Can the new Superman movie be the Kryptonite to Donald Trump? | Opinion
Superman has long stood as a symbol of kindness and friendship in my life, as he has for millions across the country.
Christopher Reeve, the actor who defined the Man of Steel for generations, understood the weight of the red cape when he played Superman in the 1978 film of the same name. And he knew just how he wanted to portray him.
“I thought there was one key ingredient to Superman,” Reeve said about donning the red cape in a 1996 PBS interview. “Because he can do all these wonderful things, he should have no sense of self-importance. The key for me was to throw it all away—and the keyword was friend. Somebody who was here to help but not be in the way. So I just played him as a friend.”
The new Superman movie premieres July 11, and since it was announced in 2023, I have carried an excitement in my heart. David Corenswet, the latest actor to assume the red briefs, understands the emotion embodied by the character.
“Ultimately, the dramatic stakes of Superman the character are that he’s lonely and he doesn’t want to be and I think that is the most relatable and dramatic thing, if anything, thinks about it more than a minute,” Corenswet said in a CBS Sunday Morning interview.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the trailers seem to diverge from the dark and broody Superman portrayed in the 2013 movie “Man of Steel.” I’m most excited that, as he did in the ‘70s and ‘80s, this beloved character can gently remind America of the benefits of empathy and compassion when working toward a common good.
Lord knows we need it.
Don’t be Homelander
I didn’t quite realize the absence of hope and humanity in our culture until I watched the Amazon Prime Show “The Boys,” based on the Dark Horse comic book series. The book and TV series depict heroes as money-hungry, backstabbers possessed by a dark essence. There was one episode that stuck in my brain where one of the main characters, Homelander, forced a man to do a despicable act to himself just before he used ray vision to obliterate this guy from existence.
“Where in the world is Superman?” I thought to myself.
Homelander is a narcissistic, capitalist and white supremacist who rules his world with fear.
Does that sound like any president you know?
The allure of the character Homelander comes from a universal thinking that Americans have adopted, that the most powerful people are corrupt and don’t have the best intentions for humanity. A lot of people believe that if you put superhuman strength and the ability to fly in someone, they’d turn bad.
Superman, however, shows that it’s not about the superpowers, but the men or women who hold them. All depictions of the man in red and blue include two important characters, his parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent. Crashing to earth from space after escaping his home planet of Krypton, baby Kal-el, finds himself in the care of two farmers who teach him the value of being a good, reliable person. No alien invasion or bio-human could tear these values away from him.
Good is not some euphoric or perfectionist ideal. We can all achieve it.
Be the good, always
This past week I read the 2005 comic book series All-Star Superman written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely. It was a courageous and emotional telling of Superman, where the hero contracted a terminal illness and was dying.
The book’s lesson is a simple one. When facing death, Superman didn’t turn to a dark path. He didn’t want to hurt the people he swore to protect. He did what Superman always does. He helped and was a friend to all. When faced with the darkest of times, we too can be the light that remains by adding to the collective good of our country.
In our current world, the sense of friendship and empathy has been replaced by fear and avarice. Our president has made it clear that his administration will bully people for his entire four-year-term. But America’s culture is not only defined by its top leader, but by its people My hope is that by being back in the center of pop culture, Superman can once again remind us that being a friend is attainable and not a far-fetched concept found only in a perfect world.
Kindness can be felt in every human action. I feel it when I wave to my mailman every morning on my dog walk with Pepper. He always responds with a loud and happy “Good morning!” It fills me with happiness, knowing that even with a stranger, I can feel a sense of kindness.
We all deserve that feeling, and we can all achieve it— one action at a time.
Superman is the reminder we need.
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
