“Superman” is super woke — on purpose

“Superwoke.” It’s not exactly a clever term, but then again, most of the turns of phrases that drop like rotten apples from the slack jaws of far-right talking heads aren’t stickers. “Make America Great Again” has always been completely meaningless; if it didn’t make such a memorable abbreviation, I doubt it would’ve taken off. The same goes for “Superwoke,” the label that Fox News pundits have given to James Gunn’s new “Superman” film, after Gunn full-throatedly backed the superhero’s extensive and widely known immigrant origin story in an interview with The Times of London ahead of the movie’s premiere. “Superman is the story of America,” Gunn told the paper. “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.”

It should come as no surprise that anyone championing basic human kindness would become an instant target for the graduates of the University of Evildoing and Nefarious Trickery that populate the halls of Fox News. And yet, like fish to a lure, the network’s anchors made a whole afternoon out of their bait. “We don’t go to a movie theater to be lectured to and to have someone throw their ideology onto us,” contributor and former Donald Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said, right after a dig at David Corenswet’s surname, since he’s the latest punching bag for their misguided rage as the new Superman (like “Kellyanne Conway” rolls right off the tongue.) Host Jesse Watters joked that Superman’s cape would be emblazoned with “MS13,” the name of a criminal gang targeted by ICE. Meanwhile, the segment’s banner, pasted below both Conway and Watters, read, “Iconic hero movie to embrace pro-immigrant themes.”

While I could write an entirely separate piece about Conway’s statement fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of moviegoing, she, Watters and the other Fox News pundits have also gravely misinterpreted — or perhaps more accurately, don’t even care about — Superman’s history. The character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the sons of two Jewish immigrants. And since his earliest comic book days, Superman has identified with the stories and ideologies of American immigrants. This essential character trait is part of what has made the Man of Steel America’s iconic superhero, the one that people associate with this country’s founding philosophy of hope and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to make a better life, whether or not you were born here.

But in Gunn’s “Superman,” which has the unenviable task of recharging DC’s entire superhero slate for a fresh start after many commercial and critical flops, the hero’s tale is more overtly political than it’s ever been on the silver screen. If one statement from Gunn has conservatives ready to boycott, the film shrugs off their threats at every turn, consistently emphasizing unity, empathy and peace when our broken world needs them most. Make no mistake, this is a Superman for our times, one the public has desperately needed to see. And if Fox News and far-right conservatives are mad now, just wait until they find out Superman is taking swings at their Oval Office deity.

Perhaps it’s because there hasn’t been such a brazenly political superhero film since “The Dark Knight” brilliantly delineated and predicted how our anxieties about international terror were dividing the country faster than we could imagine. But the politics of Gunn’s “Superman” feel almost shocking in context. After “The Dark Knight,” the Marvel Cinematic Universe slowly, fiendishly consumed the superhero genre, making it the superhero industrial complex. The movies got dumber, uglier, less risky; they became so long that, by the time something like a three-hour “Avengers” movie wrapped, there was no room to think about it critically; it just sat in a compartment of your brain, existing as a contained spectacle. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the thematic simplification of superhero blockbusters has correlated with the willful ignorance of so many people on the conservative right. These movies are often some of the sole mainstream fare where right and left political ideologies collide, a safe space where politics remain intentionally muddled, if present at all.

(Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. Pictures) Nicholas Hoult and David Corenswet in “Superman”

“Superman” stands outside this monolith, with Corenswet’s arm stretching back and his hand curling into a fist, ready to deliver a punch so confident and adept that it can and should shatter the superhero genre as it stands. The film itself is pure silver screen candy, stylish and cinematic, packed with romance and action alike. Corenswet is, no question, the best Man of Steel to hit the big screen this century, and the movie’s weak spots (which it certainly has, despite my lauding) are propped up by his super strength in the role. But it’s what the film does with the handsome Kryptonian in the red boots that captures the viewer’s heart and holds it, tenderly, until the credits roll. This Superman has no time to brood; the world is in grave danger of tearing itself apart, and he’s the only force that can knock some sense into us before it’s too late.

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Gunn’s film throws the viewers into the new Superman’s world in medias res, opening with our hero being beaten in a battle for the first time since he publicly debuted as the world’s most powerful metahuman, three years before. After stopping the invasion of the fictional country of Jarhanpur by military forces of the neighboring (also fictional) Boravia, Superman meets a new foe, all-too-conveniently called The Hammer of Boravia. The Hammer’s not particularly important, but his creator is: Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), the billionaire owner of Luthercorp, which manufactures and deals weapons to the highest bidder. Lex is desperately trying to get the Department of Defense’s ear, asserting that Superman’s meddling in international affairs is unconstitutional, and that he’s simply an “alien” meddling in foreign policy.

