DC Studios' live-action Superman could be the best movie of the year. That’s a grand statement considering 2025 has already produced Sinners, Thunderbolts*, Jurassic World Rebirth, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Nevertheless, it’s true. To further hit the point home, five years from now, Superman could be put in the same category as Iron Man and The Dark Knight when it comes to pivotal superhero movies.
Now, was this a perfect movie? A case can be made that it is. However, even if it’s flawed, it is a flawless Superman movie. It leaves people feeling hopeful, and everything about it seems to come out of a DC Comics book. All except one part, and people seem to have an issue with it. That scene involves Kal-El’s parents, Jor-El and Lara.
In 2025’s Superman, Clark would listen to a message from his parents while he healed. Sadly, only half the message could be heard as the other half was corrupted and couldn’t be decoded. Later in the movie, the Engineer hacks into the Fortress of Solitude’s computers and gets the second half of the message, and Lex Luthor reveals it to the world.
Warning, this article contains a MAJOR spoiler for James Gunn's Superman!
In short, they told their son Kal-El to get a harem of women, spread his seed, and take over the world. This makes Jor-El and Lara sound more like Viltrumites than the Kryptonians we know from the comics.
As the movie continued, I waited for the reveal that Lex Luthor and the Engineer doctored the footage. Then I waited for real-life reports that the story would change in a future DC Comics movie. Neither happened. What did was even better. James Gunn stood his ground in a new interview with Rolling Stone and said that if people are waiting for him to change the story, "They're s**t out of luck!
Gunn went on to say:
"That’s the whole point of the movie, that Superman thinks he is doing something because it is his destiny and his Kryptonian parents have set him out to do this thing, and along the way he discovers through the love of the people who are actually his parents that he’s doing these things not because of someone else, but because of himself."
James Gunn standing tall here is great. Normally, people might cave after receiving backlash or criticism from fans. Since Superman is one of the most iconic characters ever, there was going to be a lot of both regardless. However, as Gunn himself pointed out in the quote above, Clark Kent and the world now know that his heroics aren’t due to his birth parents. It’s something he learned from being around the people of Earth.
Is there a chance that James Gunn could change his mind or that his comments are a way to throw people off from what’s coming in his DC Universe? Of course. Things can happen, and creators lie to save the reveal of future movies. But, this writer hopes that the storyline of the very Omni-Man-like future that Kal-El was supposed to have stays. It’s a tale that would easily draw people in. Maybe that’s why James Gunn mentioned that there’s a future for Elseworlds stories in his DCU. Stay tuned to Bam Smack Pow to find out.
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