cheap paper, whose main idea was “fast, intense and attractive.” Filled with vivid and distinctive characters, intense romances and larger-than-life stakes, the stories captured the imagination of the crowds and their legacy and impact are still felt in popular culture today. John Carter of Mars, Doc Savage, Tarzan, Zorro, Conan the Barbarian, Shadow are just the tip of the iceberg of characters who represented this trend.
From this pulp fiction emerged an idea of superheroes, and the first of these was Superman. Created by Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel, children of Jewish immigrants who decided to pour their dream of a better tomorrow onto the pages of a comic book. Superman, or more correctly Kal-El, is the last child from the planet Krypton. As an infant he was sent to Earth by his parents before their world suffered an apocalypse. The escape pod was found by a couple of good-natured Kansas farmers – Jonathan and Martha Kent. These adopted the child, named him Clark and offered a loving upbringing instilling in him such values as compassion and altruism. Growing up, Clark discovered that he was different from his peers. When he grew up, now a journalist, he moved to the city of Metropolis, took on the alter ego of Superman and decided to use his powers and do what his parents had taught him: help.
As you can see, the creators poured their own experiences into a fantastic story. Superman is an immigrant who treats his new homeland as his own, loves it and wants to bring its people the support and opportunity they have offered him. Additionally, drawing on their love of science-fiction and the aforementioned pulp, they created a hero who represents their belief in the goodness inherent in everyone. In doing so, they launched a modern mythology.
What is superman’s greatest power?
But why hasn’t Superman faded into memory for so many years? Why does he continue to be relevant, perhaps more so today than when he was created? The credit here lies with the successive artists writing the adventures of the Man of Steel. Mark Waid, Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, Tom King, Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi and, above all, Grant Morrison are just some of the names who with their pen have kept him relatable.
And they did it by… not changing him. That’s a simplification, of course, but in explaining, they left the character, his morals and ideals unchanged, they only enhanced them. What they changed was the world around Superman. In doing so, they gave the character depth and multi-layeredness and expanded his symbolism. If I had to describe this character in one word I would quote Christopher Reeve: “He’s a friend”. He is a character who, despite his great power, never stops being down-to-earth. Superman is a hero who, while holding a collapsing building on his shoulders, despite the enormous effort, will give a gentle smile to a terrified child standing nearby to give him comfort and encouragement.
Because, you see, stories with superman are mostly not based on the fact that there is some “big bad” whom the superman must defeat in battle. They are usually stories where superman cannot solve his problems by force. The conflict in these stories lies on a moral, ideological level and they are about the hero’s humanity.
The world of Metropolis and a Perfect Foe
Superman comics contrast the good-naturedness of the hero with the modern world full of cynicism, ambiguity and shades of gray. Thanks to this, the simplicity of the desire to help and support stands out. This is an attitude that the modern world, focused on selfishness and profit, does not support. And it is an attitude that not everyone is comfortable with, especially when it exposes their intentions.
And so we move on to Superman’s nemesis – Lex Luthor. The main opponent of our hero is not a criminal, but a billionaire. In the symbolism where Superman is goodness, sincerity and altruism Lex is the personification of selfishness and cynicism. He is the actual modern “super man”. He has enormous wealth, is extremely intelligent and has a slew of scientists under him. He could have done by now, with his own ways, what a superman does. But he doesn’t do it because he doesn’t see the benefits. His actions are driven by profit or boosting his own ego. All his decisions are dictated by a desire to be adored and a belief in his own superiority. It is for this reason that Luthor hates Superman. Kal El strikes at Lex’s complexes and intensifies his hidden insecurities which leads to untamed jealousy and hatred. The Kryptonian, with his good-naturedness, exposes everything that is wrong with the billionaire. Luthor, because of his worldview, is unable to rationalize selflessness and believes that Superman’s actions are an attack directed at him. Through this, he tries with his every action to convince people that they should not “worship” (as he sees it) the Superman who helps them. This is a scenario that may have seemed caricatured in the past. However, modern billionaires have shown that it is closer to the truth than it might seem.
Superman’s world is filled with characters who challenge him and his values. For example, his love interest Lois Lane, who in many stories is a protagonist on par with Clark, through her investigative nature and journalistic brilliance provides a great challenge and counterbalance that allows the hero to gain perspective on his morality and the state of the modern world. The residents of Metropolis or the town of Smalville, where Clark grew up, are also great collective characters. Their behavior or approach to the hero brilliantly presents the impact of his decisions on the image of society.
