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Let’s start with the little moments. I loved the way some of the people barely reacted to the cataclysmic events happening around them. The movie presents a world where metahumans have existed for centuries and presumably attacks from kaiju and inter dimensional imps are equally commonplace.  It is amusing to see the staff of The Daily Planet and Lois in particular acting as if there is a fox in their garden not a gigantic monster or a black hole generated rift tearing through their city. Just another day in Metropolis.

Let’s also talk about The Justice Gang. I loved how they just have no quarter with the things they are fighting, acting like a team of hospital receptionists who have just done too many Saturday nights in A&E. Mr. Terrific is a where heroism meets stoicism and Hawkgirl is what happens when the arrogance of youth and the belief that you are better than everyone else combines with actually largely being better than everyone else. I’m not sure if the screeching was involuntary or not but she totally owned it either way. I’m also not sure where her straight out assassination of a foreign leader leaves her after all the crap Superman got for intervening in that war but he had it coming. Nathan Fillion bringing the dutiful but reluctant step dad energy as Green Lantern Guy Gardner is fun too and I can’t help but feel that those giant hands flipping the bird are as much for everyone who has ever doubted director James Gunn as they were for the Boravian army.

In terms of Boravia there are clearly some real world associations to be made with an Eastern European country invading its weaker neighbour. It is also funny that The White House has just done another of those stupid pictures putting Trump’s face on an iconic figure, based this time on the poster for this film. In the image it is the President wearing the red cape but that is a laugh because in this scenario Trump is definitely not Superman. There are so many films that work as some kind of metaphor for Trump’s America right now but in this one it is even suggested that the evil, petulant business mogul Lex Luthor ‘wants to be king’. That’s a loaded statement right now and it is clear who it is aimed at. 

Speaking of villains, I think the reveal that Ultraman is a clone of Superman is supposed to be a bit of surprise. Not only is the character already established as a dark version of Superman in the comics but the way they play it here is identical to the revelation of Black Noir being a clone of Homelander in Garth Ennis’ The Boys. They’ve ditched this idea in the TV show but in the source material he is created explicitly to destroy his doppelgänger just as he is here. Ultraman’s outfit here is also practically the same as Black Noir’s. He has occasionally been seen in a similar get up on the page but not often. We can go back on forth on which character originally inspired which, Ultraman having been around in some form since the 60s, but all in all it was not a shock when they pulled off his mask.

The bigger twist is that Superman’s father Jor-El, played in cameo but Bradley Cooper, turns out to be a bit of a megalomaniac with despotic ambitions for his son. I never warmed to the guy when he was played by Russell Crowe or Marlon Brando either so I was happy to go with this change and it empowers Kal-El with control over his own destiny which strengthens his characterisation overall.

Speaking of other Kryptonian’s this version of Supergirl looks great. Millie Alcock’s spikey portrayal is a million miles away from Helen Slater’s or Melissa Benoist’s but has all the attitude she shows in the pages of the excellent graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. This whole movie is a great introduction to Gunn’s version of the DC Universe, which with the appearance of John Cena’s Peacemaker we also discover is the same world as 2021’s The Suicide Squad so we may see Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn again. Although she was also in the version that had Henry Cavill as Superman so how does that work? Either way, with Molly Alcock’s World of Tomorrow adaptation up next big things are promised.

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