See no Evil: James Gunn’s Superman

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the illegal immigrant, the baby refugee, who entered America without any papers! James Gunn’s Superman has been the subject of criticism and debate since its release, and even a little before it. 

A lot has already been said about the movie, and the reception has been extremely divisive: With the conservatives’ vitriolic condemnation of Superman’s “wokeness”, and the left/liberals’ appreciation of the movie for representing the immigrants, the Isarel-Gaza war, as well as positive masculinity with trending posts captioned, “the masculine urge to be kind”. 

However, the director James Gunn has said that the movie was not inspired by the Israel-Gaza conflict. And that, although the movie is about politics, on another level, it is about basic human kindness. 

Comics usually have an embedded moral, and before the movie’s hype attenuates, it is worth exploring what James Gunn’s Superman teaches. I will explain here that there is a dialogue in the movie that reveals the nature of evil itself. Secondly, given the fact that evil exists in the world, through a discussion of the genesis of two superheroes, Batman and Spiderman, I will explain the reason for Superman’s optimism.

The Dialogue and its Moral: Thou Shall not Covet 

At one point in the movie, Lex and Superman engage in a heated quip in which Lex’s character motivation is revealed. Lex knows that he is a genius of his generation, in the league with Galileo and Newton. But he will never be spoken of as such because his glory is overshadowed by an alien who came out of nowhere and got all the praise and limelight. Lex is motivated by one of the Cardinal sins, Envy. His Narcissism makes him believe that it should be he who deserves the attention and honour. Hence, Narcissism and Envy are intimately tied here. 

Superman’s retort to this argument is to point out that he is just as human as anyone else. He bleeds, feels emotional and physical pain, struggles, makes mistakes, and also overcomes. All of which are the markers of humanity. And the reason why Lex feels envious is because he has ‘othered’ him as an ALIEN. It is Lex’s representation of Superman as a godlike figure that is the fuel of Lex’s envy. 

The Representations of Evil

In philosophy, the study of evil is a special concern. Suffering, natural disasters, moral decadence, etc, are all evil. Thus, in movies, characters can be evil. Evil is sometimes represented as having a real face, like the orcs in The Lord of the Rings, or sometimes is represented as the immoral or horrific acts a character commits, like Cersei in Game of Thrones. Cersei doesn’t look evil; she looks like any other human being.

At any rate, there has been a trend of rewriting infamous evil characters as misunderstood and misrepresentation. For example, Maleficent isn’t exactly evil but is betrayed and jaded. She was betrayed by a male lover who, for the sake of power, feigned love for her and, in her sleep, cut off her wings. Suicide Squad is also one such attempt. Joaquim Phoenix’s Joker is another case in point, although quite complex in its presentation. The idea is that we were given a skewed picture of the villains, who were mostly women, and this warrants a rewriting. There is an injustice, a patriarchal representation that is rectified. 

So, what is evil in James Gunn’s Superman?

Lex’s Evil Eye 

Is it that we don’t understand Lex Luthor, and that is why he appears evil to us? There is not much about Lex’s life to make that inference. But what we know from the just the dialogue between Superman and Lex is that there is a misunderstanding, a misrepresentation to be precise. However, it is not from our eyes, nor from the writer’s presentation. It is from the eyes of Lex Luthor. Lex represents or misrepresents Superman as an omnipotent figure who has hogged all the praise. Praise which he is entitled to. Luthor is not evil because we do not understand his backstory. He is evil despite it. And the dialogue hints at this. This is a marked difference from the representation of evil, which purports evil as illusory and thus rewrites characters as ostensibly evil but actually quite human. 

James Gunn’s Superman reverses this narrative while preserving the different aspects of evil. Hence, a synthesis is affected between ‘evil’ as a skewed presentation, and evil as an inherent character defect. Luthor’s evilness arises because he misrepresents Superman, coupled with his Narcissism and Envy.

Trauma Response

If Lex’s character motivation is the vice, Envy, then for Superman it is the virtue, Kindness. Superman wants to do as much good as he can on the planet where his Kryptonian parents were sent. In the movie, Superman is thus optimistic, charming, cares for all life, and sees the good in everyone. Is this outlook misplaced? In a world where evil exists, isn’t it naive to have an optimistic attitude?

It seems that Batman is the realistic choice. And for many, Batman has been a symbol of identification and resonance. Batman, having experienced the trauma of witnessing the death of his parents, has seen the darker side of humanity. 

In this conversation, it is appropriate to rope in Spiderman. Like Batman, Spider-Man experienced trauma when he witnessed the death of Uncle Ben. However, the difference between Batman and Spiderman is their Trauma response. Batman, in the face of trauma, recoiled inward and projected his unconscious symbols outward. Nolan’s Batman makes this quite explicit when Bruce responds to his Butler’s question, “Why Bats?”, “Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies shared my dread”. Spiderman, on the other hand, reaches outward and works to make things better in the lives of others. 

This difference isn’t surprising given the fact that Batman felt helplessness during the crime, but Spiderman felt indifference: In the Tobby Maguire Spiderman, it was Peter’s indifference that led to the death of his uncle. 

Thus, Batman wants to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies, while Spiderman fears having the power to stop evil and not acting on it. This is why when Batman fights his enemies, he appears calculative, serious, and dreadful. Whereas, Spiderman is cheerful, playful and comical. Spiderman doesn’t want to strike fear; he only wants to stop the villains. 

From this, it is clear that both Spiderman’s and Batman’s responses to trauma are determined by their specific conditions. Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered when he was eight years old, whereas Uncle Ben was murdered when Peter was fifteen years old. Both reactions to trauma provide alternative outlooks to life and living in the face of evil. You either turn cynical or optimistic. The problem is that the popular opinion has valorised and made the cynical view fashionable. 

Do you Bleed?

This is where James Gunn’s Superman is relevant. He is an orphan living with his foster parents, and he is the last son of Krypton. His Kryptonian parents were not murdered but were annihilated with the destruction of Krypton. He had a relatively nurturing and peaceful childhood with his foster parents. But it would be wrong to assume that Superman, in general, has no struggle.  Superman’s struggle is perpetual, ever since he became a conscious child, and James Gunn effectively communicates this point in the movie. James Gunn’s Superman gets beaten up a lot, dislocates a shoulder, gets mentally distraught over his online trolls, etc. 

But like Spiderman, instead of shrinking and turning inward, in an act of perpetual self-torture and condemnation of one’s fate, he chooses to direct himself outward in the service of humankind. Thus, his optimism is not naivety but a psychological necessity against the fate and the evil that surrounds him. This response is, however, not an injunction but a valid alternative. 

This Superman bleeds; he is not omnipotent. It is our eyes that have made him so. This is a Superman from the eyes of Superman. Or, as it is foreshadowed in the movie, it is Clark Kent interviewing Superman. It is unapologetically Superman. 

By Joel Ernest Gonsalves, M.A. Philosophy