Image via WB
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Superman’ The DC Universe’s first film, Superman, is being celebrated for depicting its titular character, also known as Clark Kent (David Corenswet), in the kind of light-hearted, adventurous story he’s best known for, rather than the more somber tales Henry Cavill’s version experienced in the previous iteration of the franchise. That being said, the new film still takes Clark’s story and its significance to the world seriously, even featuring a rather dark plot twist that imbues the story with meaningful and intense drama. However, while this surprise is crucial to initiating Clark’s strong character arc in the film, it, unfortunately, has some troubling implications for the film’s ideological subtext that are especially problematic given the divisive times in which the film is being released.
‘Superman’ Features a Dark Reveal About Krypton
The film’s opening sequence depicts Clark’s habit of listening to a recorded message from his biological, Kryptonian parents, Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), at his Antarctic hideout, the Fortress of Solitude. Shortly after, corrupt billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and several of his allies infiltrate the Fortress seeking information on Clark. Cyborg vigilante Angela Spica/The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) is able to hack into the Fortress’ Kryptonian technology and recover the footage of the message’s ending, which Clark and his robot assistants believed had been irrevocably damaged when his spaceship arrived on Earth during his infancy after Krypton’s destruction. Clark had always assumed that the end of the message would encourage him to use his superhuman abilities to protect and aid his adopted planet, as he has gone on to do. However, Lex publicly reveals what he claims is the actual conclusion, with Jor-El and Lara telling Clark to conquer Earth and build a harem, so his bloodline will continue and expand, reestablishing Kryptonian society, with humanity being made subservient. As Lex hopes, this leads much of society to turn against Clark, with even his fellow superheroes in the LordTech Justice Gang becoming suspicious. It also devastates Clark, causing him to doubt his own identity. Ultimately, Lois Lane’s (Rachel Brosnahan) continued support and speaking with his adopted, human parents, reminds Clark that his own individual beliefs and actions are what make him the hero that he is, regardless of whatever either of his groups of parents intended for him. But while this makes for a compelling, emotional arc for the film’s main character that highlights his uniquely strong altruism and subverts some of the messianic interpretations often associated with him in an interesting way, this plot twist has uncomfortable implications for the film’s political messaging.
‘Superman’ Has Complicated Subtext About Immigration
Image via Warner Bros.
As writer-director James Gunn and other members of Superman’s cast and crew have emphasized in recent interviews, the film highlights Clark’s identity as an immigrant and sees him facing the same kind of challenges experienced by real-world immigrants. Lex’s persecution of Clark and much of the public following him in doing so after the message is revealed is a disturbingly realistic recreation of the fearful prejudice that many people currently treat immigrants with in various countries, especially the United States. Clark, standing firm to his altruistic ideals, despite learning the truth, is a reminder of why one’s actions and individual personality should be the primary factor in judging them, much more so than their heritage or other inherited aspects of their identity. The public again embraces Clark after Lois and the other reporters from the Daily Planet reveal the truth about Lex’s crimes. This is an optimistic depiction by Gunn, who clearly hopes people can be more open-minded and accepting of immigrants and others from communities other than their own in the future.
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“You will be different, sometimes you’ll feel like an outcast, but you’ll never be alone.”
However, even as the story reaches its mostly uplifting conclusion, the nature of Jor-El and Lara’s message creates a lingering elephant in the room. Clark being sent to conquer Earth, and Jor-El and Lara specifically explaining this to him, reduces the efficiency of the film’s pro-immigrant message because it means that, regardless of Clark’s actions, Lex and others do have reason to fear Krypton, or the concept of aliens more broadly. This is especially unfortunate as the idea of immigrants threatening the nations they seek to join with violence and lawlessness is one of the most common rationales for anti-immigrant prejudice in the real world, even though it does not have any such kind of rational justification.
The DCU Shouldn’t Make Superman’s Parents Villains
Image via Milly Alcock
On a more personal level, Jor-El and Lara’s involvement in the twist is also simply upsetting to some longtime fans of the Superman franchise. Most iterations of Clark’s origin story and early days have depicted Kryptonian society as flawed in one or more ways, and some, like Cavill and Zack Snyder’s controversial film Man of Steel, have depicted similar Kryptonian conspiracies to conquer Earth and/or other planets, but in these cases Clark’s birth parents are almost always depicted as standing apart from their morally dubious peers, often showing greater appreciation for scientific and environmental concerns and more respect and good intentions for humanity when they decide to send Clark to Earth. Even in the long-running prequel television series Smallville, in which Clark (Tom Welling) discovers a similar message from Jor-El (Terence Stamp) encouraging him to conquer, this is eventually implied to be a misinterpretation, and Jor-El is reappraised as a more well-intentioned, if still sometimes ethically questionable, character. While the new film’s emphasis on Clark’s human upbringing and individual choices as his defining traits is often endearing, the final scene in which he instead views recordings of his childhood in Kansas is tainted a bit by the implication that he’s effectively shunning his Kryptonian background, unlike other mainstream, fully-formed iterations of the character, who celebrate the positives of both sides of his heritage. The most obvious resolution to these issues is for a future DCU project to reveal that Lex doctored the footage at the end of the message to suit his anti-Superman crusade. But the fact that the film includes a scene in which he notes to one of his allies how he didn’t, and was simply happily surprised to find the message and integrate it into his plans suggests this isn’t the case, though lying, especially on this topic, would, of course, not be out of character for the villain. Fortunately, the film’s final scene introduces another potential solution in the form of Clark’s biological cousin, Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who is starring in her own DCU film set for release next year. Gunn has noted how the DCU Kara will differ from Clark, likely given that she was older than him when Krypton was destroyed and consequently has more traumatizing memories of the tragedy, but the fact that the cousins appear to have a friendly relationship and that Kara is wearing a version of her superhero costume makes it unlikely that she has the kind of imperialistic goals for Earth that Clark’s parents supposedly did. Given this, there seems to be a decent chance that the Supergirl film and/or possible projects further in the future will provide more expansive recollections and depictions of Kryptonian culture and the personalities of Clark’s biological family, leading to a reinterpretation of the message similar to the one in Smallville (which could have the additional benefit of allowing Cooper and/or Peter Safran to flesh out their characters with more lengthy appearances). In a case like this, the message could lead to a strong, multi-project arc for Clark in which he relearns to accept and value his Kryptonian roots, though there is a risk that this kind of storyline would make viewers feel that a bigger presence for Kara would have resolved the individual dilemma from Superman too easily. Until such an arc is delivered, however, the message stands as an unfortunate instance in which a necessary element of the plot contradicts some of the film’s thematic points.
Superman
Release Date
July 11, 2025
Runtime
130 Minutes
Director
James Gunn
Producers
Lars P. Winther, Peter Safran
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