New Superman Re-Tells Same Story; Here's How That Can Make It Stronger

Forbes

18 hours ago

With WBD's and DC Studio's Superman beating expectations this weekend, it's worth noting how much this reboot and its success mirrors the beginning of the preceding DCEU, with all of the benefits and warnings this comparison brings. Major spoilers ahead as I compare Superman's plots, arcs, inspirations, and intentions to its DCEU predecessors Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and a dash of Justice League.
David Corenswet suits up in "Superman."
Superman Flying High
The secret ingredients to Superman's success were marketing toward family audiences while putting the super-dog Krypto front and center, and delivering the same feeling Marvel gave audiences during the 'Infinity Saga."
The latter of which means going back and learning lessons from past successes as well as past failures. Most of all, it means revisiting the DCEU, and even taking another stab at some of the same ideas.
If that surprises you, take a look at just how much of the past has found its way into the present, and not for the first time in Superman's cinematic legacy…
Superman vs Superman vs Superman
Let's tell a story in broadly painted terms, and here's your last warning that there are spoilers ahead…
Clark Kent works at the Daily Planet, and Superman has been around about three years. Lex Luthor instigates a battle in a region at war, and Superman intervenes, leading to controversy around Superman's actions. As Clark, he eventually has an argumentative scene with Lois about his actions, in which she presses him on the outcome of his intervention. Meanwhile, Luthor secretly conspires with members of the government, obtains access to Kryptonian technology, and devises a way to kill Superman if necessary. This leads to Luthor setting up Superman to battle an armored adversary (who tries to justify his actions by noting the threat Superman posed and destruction Superman caused) and losing the fight, Superman's first battle loss.
Superman next teams up with other superheroes to fight and stop a giant monster set lose by Luthor. Eventually, Luthor's insanity and desire to destroy Superman at all costs threatens to unleash a destructive power that could destroy the city and threaten the entire world. Superman defeats a final mutated version of a Kryptonian 'boss' villain created by Luthor, suffering serious injuries in the process. Luthor is arrested and imprisoned. These events lead to the public considering Superman and his teammates heroes.
Now, what film am I generally describing?
By asking that question, it's immediately obvious the answer is 'more than one.' Just as Zack Snyder's Man of Steel essentially reimagined Richard Donner's first two Superman films within a more grounded and somber world, James Gunn's Superman has reversed the equation by essentially reimagining most of the main beats and arcs and themes of Batman v Superman (as well as some nods to Man of Steel, thus further mirroring the way Snyder's film conceptually merged Donner's two films, so to speak).
Most notable in the repeat of Man of Steel elements and themes, there's the Kryptonian message threatening earth, which makes the public scared, so Superman turns himself in to government authorities. In the climactic battle, Superman fights an alternate 'rule the world' Kryptonian version of himself.
Additionally, there's no real personality difference between Clark & Superman, just behavioral related to work and context. And Lois' character mostly revolves around Superman/Clark, both at work and in her private life, and almost every conversation she has with anyone is about him, one way or another.
In these ways, which are in varying ways and degrees plot points and character arcs and themes throughout Man of Steel and Batman v Superman as well as this weekend's new Superman, WBD and DC Studios are mirroring not merely aspects of the stories and films directly, but also the broader concept of looking to earlier films for inspiration and combining previous Superman films into a single reimagined idea and story taking certain reverse tonal and visual approaches.
Combine this deja vu with the fact we're seeing a new shared cinematic DC world launched separate from a much more grounded, adult-leaning Batman franchise that's a top earner for the studio, and the sense we are revisiting the start of the DCEU all over again – with the same choices and dilemmas confronting the studio and audiences – and this is where my concern about longterm momentum comes from.
Because, as Thunderbolts* reminds us, a well-reviewed and well-liked big branded IP summer tentpole can still carry some elemental baggage or subtext that leads broader mainstream audiences to adopt a 'wait and see' approach to shelling out for tickets.
The big opening weekend for Superman (and let's be clear, even at the modest estimates, it's ahead of expectations and a winning debut) points to at least a 'worst-case' but 'acceptable' north-of-$500 million gross, but a 'good enough' underperformance would be another flashback to Man of Steel finishing good but below-expectations.
This is also where the racist anti-immigrant backlash from rightwing extremist circles toward Superman becomes more than a wrongheaded, racist, and false but insignificant factor in the box office equation. If enough audience decide to "wait and see" on Superman, then that plus even a small rightwing boycott and negative talking points could further erode the likelihood some of those 'wait and see' show up later.
And the sense that this is all a more fun and bright version of what we saw before, however great it may be, could still lead audiences to decide that's not where they're spending their box office dollar. Indeed, the fact of Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, and Fantastic Four all releasing this month doesn't mean they can't all enjoy a rising tide moment, but the more audiences are given reasons to hesitate and make a choice, the more likely they will.
