The Super Heroes of Summer 2025

David Corenswet in Superman (2025)
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros/DC

I haven't been to a superhero movie for the past few summers. The recent crop seemed pretty lackluster. But two of this year's cinematic comic-book efforts caught my attention and drove me back to the theater, in 3-D no less: Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both feature the figureheads of their respective comic houses, DC for Superman and Marvel for the FF. Both have been adapted for film and TV numerous times before with varying success. The Man of Steel has flown into pop culture through multiple media since his birth in 1938. He remains one of the few characters to be the subject of a series of movies, at least one live-action TV show, and a Broadway musical (the others are Spider Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, The Addams Family, and Nick and Nora Charles.) In addition, Supes was immortalized on the radio (voiced by To Tell the Truth host Bud Collyer) and in several animated cartoon series. Though they are the first family of Marvel Comics, the FF have not fared as well in their transitions to the silver and video screens. They have had no less than four different cartoon series--I remember 1968's Hanna-Barbera iteration best since I used to watch it every Saturday morning--and four sets of actors have played them in live action, receiving mixed notices for the first three times. Now both franchises have been given new life in cinematic form.

James Gunn's Superman has come under fire from conservatives for being too "woke," meaning Superman is portrayed as being too supportive of immigrants since he is one himself, arriving on Earth after his home world Krypton exploded. The parallels between our current political climate continue. The plot is set in motion as Superman interferes when a Russia-like country invades a Ukraine-like neighbor. In a story trope echoing a move the Man of Steel made with Adolph Hitler, the superhero flies the Putin-esque dictator to a remote location and sits him on a cactus, promising worse treatment if the invading leader doesn't behave himself. Also Superman's traditional arch enemy Lex Luthor is a sort of Elon Musk-Donald Trump type who imprisons anyone he doesn't like in a pocket universe resembling detention camps in El Salvador. The villain is in cahoots with the Putin-like despot and actually kills an immigrant food vendor in cold blood just because he was nice to Superman. Luthor also uses trolls (actual monkeys typing on keyboards) to smear Superman on social media. 

Superman was always woke--meaning in favor of social justice and sticking up for the rights of minorities--so the right-wing whining feels petty and churlish. This Superman played with humor and humility by David Corenswet is a champion of the underdog and not a toady of the rich (Trump). 

Christmas Comics

My Christmas present from my partner Jerry this year was to be let loose in a comic book store where I could spend up to $100. Yes, that is what this boy wanted most of all. I chose The Time Machine on 14th Street on the 2nd floor because the owner Roger usually has a fine selection of older Silver Age stuff. I've already gone through all of his cheaper DC and Marvel, so I was looking for higher-end, rarer pieces to fill in my collections of odder, less popular heroes such as The Atom, Green Lantern, Hawkman, etc. There were two GLs I specifically wanted, but he had already sold them when we got there last Saturday. I got over my disappointment and picked out three Atoms I needed--16, 18 and 26. The attraction of The Silver Age Atom is the magnificent art by Gil Kane and Sid Greene and the bizarre situations the world's smallest superhero finds himself in. I wonder if at the DC editorial meetings, they would come up with a weird concept and then have to write a story to fit it. In No. 16 from 1964, a deranged scientist has captured the Atom and ironed him flat. (He doesn't look too happy about it.) Something to do with pressing all the energy out of the Atom so the villain can absorb it.

Another highlight of the Time Machine haul was an early Superboy from 1953, one of the earliest comics in my whole collection. The guy (Roger was out that day) said it was worth $50, but he would give it to me for $25 since I was buying a bunch of books. I also enjoyed the Spectre # 4, this short-lived 1960s series focused on a supernatural hero fighting the forces of astral evil with great Neal Adams art and get a hold of the masculine, super-hot villain in the sexy helmet and cape on the cover (He only appears briefly inside because he's mostly a force of destruction possessing the little boy playing with the world to his right.)

I still had some money left in the gift, so the next day, we went to St. Marks Comics on 8th St. where they were having a Xmas/New Years half-price sale. They always have one around a holiday at that store. They were also cleaning out their Copper Age stock for $1 a piece (For non-comic obsessives, Silver Age is 1950s into the early 1970s, Bronze Age extends into the 1980s, we are in the Copper Age now, some call it the Modern Age)