You can practically set your watch to it. A new superhero movie drops, and half the internet loses its mind about how it’s woke garbage. Right now, it’s Superman’s turn in the barrel.
James Gunn’s Superman reboot hasn’t even had time to cool off and already the outrage machine is firing on all cylinders. Twitter’s frothing. YouTube’s pumping out videos with angry thumbnails, red arrows, and titles like “Hollywood Just RUINED Superman.” Fox News is teeing up panel segments about how the character has been neutered by liberal messaging. The usual suspects, anti-woke grifters, clickbait commentators, podcast bros with ring lights, are lining up to take their swing. Most of them haven’t seen the movie. But it doesn’t matter. “Woke Superman” is a better product than actual Superman, because it gets clicks, sells merch, and feeds the algorithm.
So what’s the claim? That Superman is too soft. That he’s framed as an immigrant. That he believes in kindness. That he doesn’t punch enough things. That he curses once. The definition of “woke” shifts to fit whatever gets the most outrage that week. There’s no consistency. Just projection. These people aren’t upset because the movie broke canon. They’re upset because it didn’t break character in a way that supports their brand. They want Superman to be angry, hard-edged, and morally rigid. They want a blunt instrument, not a human being.
Here’s the thing. This movie doesn’t talk about immigration. Nobody says the word adoption. There’s no speech about systemic injustice or inclusion or any of the buzzwords that keep pundits employed. The story is about identity, not what you’re told to be, but what you choose to become. Clark Kent isn’t given a mission. He’s not fulfilling a prophecy. He’s just trying to do the right thing in a world full of grey areas. That’s it. That’s the movie.
But context doesn’t sell. So a single quote from James Gunn, where he once referred to Superman as “an immigrant,” gets yanked from an interview and turned into headline bait. That’s all it takes. One out-of-context line and suddenly the narrative is set. The grift economy doesn’t need evidence. It just needs an excuse to yell.
Meanwhile, others are trying to map the story’s villain onto real-world conflicts. Some are calling him a stand-in for Netanyahu. Others think it’s Putin. Or a jab at Israel. Or the US. Or your uncle with a Twitter account and too much time on his hands. The villain is just a dictator archetype. He’s power-hungry. He’s cruel. That’s it. But when you go into a film looking for a proxy war, you’re going to find one, whether it’s there or not.
The bigger issue is that basic media literacy is in the gutter. People aren’t reacting to what’s in the movie. They’re reacting to what someone else said about the movie. Nobody watches stories anymore. They watch thumbnails. They watch outrage. They skim an article and call it a review. And it gets worse when the main character shows any hint of restraint or self-reflection. In this version, Superman is still figuring things out. He isn’t sure of himself. He wants to help. He’s learning. And somehow, that’s seen as weakness.
Also, yeah, he says a curse word. Once. And apparently that’s a crisis. The man can fly, punch holes in mountains, and melt steel with his eyes, but drop an f-bomb and suddenly he’s not fit to wear the cape? Come on. It’s a non-issue blown up by people trying to turn morality into content. They’ve built an imaginary standard for Superman and then act shocked when a modern character doesn’t meet it. This isn’t about preserving the legacy. It’s about feeding an audience that wants to be mad.
Superman has always meant something. He wasn’t created to sell toys or prop up billion-dollar franchises. He was created by two Jewish kids in the 1930s. Outsiders. Children of immigrants. They didn’t make a god. They made a symbol. A protector. A character that gave voice to the powerless when the world felt like it was coming apart. He was never just about muscles and heat vision. He was about empathy. He was about hope. That’s the origin story. That’s the legacy.
And let’s be clear. He’s not literally an immigrant. He doesn’t remember Krypton. He doesn’t speak the language. He wasn’t raised by Kryptonian customs. He was raised by white farmers in Kansas who taught him to help others and mind his manners. He doesn’t straddle two cultures. He grew up with one. That doesn’t make him apolitical, but it also doesn’t make him a walking metaphor for your favorite online debate.
Superman benefits from every form of privilege baked into American storytelling. He’s white-passing, straight, classically attractive, and invincible. And in this version, he knows that. He’s aware of the power he holds and the responsibility that comes with it. He doesn’t act like he has all the answers. He doesn’t walk into the room like a messiah. He just tries. That’s what makes him relatable. That’s what makes him real.
The backlash has nothing to do with the movie. It’s about what people think they can sell around the movie. It’s about scraping ad revenue out of culture war content. There are guys out there making five videos a week off one trailer. It’s not film criticism. It’s marketing. And Superman is just today’s trending topic.
This movie isn’t woke. It’s not trying to indoctrinate anyone. It’s not rewriting history. It’s just telling a story about someone trying to be good in a world where that’s hard. That’s not political. That’s just decent storytelling.
Hollywood After Dark 