Superman 2025

 

Some 45 years ago, when I was a novice in religious life, Superman (i.e., the actor Christopher Reeve) visited our novitiate for a consultation about another on-screen role he would soon be playing. Some of my classmates were extremely smitten by the presence of a big-screen celebrity. For whatever reason, I apparently appeared less excited and so got the honor of serving coffee to the good-looking and famous film star.

Perhaps I was less excited because I had already in some sense been living with Superman (the character) all my life. starting with the black-and-white George Reeves TV series that ran from 1952 to 1958. That TV series and the Superman and Superboy comic books, that I used to read regularly while waiting for a haircut in the local barbershop (the only place I had regular access to comic books), formed my image of Superman, an image that has happily lasted a lifetime. In effect, I have been living with Superman and following his adventures for some 70+ years now. (The world has been living with Superman even longer, since Superman first appeared in comic book form in 1938).That makes it hard for me to imagine anything new to be said or done by or about Superman, which diminished any sense of urgency on my part to see the latest (2025) Superman film, starring David Corenswet.

Surrounded, however, by folks who have seen the latest film and constantly having been encouraged to see it myself, that day finally came.

So let me stipulate at the start. This is a good movie. So far, the film has been both a box-office and a critical success. Reviewing it for NPR, Glen Weldon wrote that the film "delivers a Superman deeply in touch with his humanity, and perfectly representative of the essence of the character."

This theme of Superman's "humanity" runs through lots of the reactions I have heard and was in fact one reason for my delay in seeing it. To me, it has always seemed central to the Superman story that he is, after all, not human.  He is, literally, an alien, who, while masquerading most of the time as an ordinary human ("mild-mannered reporter" Clark Kent), periodically reveals his identity, using his alien powers to do great good for people on earth. He always uses his powers to do good, which is central to our appreciation of him as a distinctive superhero. Of course, along with. his archetypal goodness, part of the distinctive charm of Superman has always been his very human face. Indeed, many of us have often been rooting for him to find a way to live an even more normally "human" life, notably through his love affair with Lois Lane!

The traditional Superman has always been integrated into human society, whether as a farm boy or as a "mild-mannered reporter." The traditional Superman has always been like us in all things except his supernatural powers (which are actually natural to him because his is, in fact, an alien). In an increasingly secular, post-Christian society, some have even seen (somewhat dubious) analogies to the Incarnation in the Superman mythology, which to me says more about the desperate effort of some to salvage anything they can that resonates even remotely religiously in our stridently secular, post-Christian society.  in any event, while an earlier generation might have willingly seen some superficial analogy to the Incarnation in the Superman myth, one has to wonder how many modern film-goers even know enough about the Incarnation to remotely recognize even a somewhat dubious analogy?

Anyway, all artificial religious analogies aside, this version of Superman is noteworthy for how it highlights his "humanity" - in the important social sense. in which Superman, the ontological alien, has always been very human, namely his sociability. More than a masquerade, Superman's "humanity" has always been the expression of his dependence - not, obviously, in terms of his physical powers, but in terms of his wholeness as a person - on the human community of which he is an integral part, first as a family member and then as an adult citizen. He may have an alien being's physical prowess, but he has always had an effectively human sensibility. And today's Superman still works at The Daily Planet with Jimmy Olsen and, of course, Lois Lane (whom he is now dating).

The classic Superman is, of course, a traditionally constructed hero. He is powerful and good. He is also loved and appreciated by ordinary mortals and opposed only by villains. But this is a 21st-century story, where no institution is sacrosanct anymore and where the villains have more tools for villainy at their disposal. So even Superman runs into popular opposition. And, since this is the 21st-century, when he is lied about on TV, the misinformation makes the rounds and the people believe it. Likewise, the conflicts Superman tries to solve display a recognizable 21st-century face, including a sci-fi version of the Russian war against Ukraine. And the opposition to and brief legal persecution of Superman, precisely as an alien, has obvious contemporary resonance. 

Paradoxically, for all the emphasis on Superman's human sensibility, the movie functions cinematically as it does because of all its "metahuman" action characters and its sci-fi fantasies of portals and fissures, etc. And there really are more minor characters in this film than the story really needs. Even while highlighting Superman's existential humanity, we are forced to experience  a world which seems very post-human in so many ways.

But the basic, historically defined characters still shine through as stars of the story. And, through it all, Superman still comes across as an idealized image of what he should be - and so perhaps even what we might wish we might be. The homely, communitarian values of Superman's human adoptive parents shine brightly in their son and totally trump the values of his extra-terrestrial parents. But they are recognizably 20th - more than 21st - century values. Set in our post-idealistic world, he remains inspiring in a surprisingly pre-21st-century way.