For Superman, that means preventing any of the negatives that do initially arise from becoming obstacles or bandwagon narratives in the press. For example, the anti-immigrant backlash (premised on the absurd notion that Superman, an alien who flew here in a rocket ship from another planet and has lived under an assumed name pretending to be a born resident, isn't an immigrant, and more to the point that immigrants and immigration are somehow inherently negative) could be countered by the fact most of the moviegoing public doesn't care about such esoteric-seeming conceptual complaints around flying aliens if they want to see it bad enough.
Even better, lean into the answer that yes of course Superman's an immigrant and of course Superman wants to help and save everyone, and why would any normal sane decent person oppose that?
You know who hates Superman for being an immigrant, and who spends his time trying to convince the public to distrust and hate Superman for being from somewhere else, and who wants to kick Superman out? Lex Luthor. The evil supervillain.
Learn the right lesson from that comparison, if you're the sort who needs the lesson. That's the message DC Studios should send in response to anyone whose xenophobia taints their ability to hear and follow the moral lessons of their supposed heroes.
Box office is box office, and so I still retain concern that the DC brand is showing resilience and promise as it did in the early-2010s, when The Dark Knight Trilogy was still underway and Superman's own reboot by that same Batman creative team was in the works, and studios making a lot of the same choices with projects that look similar.
That doesn't at all mean the same outcome is likely, of course. Even if that were the case, it's worth noting the early DCEU films, from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman to Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman and Aquaman, grossed $4.27 billion combined, for an average box office of $853.8 million per film. That's not that far behind Marvel's own per-film average, including all of the Avengers movies, at about $985 million. And DC did it with their first slate of movies.
Superman and the Justice League
I omitted Justice League because it's the actual point at which things went so wrong it wrecked the entire DCEU going forward. Aquaman was released after Justice League, but the full brunt of the damage done to the DCEU by executives had not fully manifested yet, nor had audience disinterest taken firm root.
Which is why I always point out that despite the false denials over the years by certain WB and WBD executives, the so-called 'Snyder Cut' existed and the version on hand was more than enough to see the vision and potential. Had it been completed and released as Snyder filmed and intended it, the final version (minus additions he added for his Zack Snyder's Justice League, or ZSJL, version released on HBO Max much later) would've been enough to split into two films of 1 hour 45 minutes each, which is fitting since the version Snyder shot was a forced-combination of two planned movies.
I think anyone being honest about it would admit there's a final edit of ZSJL that is good enough to generate at least reasonably $600-700 million or more per 'chapter' if split into two films, or $1.2-1.4 billion combined. That's Avengers-tier money for WB's spend on a single Justice League movie split into two films.
Which could've been enough to keep audiences interested in the DCEU (especially if these JL films were followed by Aquaman, a popular billion-plus grosser), while maintaining a style and vision that was radically different from the MCU but capable of putting up equivalent box office while tilting more toward adult audiences.
Why is this relevant? "I don't know, ask the studio," is a fair answer, since I'm only pointing out what they did in the past, how it ruined their success, and how their new plans do in some crucial ways hew closely to their previous choices.
Which, in turn, is why the comparison isn't just a warning of sorts, it could instead be a glaring hint at why the new DCU will be a rousing success. If this DCU is noting and replicating what worked the previous time(s) and adjusting the things that didn't, based on 'previous times' that were in fact more successful than most admit and could've sustained a successful DCEU with just a few of those adjustments, that implies this time they're doing what they should've done last time.
At least, that would seem to me to be their position and intent. In an interesting way, that's a sort of validation of the DCEU's first phase, as it were, especially if we replace the theatrical Justice League with a hypothetical ZSJL (even better, a two-parter from that movie). Just a little bit less deconstruction, brighter colors, and just a bit more fantastical tone (DCEU's early films were attempting more 'grounded sci-fi' approaches to the superheroism, particularly around Superman), and how far off is it?
Gunn's Superman could easily be tweaked into a sequel to Man of Steel, just as Gunn's The Suicide Squad works perfectly well as a sequel to Suicide Squad. Instead, it is born of those lessons and carries many of them forward, just as happened before. The cycle repeats, and seeks the different way to think about these stories and characters, each time reaching back to what came before and trying to apply the right lessons and addressing what didn't work last time, seeking a core vision shared by them all. 'The son become the father, the father becomes the son.'
This is all possible why? Because instead of a bunch of different people with different motives and goals from different divisions or departments or projects weren't all competing for control and voices within a system that had no official leadership and control structure of its own to oversee everything, there is instead a newly minted DC Studios with official leadership and control.
And that alone makes everything else possible now.
I'll have updates on Superman's box office and much more in the coming days, as well as looking ahead to Fantastic Four: First Steps and updating Jurassic World: Rebirth's enormous upcoming $500+ million post-weekend total so far.