Super Sunday Tabs
Look, up in the sky!
Because I watched Superman on Friday, recorded a podcast about it yesterday, and then QA’d that podcast this morning, there has been a lot of Superman rolling about in my brain and filling up my tabs.
First, purely movie tabs.
- Via NPR: James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ movie is corny. Which is why it gets Superman right.
- Via Deadline: It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A Box Office Hit: ‘Superman’ Opening To $123M – Sunday AM Update.
- Via Den of Geek: Superman Post-Credits Scenes Explained.
But then, yes, politics are involved (it is a political blog, after all).
Why are politics involved, you ask?
Well…

And yes, that’s real. It was apparently in response to James Gunn saying the following.
“I mean, Superman is the story of America,” Gunn says. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.” I ask if he has considered how differently the film might play in say, blue state New York — aka Metropolis — and Kansas, where Kent grew up? “Yes, it plays differently,” Gunn admits. “But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.”
If all of that sounds “woke” then I’m totally down with being woke. That some people find it politically offensive to state that America was built by immigrants and that a foreign-born person could come here and be a true hero is deeply saddening to me. It is a sign of the poison of ultranationalism.
And then there is the reminder that part of the official White House media strategy is trolling.

- Via The Experiment: Waiting for Superman.
- Via The UnPopulist: MAGA Pundits Are Triggered That Superman Is an Immigrant.
- Via The Bulwark: Trump vs. Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
- Via NBC News: Superman or ‘Superwoke’? Right-wing critics of the new DC movie say the latter.
- Via The Wrap: Former Superman Dean Cain Says James Gunn Calling Hero an Immigrant Will Hurt Box Office: ‘I Don’t Like That’.
- Via Forbes: Superman’s An Immigrant? Director James Gunn Faces Right-Wing Backlash For Claim.
- A meme:

- A New Yoker cartoon:

Unfortunately (due to financial constraints and crowded dark spaces being triggering) I’ll wait for it to hit my local tele. But that being said, OF COURSE it’s an immigrant story, you ignorant Fox adjacent bleeps!
Sheesh, all y’all are giving Luddite’s and Crackers a bad name. Behave, people!!!
Not just an immigrant, but in right wing modern parlance an illegal one. He arrived in a tiny lifeboat, a refugee from a natural (or non-natural*) disaster, an unaccompanied minor, from a nation not known much less recognized by the US, not at a port of entry, and didn’t even request asylum. He just lived there, his true origins hidden, and took up spots in Smallville elementary and Smallville high that should have gone to real Americans.
But there’s more. The Kents must have obtained papers for him, passing him off as “Clarke Kent.” You know, birth certificate, Social Security number, etc. What lies did they tell, as we know they did not reveal his true, illelgal origins.
They should all be rounded up by ICE and deported off the planet.
*Not sure what the current Superman canon is.
@Kathy: All correct. Clark would be the ultimate DREAMer.
Maybe the MAGAts can convince DC to write an Elseworlds comic where Superman lands in Germany rather than Kansas or Ukraine.
Reich Son of Krypton.
Guaranteed not to be woke.
These are the same unserious people who feel obligated to ask “When did Star Trek go woke?” and seem shocked that the answer is “September 8, 1966.”
@Gromitt Gunn: It really is amazing. I hope to do an episode of the podcast about it at some point.
Woke has been an issue in American literature for a long time. The harpoonists in Moby Dick are Queequeg, a Pacific islander, Tashtego, a native American, Dagoo, an African, and Fedallah, a Zorastrian from India. James Fenimore Cooper had lots of native Americans. I don’t dare mention Mark Twain or William Faulkner.
I can tell you from first hand knowledge that there are champagne corks popping all over Burbank, California today. The first few reviews were brutal for “Superman”, but the audience has spoken and the public has told those early critics “Screw you.”
I’m thrilled for Peter Safran, who I know, but am not super close with, and who has always been very, very good to me over the years, and James Gunn – for having the guts to pull off this franchise reboot. I’m pissed that Zaslav will get some credit, as the quicker he leaves WB the better it will be, but kudos to him for hiring Safran and Gunn.