Richard Donner’s Superman The Movie
Such a cultural phenomenon could not miss the silver screen. In 1978, the first cinematic film adaptation of Superman was made. The film, directed by Richard Donner, perfectly captured the spirit of the last son of krypton. A large part of this is also due to the actor playing the main role – Christophere Reeve, who, thanks to his natural charm and talent, captured the charisma, likability and humanity of the character. Moreover, the role itself is a display of phenomenal acting, which shows us that Kal El’s secret identity is not just glasses. The differences between Clark Kent’s persona and Superman’s are facial expressions, body language, voice, posture and gestures. When Reeve is Clark he deliberately humps slightly, stutters a bit, is more fearful and intentionally clumsy. However, this is in no way a caricature but a charming and human, everyday side of the character. When he becomes Superman he straightens up, speaks in a lower voice, emanates confidence and the charming smile never disappears from his face. It’s a kind of representation of what power we gain when we choose to see the best qualities in everyone around us.
From the perspective of current superhero films, it may seem unusual but this is a film without big fight scenes. Donner had a great understanding of the character and showed it through small scenes that perfectly captured the character’s beauty. What is important, he remembered that Superman’s actions resonate most not on a large scale, but in small interactions, when he saves just a single person or pulls a kitten from a tree. It is through these small deeds and serenity of spirit that he reminds us how we ourselves can change the world around us.
Thanks to this film, the character enchanted a wide audience and served as a model of behavior for the younger crowd. The production became a cultural phenomenon and, at a time when we didn’t yet have CGI effects, made us believe that humans could fly. Both literally and metaphorically.
Misunderstood hero
However, for a very long time, modern cinema forgot how to portray Superman properly. First, in 2006, Bryan Singer created a film that was a spiritual successor to Richard Donner’s feature. However, the production, titled Superman Returns, disappointed fans. The director, in an attempt to pay homage and show adoration to the 1978 original, forgot what made it timeless – its lightness. Singer’s version is a kind of laurel, which in many moments falls too much into pathos and spends too much time on references and in too few scenes focuses on an engaging story or characters. Thus, what came out was a rather boring production, with its main character appearing as a bland shell in a Superman costume. Despite this, several scenes or frames should be appreciated as lovely miniatures.
The next film adaptation, 2013’s Man of Steel, strayed even further from the character’s essence. Zack Snyder, who was responsible for the direction, and David Goyer, who was the screenwriter, tried to make Superman more modern. However, neither of them was a fan or understood the character. What came out of it was a mix that stood in perfect contradiction, in fact 180 degrees, from what the character is supposed to be. Snyder’s vision is of a hero distanced from humanity, permanently sad and tormented by just existing. His father, instead of teaching him good values instilled in him selfishness. The director presents this story in washed-out colors, with great pathos. Superman in this version towers over people, he is a kind of messiah, in many scenes, in very pat symbolism, compared to Jesus. The film is filled with bombastic action scenes full of explosions. This Kal El throws enemies at buildings and doesn’t care about the lives of civilians, which, in the finale, ends with the razing of half of Metropolis to the ground. Such a vision pushed away old fans and failed to attract new ones. However, it cannot be denied its courage and expressive artistic vision.
Stories that touched our hearts
Many stories with superman are iconic today. “Up in the Sky” tells about Superman traveling through space to save one girl, thus showing us that every life matters. “What’s so funny about truth, Justice and the American Way” is a flagship example of how to brilliantly portray superman’s moral conflict in the modern world. The story sets Superman against the team of “The Elite,” who, unlike Kal El, kill criminals. Thus, it shows us why simple solutions are not the best and why it is right to defend all beeings. Superman for All Season is a great read to start with the character, being the essence of the hero in a nutshell, and Superman: Birthright is a brilliant modernization of the character’s origins, showing that Kal El helps not only as Superman but also as journalist Clark Kent.
But my beloved comic book and also considered the best with this character is All Star Superman by Grant Morrison. The story is about Kal El, who finds out that he has one year left to live. For 12 consecutive chapters, we follow the last 12 months of Clark Kent’s life and see how he tries to finalize the last things and leave the world behind as best he can. Each successive story touches on another important part of life: the death of parents, duties, love, a visit from family or the relevance of animals in people’s lives. However, in the adventures of the last Kryptonian, the obstacles he faces are often on a cosmic scale.
It is in this comic book that the most popular page with Superman appears. In it we see teenage Reagan, a misunderstood kid battling depression, standing on the edge of a building wanting to take her own life. Just as Reagan is about to do so Superman gently lands behind her back. He pronounces simple words to her. “It’s never as bad as it seams. You’re much stronger than you think you are… trust me.” Superman then hugs the teenager. Although he could have pulled Reagan off the building in a second he chooses to stop by her side. He knows that such a gesture is worth far more than all the power in the world. It’s a fragment through which DC Comics and Grant Morrison received a mass of letters from people who were stopped by this page from taking their own lives. It’s not only a testament to the importance of the character, but also to the meaning of all art in our lives.
