The One Great Idea in the Snyderverse
Superman is terrifying.
Everyone loves the trope about a Big Guy who takes on bullies1. It’s why characters like Jack Reacher are so evergreen—there’s something thrilling about someone with great power who takes great responsibility and kicks the ass of bullies, bad guys, and other assorted threats so the rest of us normal-sized folk can go about our business. That’s always been Superman’s main thing: He is literally a super man2, decked out with various powers and unkillable except under the most extreme conditions. Sadly, one of those conditions appears to be exposure to Zack Snyder, whose “Snyderverse” films for the droopy D.C. cinematic universe have gotten a lot of hate, and, now, a reboot under the charming eye of James Gunn.
I don’t hate Zach Snyder’s films; yes, they are dour, self-serious affairs that often descend into chaotic CGI madness with rubbery figures bouncing around the screen incoherently, but they have their moments. The scene in Batman V. Superman where Bruce Wayne is racing through the streets while Superman and General Zod destroy the city? Kind of great3! That moment when The Flash thinks he can do an end-run around a temporarily psychotic Superman and Superman just glances at him as he runs at super speeds? Kind of cool4!
Most of these great moments involve Superman, of course, because of two things. One, Superman is always the main attraction, and two, the one thing Snyder gets absolutely right in his superhero films is Superman. Because he presents Superman as a pants-shittingly terrifying being.
Sorry, I Seem to Have Accidentally Killed Everyone
Look, Superman is terrifying5. A nearly-unkillable god who can fly, lift airplanes over his head, and shoot laser beams out of his eyes? Jesus fuck. The Boys made the subtext text with Homelander, but from the very beginning Superman is kind of frightening. Maybe there was a time in history when the idea that all that’s standing between you and being crushed to death by a good-looking demigod is his moral code was actually reassuring, but I kind of doubt it6.
Snyder gets this. His Superman is always vaguely threatening; Henry Cavill plays the character with an appropriately alien reserve and calm with a tinge of fascism. The way he plays along with stuff like handcuffs until he gets tired of the charade is disturbing—it’s like he’s lulling us into a false sense of security so he can destroy us all with maximum efficiency7. When we get to Batman V Superman, Bruce Wayne’s terror at the idea of Superman feels like the most rational aspect of the story8. In real life, a superpowered alien being who could casually destroy a city would have us all terrified that we’d soon be bowing down to Kal El, King of the World. Batman’s obsession with figuring out how to defend against and then destroy Superman is the one thing Snyder gets absolutely right9.
The Time’s They Are A-Changin’
Superman is inching close to a century old, as a concept, and in many ways the character is showing that age. Was there a time when people believed that a good All-American upbringing in the Midwest was all you needed to ensure goodness in people? Maybe10. But those days are long gone, and as this country churns out villains on the regular and we often feel like we’re all locked in a battle for the soul of the future, it no longer makes much sense to rely on someone’s core values to forestall apocalypse11.
In other words, it’s about time Superman got tweaked. The cornball Superman from the comics, from the George Reeves series and the Christoper Reeve12 movies and even the Brandon Routh films just doesn’t make sense any more, and Snyder is the first person to understand that, apparently. Batman’s fever dreams of a fascist god Superman with an army of devoted mooks ruling the world via Henry Cavill’s weaponized handsomeness is one of the best parts of these films for that reason.
This doesn’t mean Superman should be a villain. It means that we need a Superman who has an edge of threat to him, because what happens if he loses control? The sequence in Justice League were Superman goes a little nuts after being dead for a while13 is great because it is exactly what people would worry about should a flying alien with laser eyes ever show up to offer us their “protection.”
Sadly, this one solid take from Snyder isn’t enough to save his otherwise messy and overly loud films. While I kind of groove on Man of Steel14, the rest of the Snyderverse films aren’t what you might call good.
If a bunch of coked-up Hollywood types dropped in and demanded I pitch them a Superman movie, mine would basically be the sequence when Clark Kent and Superman split into two different people in Superman III except feature length. And I mean, there would be three minutes of exposition at the beginning explaining how Superman is being split into two, and then two hours of Superman kicking Clark Kent’s ass. You can mail my Academy Awards to Teddy’s Bar, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Next week: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and nailing character introductions.
No one writes stories about the little guy who successfully evades the bullies by being small and largely invisible, which I take personally.
Yes, this is the sort of incisive literary criticism this newsletter is known for. You can mail my Pulitzer care of Teddy’s Bar, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Also, every time Henry Cavill takes off his shirt my heterosexuality gets shaky.
What’s not cool, of course, is the growing sense that Ezra Miller has a Buffalo Bill-style kidnapping pit in their house they’re using to make themselves a human suit.
Would Superman be more or less ridiculous if he did his superhero stuff wearing cargo pants and a T-shirt? Maybe with sunglasses hanging off the collar? It’s a difficult question.
Especially when that moral code apparently comes from Kevin Costner.
We need a Superman scene like the one in Logan where an ailing Dr. Xavier uts an entire city block into painful paralysis because he’s losing his mind. An aging Superman just lasering everything in sight and smashing buildings to pieces. I would buy two tickets to that.
Way more rational than hiring a glowering Ben Affleck for the role. Affleck spends his entire performance looking like his underwear is too tight.
Lord knows its not the lighting. Every Snyder film looks like it was dipped in grease.
But back in those days the idea of “goodness” allowed for a healthy dollop of violent racism, so …
But don’t get me wrong: Christopher Reeves’ performance in those cheesy movies is a master class. He was absolutely brilliant in the role.
The fact that I can write a sentence like that is the greatest gift comic books ever gave us.
Michael Shannon’s haircut does a lot of work in that film and probably deserved an Oscar.
Recently I've been checking out some movies from the local library. I felt I needed to catch up with the DC/Marvel universesss. I'm glad you commented on this. Was BvsS also a vehicle to include Doomsday and The Death? I dunno. I guess that since the comics did it 30 years ago, it had to show up sometime. Much like the previous inclusion of Bane. Ugh, bane. And J.K. Simmons? Jeeses, haven't we had enough of him? I'm glad that I chose the theater release of JL. I don't know if I could make it through the Director's Cut of 242 minutes.
This makes perfect sense to me. The Boys' Homelander squicked me out very well and was more terrifying than anything else in that series. Enough that I did one season and noped out. Thanks for the analysis.