#superhero ethics

It has been a while since I saw a superhero film that is this free of cynicism and shame about itself. While not as bright and shiny as Superman, I think its interesting that this comes on the heels of Marvel's Thunderbolts* which, despite obvious comparisons to Suicide Squad and Deadpool, was also a radically earnest film. It would seem this is the year that superhero films dig down deep and embrace sincerity.

Which is not to say that the medium is necessarily insincere, but there's certainly been a long conversation within the medium from release to release about what sorts of stories you can tell and the tone. If Ironman showed up on the scene with dry wit as if to say "sure I'm a superhero movie, but I'm not that kind of superhero movie." Gestures to Batman & Robin "I'm cool." Then Avengers Endgame shattered us all by allowing ourselves to become emotionally invested and in doing so, elevating the genre to high art.

Now with talk of whether audiences are bored, Superman is back and he's brought bright colors and idealism as if this were the pre-9/11 world again.

30 years ago, when I was still in grade school, I can't help but think that James Gunn's Superman would have read as an aggressively "hip to be square" sort of film. Its hero is vested with awe inspiring power but chooses to be humble and kind. He shames more with his example than he does a stern lecture. He seeks not worldly riches or accolades. Not that he isn't sensitive to having his motives misunderstood.

While a hegemonic society sired him, loving parents instilled this refugee with a passion for service and a hatred of no one and nothing but small minded cruelty. Superman is a classic "coming to America" story of a sort that is regarded now as corny at best, imperialistic at worst. The subtext of Superman has always been one of assimilation and assimilation seems to be lonelier than it used to be, with its culturally conservative friends viewing assimilation as a lie and assimilation's culturally progressive friends viewing assimilation as hegemonic.

Both takes tend to de-emphasize Superman's role as an aspirational figure. As a symbol. A secular fable even. Like many of our icons, Superman's beginnings are influenced by American Jews locked out of more "respectable" writing and illustrating trades but nevertheless desiring to tell stories about a larger than life figure who embodies the virtues that his creators want to see in the world.

Like my beloved Star Trek, I also think of good superhero stories as secular fables and tall tales. They reflect back at us our anxieties about the present but also model behaviors we should seek to emulate. Where Paul Bunyan was industrious and courageous, a master of the frontier in keeping with that era's fixation on mastery of nature; Superman has no frontiers to conquer, rather he is a protector of the weak. Like America, he has a choice about how he uses his vast and seemingly limitless power and his creators were quietly expressing a preference with their words and illustrations. Captain America Brave New World is very much a part of this conversation and its a conversation Superman 2025 doesn't shrink away from participating in.

What makes this Superman stand out is his arrival at a time where there is tremendous anxiety over what it means to be a man and a lot of cultural energy trying to push a vision of power that is comfortable with violence not merely as regrettable necessary but as an end unto itself. We see this in the co-opting of the aesthetic of the Punisher and a culture of viewing oneself as a stand in for Frank Castle: betrayed and left for dead by (pick your villain: society, the elite, the cabal, effete hypocrites) and with this cosplay comes the dream of being Frank Castle, of having an excuse to express some sort of deep rage through violence. The content mines of cable TV, Substack, social media etc. fill up with bros imagining scenarios in which they might have a reason to unleash hell on their foes.

The return of bright, unfiltered color to the superhero film is a declaration that fearlessness is called for in times of sepia malaise. To be muted is to succumb to the feeling that nothing can ever be good again. That to be unashamed is shameful.

Shining brightly is to be unashamed but this is not the same as being shameless. Superman is unashamed because he has nothing to be ashamed of. He has a conscience and it is clean. Lex Luthor is shameless for he cannot be shamed. There is a black hole where his conscience should be. An inadequacy that drinks up all light and goodness because he can never be satisfied. He cannot abide the use of power for ends other than his own glorification so he must humiliate and destroy anyone and everything that might distract from his supremacy.

Superman is a character and a film that has not given up on leading by example and this too matters when fatigue and fear are pervasive. Everyone has their own tolerance for risk and there is safety in numbers. Rare is the person who wants to fight a hopeless battle rather than slink away and hope to endure. This is what superheroes do at the end of the day: they pick the fights mortals might find too big and impossible.

Except when they don't.

The Justice Gang are reminiscent of Captain America from X-Men 97 in that they've accepted the bargain that is "going legit." They aren't simply vigilantes taking the law and public interest into their own hands while owning the consequences all on their own. They can access vast resources to achieve much more than they could ever do on their own, but their hands are tied in certain situations. Which is where shame, specifically the shame of seeing someone do the thing you know is right but isn't comfortable represents the loudest of calls to action.

Speaking of action, just a minor bit of praise for Gunn's craft and genre savvy. This is where there might be the most minor of minor spoilers. This movie starts immediately. No 30 - 45 minutes of throat clearing, origin stories, and training montages. You know who Superman is. Your kids may not, somehow, but they know how superhero stories work. What James Gunn does is not introduce us to Superman the character, he introduces us to his Superman. Because that's what is actually important: what is this Superman's character? What drives him? What sort of person is he?