However, with all this, Superman is not a moralizer, savior or messiah. Sometimes he lets go of his emotions, his nerves. At other times he feels embarrassed or awkward, he happens to throw in a corny joke. He is not perfect, but every day he tries to be the best version of himself. He doesn’t take the easy road, but the one that is right. He is human, and within this lies the character’s greatest strength.
It is those moments that shape why Superman is the most important hero of our pop culture. Being an alien, an outsider, with every predisposition to be distanced from us, he chooses to be someone from whom we can learn humanity.
James Gunn bold new vision
Thus, now that we know what the character’s spirit is and know his cinematic history, we return to the subject on July 11. The return of the last son of Krypton to theaters is just around the corner.
As I mentioned at the beginning, James Gunn is responsible for this vision. I will not deny that the interest in the film is triggered by the fact that all signs on heaven and earth indicate that we are in for the return of the Superman we have come to love. James Gunn understands Superman even better than Donner did, and it is possible that he is the best director who could ever take on the task of bringing this character to the screen. Above all, James is a huge comic book erudite. He grew up on these characters and continues to read their history, which means he understands why they work and knows the smallest nuances of this concept. He is the one who elevated comic book adaptations to something more than simple popcorn entertainment. He is responsible for, in my opinion, the best trilogy of comic book movies in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy. What distinguished these films was sincerity and emotion. The director, through the story of a sci-fi space rock opera, told of emotional maturing. He wrote full-scale characters and led them through stories that dealt with issues of trauma, coping with illness and death of loved ones, loneliness, abusive parenthood or violence and experimentation on animals. He made us cry in our cinema seats over the fate of the space raccoon and the talking tree. He did it with remarkable maturity. At the same time, he did not lose even a moment of his sense of humor, which he balanced in such a way that it only enhanced and enriched the dramatic moments of the story. All this while maintaining the vibrant, fantastic world depicted, full of colors and magical cosmos as if from David Bowie’s album covers.
I could write the same extended appreciation within Gunn’s previous creations related to DC characters. His The Suicide Squad (not to be mistaken with Ayer’s 2016 film) or the sequel Peacemaker showed brilliantly, through the adventures of outcasts and criminals, that there is goodness and potential for redemption in everyone.
It’s these values that Gunn’s previous films exhibit that are evident in the trailers and promotion for Superman. The new actor playing the role, David Corenswet, is the first to capture the energy of the character so much since Reeve. This time we get to see the hero at the beginning of his journey. This superman is bright, full of youthful verve, charismatic and wanting to bring help but also sometimes a bit eager or even naive. The director describes him as “kindness in a world that sees kindness as old fashioned”, and this theme stands out in the film as the central focus of the plot. Gunn has done what comic book artists have done for years and left the character true to his values but put it against the current state of the world. Superman, in the face of a war in one of the fictional eastern countries, Barovia, without a second thought rushed to help. He saved civilians and stopped the conflict. It is a gesture that in the past would still have been considered correct. Now, however, the effect is to accuse Superman of invading a foreign country. This has caused hostility not only from the Barovian authorities but also from the government of the United States. This state of affairs will raise doubts about Superman’s moral compass which will make him need to seek advice from his parents. Clark’s relationship with his dad is supposed to be an important element here giving at the same time a tribute to James Gunn’s late father.
We can see that Metropolis is a city that combines futurism with classic US architecture. This also manifests itself in the clothing of the civilians, which is reminiscent of the 1960s but processed through modern fashion. It shows that the film is marked by the amazing design of the presented world in every detail. The filmmaker will create DC as a fully fantastic world. The universe will be filled with super people for more than 300 years. This state of affairs will further emphasize the uniqueness of the Kryptonian. In the face of groups of heroes assigned to various sides, corporations or forces and focused in their actions on fighting, Superman, who fully independently and selflessly focuses on helping and saving civilians, will be someone incompatible with the rest of the world. The idea is also a meta-commentary on the current state of superhero films and the loss of meaning of the hero myth in cinematography.
And as for the visual layer, it is extraordinary. It emanates a creativity and boldness almost unheard of in popular cinema. Every shot has an idea for itself. The director plays with perspective, lens width and light. The camera moves in each scene dynamizing what the story is telling. The designs and stylistics are pulled out of a comic book and draw heavily from the sci-fi of the 1960s. The colors of the film are more vibrant than ever. Every hue pops and contrasts. The entire film, in terms of color grading as well as sets and costumes, is kept in blue, red and gold. This provides a cohesive and unique vision that is the culmination of Gunn’s insane creativity.
This promises a movie that will shape the landscape of modern cinema and will forever be inscribed in our consciousness. It will be a moving work not only in terms of spectacle but also in terms of emotions. James Gunn himself says that this is more than a film for him. It’s a story about humanity and what it means to be a hero in a world that doesn’t make it easy, and most of all it’s the director’s story about his belief in the goodness that lies within us.
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