“Truth, justice, and the American way” are the famous values that comic-book superhero Superman/Clark Kent professes to live his life by on a daily basis. Superman, created in the 1930s, reflects a very specific period of time in both U.S. and world history. It was created by children of Jewish immigrants during a time when fascism was a global force to be reckoned with at home and abroad. While the U.S. was concerned with how many immigrants it allowed into the country with racial quotas, Superman, birth-name Kal-El, is sent to Earth by his parents as one of the last survivors of the planet Krypton.
He is an undocumented citizen, a refugee, a child of adoption, and in some ways his story evokes religious imagery. Like many immigrants Kal-El/Clark Kent faces questions about where he comes from, his place in a new world, and the psychological effects of assimilation. Superman directed by James Gunn similarly reflects the current political climate of the U.S. and abroad.
The U.S. has just increased funding by $280 billion for the Pentagon, I.C.E., and Border Patrol, while countless lives of immigrants are threatened by deportation and death. For months, I.C.E. has waged class and racial war on working class immigrant families under a reign of terror raiding schools, hospitals, churches, and courthouses. Immigrants are detained, rounded up, and sent out of state to private prisons.
This increased funding is part of the Trump Administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, an anti-worker budget. The entire working class is under threat, losing health insurance and food stamps while one-third of the $4 trillion tax cuts go to the billionaire class. Hope is needed and provided by people power in the streets, organizing every day. And just as his creators intended, hope is also provided by Superman.
In a drastic change from the previous cinematic portrayal of Superman, Philadelphia Mainline native David Corenswet’s Superman provides hope and help no matter the cost. An early scene depicts Superman interviewed by Lois Lane. Superman states the importance of ending war and saving human lives, regardless of the geopolitical consequences for the nation’s involved.
Boravia is the fictional country standing in for Israel, with a vaguely Russian, Vladimir Putin caricature leader. Jarhanpur stands-in for Palestine, a neighboring country populated by Brown people of color. Superman nemesis Lex Luthor, a billionaire technocrat, sells arms and technology to Boravia with the Pentagon’s backing and full support. Luthor serves to provide a direct analogue to companies such as Palantir as well as other domestic arms dealers that profit off of genocide, many of which are local to southeast Pennsylvania. When Superman prevents Boravia from invading Jarhanpur, the Pentagon proceeds to hire Lex Luthor to capture Superman, with the potential of murdering him as well.
Superman turns himself in to the Department of Justice, only to be prevented from entering, thrown to the ground and detained. He is then taken to an offsite location because the government has hired a third party to deal with him, since he’s an alien and therefore has no constitutional rights. The scene very clearly evokes imagery we have continuously seen in the last 6 months of I.C.E. raids and the rounding up of immigrants in the U.S.
A later powerful scene shows the Boravian Armed Forces invading Jarhanpur, with tanks and trucks driving through makeshift barricades, soldiers guns trained on innocent and unarmed civilians protesting the invasion. In a desperate plea, the Jarhanpurians create a makeshift flag with Superman’s symbol on it, as a call for help, since no one else seems capable of doing so. It was in that very moment I had the thought, “wow this Superman would try to end the genocide.”
There’s a lot going on both on the screen and behind the scenes that make Superman a politically muddled film. It is not perfect; The film doesn’t offer or propose any real, tangible solutions in the movie or the real world. The overall lesson of the film, one that director James Gunn has said himself is, “it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost. . . it’s about human kindness.” This is all well and good but how can we take that lesson into our daily lives, especially as activists and organizers?
Superman is one person and a powerful one at that. However, there is an even greater and more powerful superhero- one that acts on kindness and stands up for truth, justice, and the anti-imperial, multinational way-that superhero is the masses, the working class people. And while Superman did give me hope, I left the movie thinking there is no greater hope than that revolutionary optimism provided by being involved in an active organization. Because there ain’t no power like the power of the people, and the power of the people don’t stop!