(LifeSiteNews) – The latest cinematic iteration of Superman hit theaters last week, and because we live in an era where a superhero can’t just be a superhero anymore, it was accompanied by all-too-familiar chatter about how woke it would be.
Part of the speculation came simply from the hyper-partisan, morally depraved state of modern Hollywood bracing non-leftist Americans to always assume the worst. But the film’s director, James Gunn, threw fuel on the fire when he said in a pre-release interview, “Yes, it’s about politics,” and touted it as an “immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Actor Sean Gunn (the director’s brother) doubled down with a flippant remark about how “people who say no to immigrants are against the American way.” The final nail in the coffin seemed to come from a piece of tie-in merchandise, the package of which changed the Man of Steel’s iconic “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” motto to the nonsensical, morally perverse “truth, justice, and the human way.”
To the relief of many, it turns out none of these items reflect the actual film. Superman contains no messages about immigration, sexuality, gender, or any of the Left’s other hobbyhorses.
As the previews have shown, the plot is kicked off by the hero intervening to stop a foreign nation from violently invading its neighbor, but the warring countries are fictional, and generic enough so as not to reflect current real-life conflicts. The “political issue,” if it can even be called that, is simply about whether a virtually all-power being should unilaterally insert himself into complex geopolitics, not about favoring one narrative over another in the messy, hotly disputed geopolitics of the real world.
But none of that is why you’re reading this. No, the purpose of this article is to spread the word that Superman does have a message, and it’s anything but woke.
WARNING: the rest of this article will discuss certain plot points of Superman, including the ending, so if you’re interested in the movie and averse to spoilers, then wait to read past the below video until after you’ve seen the movie.
Your choices, your actions, that’s what makes you who you are. #Superman – Only In Theaters and @Imax July 11
Watch the official trailer now and ❤️ this post to get updates from @Superman before it hits theaters. pic.twitter.com/WzLxgArl5N— Superman (@Superman) May 14, 2025
As you probably know, Superman was sent to Earth as a baby by his birth parents to give him a chance to survive the destruction of their home planet Krypton even if they couldn’t go with him. His rocket landed in a Kansas cornfield, where he was discovered by a kindly farm couple who raised him as their son, Clark Kent. That upbringing in the moral values of the American heartland is why he uses his powers to save people rather than dominate them.
The new film uses that basic backstory but adds a new wrinkle. Near the beginning, Superman is injured in battle, and as the attendant robots at his Fortress of Solitude work to heal him, they play a recorded message his birth parents sent along with him, only a fragment of which survived. It’s a nice, generic appeal to use his powers for the betterment of his new home. A few scenes later, he tells love interest and fellow reporter Lois Lane that the message is his driving motivation to be a hero.
Villainous Lex Luthor manages to invade the Fortress, steal the message, and recover the portion Superman has never heard. Luthor then broadcasts on national television Superman’s birth parents telling their son to, essentially, conquer Earth and repopulate it as a new Krypton. This naturally stokes fear and distrust of Superman, and wracks the hero with guilt, confusion, and self-doubt about his identity and his purpose.
At his lowest point (both physically and emotionally), Clark returns to the Kent farm to recuperate. A heartfelt conversation with his father – his real father, just not his biological one – reminds Clark that the character of the man he grew up to be is what makes him a hero, not his shattered assumptions about a snippet of an old recording.
After Superman and friends save the day, the final scene finds the Man of Steel back in his Fortress, where the robots once again offer to play the recording of his parents, and he says yes. But this time, it isn’t the hologram of his Kryptonian mother and father – it’s home movies of his childhood with Ma and Pa Kent, the love and support he grew up with shining through as the real source of his greatest power.
While left-wingers have long fixated on the fact that Superman is an immigrant (albeit not an illegal one, contrary to popular misconception, and conveniently ignoring that he assimilates to the culture and values of his new home), it was a pleasant surprise to see this film remember that adoption is even more important to his mythos – a married couple finds a child in need, gives him a home, raises him right, and the rest is history. It is perhaps pop culture’s longest-running ode to the importance of parents in shaping the future, and the unconditional, sacrificial love it requires to take on such a challenge.
That’s what makes modern, politically correct Hollywood so ironic – they are so thoroughly marinated in woke ideology that they can’t see anything else – even when they stumble on something that could actually win back some of the viewers they’ve driven away.