Throughout the film, characters who have a great deal of power repeatedly refer to Superman as an “alien,” Gunn’s not-so-covert way of reminding viewers of Superman’s immigrant status, using an outdated, conservative-favored term that coincidentally befits Superman’s extraterrestrial nature. (In “Smallville,” Tom Welling once said verbatim, “I’m an illegal immigrant,” in case Fox News thinks this is anything new.) Lex is hellbent on sowing fear over Superman’s intentions for Earth, despite the hero showing humanity nothing but kindness, becoming a friend to children, and the man who operates his favorite halal cart, who has a surprisingly pivotal role later in the film. This empathy has been instilled in Superman by a recorded message his parents gave to him when they sent him to Earth as a baby, the latter half of which was damaged in transit.

I won’t give too much away, but it’s not far into the film when Lex gets his hands on this message from Superman’s parents, decrypting and restoring the other half. What began as a beckoning to use his powers to fight for peace and justice on Earth ended with Superman’s parents telling him to rule over a weak-minded species, eliminating anyone who gets in his way. This info is just what Lex needs to turn the world against Superman, and soon, the immigrant is hauled off to an inhumane prison, kept in a cell where he’s reduced to nothing more than an object, despite being every bit as human as everyone else and spending his life proving his good nature.

(Warner Bros. Pictures) David Corenswet as Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane in “Superman”

It’s almost unnerving how timely this aspect of “Superman” is, arriving when road signs for Alligator Alcatraz — the horrific Florida detention center where ICE is imprisoning people until they can determine the status of their immigration — are being staked in the ground. While families are being torn apart, lives are being ruined, and people who have done nothing more than immigrate to a country that has always promised a better life, others are giddily taking photos in front of the signposts signaling the way to their barbaric detention. It’s no wonder Gunn knows that we desperately need a reminder of the value of basic human decency. In times like these, when you can turn on the television and watch empathy draining from humanity in real time, kindness is a bold action, and Gunn is unafraid to deliver it on a mass scale to the widest audience possible.

But just as much as he makes a statement about the inhumane treatment of immigrants, Gunn crafts what is perhaps an even more daring allegory about Palestinian genocide. The Boravia-Jarhanpur conflict is one of the movie’s narrative tentpoles, and Gunn returns to it later in the film with startling impact. Superman inevitably frees himself from his cell, right around the moment that Boravian forces reach the border of Jarhanpur, ready to attack. The film even has a Benjamin Netanyahu stand-in, who literally calls for the blood of every Jarhanpurian to spill. The line is the most shocking thing said in the film, so irrefutably aligned with the violent rhetoric that Israel has parroted in its genocide of the Palestinian people, that it took me aback. If there were ever a time for a big swing, it’s now. And Gunn takes several, making Lex Luthor a financial backer of the impending war, with a stake in half of Jarhanpur once it’s colonized. One can’t help but have their stomach turn, remembering the horrific AI video Trump posted earlier this year, depicting a revolting, computer-generated version of “Trump Gaza.”

There is, however, hope in the end. Superman, the immigrant, pounds the sh*t out of the billionaire Lex Luthor while declaring his humanity. Jarhanpur is saved from the genocide of its people. Superman’s halal guy is declared the “real hero of Metropolis” on the front page of The Daily Planet — and that, perhaps, is the biggest statement of all. Hard-working people of all backgrounds are the ones who make this country what it is, who give it its life and soul. The people who provide for others, the humans who fight for their fellow citizens; they may not get the recognition they deserve, but it doesn’t make them any less human, or any less worthy of kindness and empathy. Despite what his parents wanted for him, Superman chose a path of righteousness, and it’s never too late to make that choice.

All that said, this is a multi-million dollar blockbuster franchise film. It will never be as political as it could be. But these aren’t crumbs we’re content with here; there is a lot of meaty, politicized substance in “Superman.” But beyond that, it is genuinely heartening to see a movie this massive refuse to shy away from how divided and broken our world is. Superman stops a genocide of an entire people by a militant colonial state that has the support of billionaires who have the government in their pocket! An immigrant is the hero! Online trolls are depicted as monkeys in a lab typing screeds against Superman on social media! This is a superhero film that throws punches and doesn’t care which conservative mouthpiece they hit. Gunn isn’t trying to change the minds of people who have made theirs up; he’s trying to change the hearts of people who haven’t had theirs grow entirely cold. It’s not everything, but it’s a start. And given that the original silver screen Superman, Christopher Reeve, was so intent on the industry tackling sensitive issues to fight for positive change long after he retired the cape — a credo that has disappointingly dwindled in filmmaking since his death — this “Superman” is an admirable new beginning.