James Gunn’s new Superman was a solid start to his new DC movie universe, setting the stage for the upcoming DC movies that will continue the story. The movie put up solid box office numbers and got strong reviews from fans and critics. There was one part of the film that received a certain amount of criticism, however.
Superman’s birth parents, Jor-El, played by Bradley Cooper, and Lara, aren’t exactly heroic characters in Superman. While Superman initially believes his parents sent him to Earth to help its people, the message sent with him eventually reveals that his parents wanted him to rule over Earth’s people. Speaking on the Director’s Commentary on Superman, exclusively available through iTunes, Gunn points out that he’s not the first person to create a version of Superman’s parents who are less than good., Gunn said:
So the question is what can you add to the mythos that’s a little bit different that doesn’t really essentially, in any way change who the character is, and although you know Clark’s parents usually in the comics are benevolent, that isn’t always the case. It hasn’t always been the case. There have been stories in which, even in canon, that that hasn’t been the case, and Jor-El is not always treated as a benevolent character.
A not insignificant number of Superman fans took real issue with the decision to write Superman’s parents this way. While Gunn is absolutely right that Jor-El isn’t always heroic, he usually is, and this is certainly the first time in a big-screen Superman adaptation that Clark’s Kryptonian parents have been handled this way.
To check out James Gunn's commentary you can pick up Superman through iTunes.
The movie itself deals with the question of whether or not the message has been faked by Luthor, though the story continually reinforces that the message is entirely genuine. It’s the basis of Superman’s central conflict in the film. When he realizes that his parents aren't who he thought they were, it makes him question who he is.
And to be fair, Superman’s parents aren’t all bad. As Gunn specifies, they still love their son a great deal. They also love their own world and their own people, and it’s this love that leads them to do what they do and ask what they do of their son. As Gunn explains it:
They’re benevolent to their son. They love their son obviously, but they aren’t necessarily benevolent in the way they think about human beings. They think of human beings as less than in this version. So that was the thing that was the twist. I think it works. It is not something that’s going to be retrofitted in the future. It is the fact of Superman’s life. He was sent by his parents to Earth to save him primarily, but also they hoped he would continue the Kryptonian heritage and sort of take over Earth as its ruler, and that isn’t who Superman thinks of himself as being at all.
In the end, I think this was absolutely the right call by James Gunn. It doesn’t necessarily make Superman’s parents evil, simply self-interested in their son. And it creates an intriguing conflict for Superman that we have never seen before. It makes the DCU’s Superman infinitely more complex and interesting than previous versions.
The Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, already has a release date, and the script is officially complete. Since Gunn confirms here that he has no plans to undo this twist, instead we'll get to see how it continues to impact the character as the new cinematic universe continues.
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