Bad News for Woke Marvel: New DC Comics Head Honcho Uses Old Superman Tagline the Left Will Hate
There are few fictional characters more endearing and emblematic of Americana than Superman.
The corn-fed farm boy alien from Smallville, Kansas, by way of Krypton has always exuded so much of the American spirit that his tagline was that he fought for “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”
That is, until October 2021, when DC Comics announced that Superman’s motto would be “evolving” into “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.”
It felt like a slap in the face to every child who grew up idolizing Superman and “the American way.” It was just another step to the left in the world of comic books.
Marvel, a Disney darling and DC’s chief competitor, has been trending in this direction for years, with woke dreck like “Ms. Marvel” and “She-Hulk” being marketed as little more than “shows with female leads!”
DC has not been much better, even pushing a comic book storyline recently in which the male supervillain Joker gets pregnant and gives birth.
Which is all to say: Comic books and comic book movies are in as bad a state as they’ve ever been if you’re a non-leftist comic book fan.
But, as in any good comic book arc, there appears to be the faintest glimmer of hope amid the onslaught of villainy, and it’s thanks to one of DC Studios’ new bosses.
The helm of DC Studios was recently handed to James Gunn and Peter Safran. The anticipation from fans eager for information about the future slate of DC movies was palpable, and was finally addressed by the two.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn and Safran explained that they are going to focus on DC’s “Big Three” of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman going forward.
“One of our strategies is to take our diamond characters — which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman — and we use them to prop up other characters that people don’t know,” Gunn said.
Part of this new focus on “diamond characters” will be a Superman flick tentatively titled “Superman: Legacy,” which currently has a July 2025 release date.
But it was Safran’s description of “Superman: Legacy” that piqued the interest of disgruntled comic book fans.
“It’s not an origin story,” Safran said. “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks that kindness is old-fashioned.”
“He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way”? That sounds an awful lot like the jingoistic, America First rhetoric that the left is always in a tizzy about.
And to be clear, “Superman: Legacy” isn’t some one-off or side project. In the words of Gunn himself, this movie is “the big one, the true beginning of the DC [universe].”
Here are just a few of our plans. Up, up, and away! #DCStudios #DCU @DCComics pic.twitter.com/8XNDNLUEPq
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 31, 2023
Listen, Safran’s comment about “the American way” may have been a simple slip of the tongue. It could’ve been a Freudian slip, a mental lapse — whatever.
But if this is an earnest focus of DC Studios’ new bosses? If they’re actually committed to getting the ethos and pathos of Superman correct, and using that to reconnect the iconic character to his patriotic roots?
Marvel may actually have a real competitor on its hands. But more importantly, Marvel and other aspiring comic book conglomerates can take a page out of DC’s playbook to engender some goodwill among a despondent fan base.
All it took was a little callback to the American way.
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