The Timely Planet

Last month, James Gunn’s Superman 2025 premiered in theaters worldwide, and while people sing its endless praise, myself included, I did find one major flaw in the film that’s worth discussing. Superman 2025 decided to shake up the Superman mythos by changing the purpose of Kal-El’s journey to Earth. In all three major film adaptations of the Superman story, Jor-El leaves his only son Kal a message. In both Richard Donner and Zack Snyder films, Jor-El leaves an uplifting message about the people of Earth wanting to do good and that Kal should guide us into finding our way. In Gunn’s Superman, the message opens the same way, as something uplifting, a loving declaration and a call to action. However, a second, previously destroyed, half of the message is revealed that goes:

The people there are simple, and profoundly confused. Weak of mind and spirit and body. Lord over the planet as the last son of Krypton. Dispatch of anyone unwilling or unable to serve you, Kal-El. Take as many wives as you can so your genes and Krypton’s might and legacy will live on in this new frontier. Do us proud, our beloved son. Rule without mercy.

The message’s veracity is quickly glossed over and unanimously agreed upon as unaltered. Superman accepts this without question, but does question his own purpose. Superman’s crisis of personality culminates when his Earth parents take him after a crisis in Lex Luthor’s pocket universe. The next day, Pa Kent gives Clark some folksy wisdom about a parent’s role in a child’s life. The movie ends with a montage of Clark’s childhood under the care of his Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent.

The choice to change Superman’s origin is a controversial one. Although this is not the first time Kal’s parents’ and/or race’s motives were changed from neutral or benevolent to a conquering malevolence, that is not the point of this piece. Kal or Clark or Superman’s crisis of identity was quickly resolved through a heartfelt talk with his adopted father Jonathan. Later, he replaces his Kryptonian parents’ message to a montage of his childhood on Earth, a message that gave Kal comfort above all else.

Superman is not the story about a God on Earth, it’s a story about an immigrant, the perceived other. Kal-El is sent to Earth and grows up in Kansas as Clark. Clark leaves the countryside to move to Metropolis. Clark protects Metropolis and the Earth as Superman. The issue with the message subplot is that it was quickly glossed over. There were no questions of its veracity. No double checking, no reconsideration. Cultural identity is a powerful thing. Often in Superman stories, Clark tries to learn Kryptonese, he relates to endlings like him, he learns about Krypton from the codices left by his father — Krypton is as important to Clark as Smallville is. However, by showing how quickly Clark can accept a revelation of this magnitude about his parents, his people, and to quickly find solace in his new home’s identity, Krypton becomes a footnote. Its endling, its last son, no longer finding solace in his race, immediately and without doubt. Almost as if Kal-El was never a part of his true self like Clark or Superman.