Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 - If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

This will be far from my final word on Superman (2025), but I think I should probably not go nuts on you people for too much longer by just circling the Super-drain.  So here's a wrap up of some stray thoughts:

You just never know when your niche interest will go mainstream

In high school, the music I listened to was not exactly underground, but I learned to stay up late on the weekend and catch 120 Minutes on MTV.  That was where I found my bands rather than watching music video blocks during afternoons after school.  Imagine my surprise when the type of music I liked over in my corner suddenly became labeled "alternative" music and was playing on the radio and MTV next to, say, En Vogue.*  By Lollapalooza '93 - frat dudes and sorority girls were standing next to me in sun-pounded fields instead of just moody kids and guys with scalp tattoos.  It was... weird.  But here we all were, enjoying Front 242 together.

That same "oh, this thing I liked is suddenly and inexplicably popular" experience has happened with a few other things over the years.  Heck, my hometown of Austin becoming a destination for tourism and things like tacos and pit barbecue as we have them in Central Texas becoming fetish objects has been bizarre.

In general, Comic book movies going mainstream remains a huge surprise to me, and a sense it could all go away is maybe why I still show up for superhero movies like a hoarder.  I'd assumed Batman in 1989 was a fluke, and Batman and Robin flopping years later was more the natural state of how this went.  And then, Spider-Man happened.  And X-Men - of all things - was suddenly huge.  And then Iron Man.  And stuff I had considered this goofy cache of knowledge I'd kept in my skull became household names.  People cared about Rocket Raccoon, fercrissake.  

But when these things enter the popular consciousness, gatekeeping and lording it over others stumbling into the corner where I dwell isn't my bag, baby. 

And now, to my surprise and great joy - folks are finding out Superman is what a lot of us have always known.  And, this is all a very long way of saying: if you saw Superman and liked it...   welcome, pals!  I didn't expect to see the world falling in love with Krypto, but here we are, and how can I be anything but happy about it?  It is now my delight to see people get a version of Superman on the big screen that is as close to what I love in the comics.  

There are plenty of bad takes and new-nerd questions that one *must* pass through before realizing, to truly nerd, you gotta let that shit go.**  But for every one of those social media posts, I've seen 50 people expressing their enthusiasm for Superman for the exact same reasons I've been wearing a Superman t-shirt all these years.

If social media is any indication, Superman is giving something to people that they clearly need.  It's something I've gotten out of Superman since I was 14, and in a much more concrete way since I was 20 years old (now 50).  So I get it.  

As I said to Marshall - from a movie-making standpoint, I think this is a perfectly decent and good movie, but it's not Lawrence of Arabia.  What I think people are reacting to are the *vibes* of the film.  And that's an incredible success.  It turns out what made Superman be cool again was to lean into how uncool he is.  Who knew?  (Superman fans.  We knew and kept pointing at Steve Rogers.)

In my every day life I don't talk about it, because I'm a grown adult and it would sound insane, but I don't think for folks who follow the blog that it's a huge shock I consider Superman a point of reference when asking "what's the right choice here?"  I imagine a lot of writers and creators over the years have maybe had some personal revelations while putting words in Superman's mouth and deciding what he'll do next.  

Sure, I enjoy all of the super action, and watching bullets bounce off of Superman - but at some point when I was younger, as much as delving into fictional darkness was something I enjoyed (and you'll note we cover a lot of noir here) and maybe learned from, being able to pick up a Superman comic or put on a cartoon or movie, gave me a separate lane to work in.  I could read about a person trying to do the right thing in a world that was often far more challenging than the pundits would have it.  But that light from Superman also throws some of that darker stuff I read into starker contrast, and the darker stuff makes Superman feel all the more welcome.  

It's not great that we live in interesting times and we need the joy that Superman brings so much at this moment, but I'm glad that Big Blue can be there for us - all of us, just as he was at the end of the Depression, during WWII, in the post-Watergate and Vietnam years.  It's good to have some sort of secular but mythical figure that shows that doing good isn't easy, but it is a choice we can make, and can be it's own reward.  

Anyhoo... It's a kick to see all the positive vibes coming from audiences.  I guess if I can help in any way for recommendations or anything, let me know!

  

*En Vogue was and is a good idea

**guys, I love you, but if your primary concern is "based on this movie, can Wonder Woman beat up Superman?"...   Please...  just trust the next movie to be good.  You don't need to answer these questions now or ever.  The next movie will be whatever it is.  And we'll all be fine.