Comics

Superman’s Most Controversial Moment is Actually DC Comics Canon

Superman made a major change to Jor-El and Lara that was canonized in the post-Crisis era of Superman.

DC Studios

Superman had an entire multiverse riding on its shoulders, and the fact that it’s as popular as it is turning out to be really says it all. One of the common things that Superman is being praised for by audiences and critics alike is for how comics accurate it is, and this is true. While Superman isn’t slavishly devoted to the comics and doesn’t directly adapt any one story, there is definitely a feel to the film that anyone who has read Superman comics will recognize. Superman is a gift to everyone who couldn’t find the Superman they loved in Man of Steel, and it honestly feels like you could walk out of this movie, go to the comic book store, and find the same Superman that you saw on screen right there on the shelf. However, there is one major moment in the movie that have left fans of a more comic accurate version onscreen wondering whether this was a James Gunn invention but it turns out it’s something that has long existed in comics.

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SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Superman (2025) beyond this point.

Superman sees Lex Luthor enact a plan against Superman that had him breaking into Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and stealing a recording of a message from Superman’s biological parents. The message is one that Superman has found comfort in for years, but it isn’t the complete message. It was damaged during the infant hero’s trip to Earth. However, upon infiltrating the Fortress, Lex is able to reconstruct the lost sections of the message and had it translated. The result is devastating. Instead of the message being one of love and telling the surviving Superman to serve humanity as he believed, instead Jor-El and Lara told Superman to take over the world.

This is a major change to the origin of Superman, and it left a lot of viewers wondering whether this idea came from the comics or not. The short answer to the question is yes, this was an idea from the comics, but there’s a whole story behind it that is nearly as interesting as the truth. Superman found new ways to use old comics, and this plot is an example of that.

Superman’s Origin Was Heavily Changed Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths

Superman holding up a take on a battlefield

Crisis on Infinite Earths changed the DC Universe forever in a variety of ways. Crisis closed out the DC Multiverse that had existed since 1956’s Showcase #4. The multiverse was gone and many characters got an all-new origin. Superman’s origin had some of the biggest changes of them all. Post-Crisis Superman comics established that Krypton was a very different place than the old Krypton readers were more familiar with. One of the biggest changes was that Krypton It was now a cold, antiseptic world that was highly advanced. Superman wasn’t born on Krypton per se and instead was conceived in a birthing matrix on the way to Earth, with Kal-El finally being born when landed on Earth and was found by the Kents.

Readers got flashbacks to the end of Krypton, meeting Jor-El and Lara, and these scenes established that they were slightly different from their fellow Kryptonians in that they loved both their son and each other. Krypton has always been a science fiction wonderland for readers, but this new Krypton was truly alien, and the way they looked at humans was interesting at best. Readers found all of this out in Adventures of Superman #427. This book took up the numbering of the old Superman book, with Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway giving readers modern Superman adventures. This first batch of issues involved a Middle Eastern country called Qurac and Superman had to deal with attacks from a group called The Circle.

During a battle with Superman, the villain Synapse is able to use his powers to mess with Superman’s mind, and we got scenes starring Bizarro, Cat Grant, Jor-El, Lara, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, and Metallo. One of these scenes sees Jor-El and Lara talking about their hopes for young Kal-El on Earth. Specifically, they expressed that he would conquer the planet of primitive beings and teach them the glory of Krypton. Now, while this moment was shocking, it makes sense with Krypton established in the post-Crisis DC Comics.

Now, Gunn’s Superman goes further than all of this — the translated message even tells Superman to create of harem and populate the Earth with powerful half-Kryptonian children — however it’s plain to see that Gunn took the general idea right from the comics. In fact, in general Adventures of Superman‘s opening story arc is pretty reminiscent of the movie’s Boravia plot. Gunn told readers that post-Crisis Superman comics would be important to his conception of the characters and this particular idea was lifted right from those comics.

The Movie Left This Plot Line Wide Open

Jor-El and Lara talking about Superman taking over the world

In the movie, this revelation that Superman was sent here to rule the world is the source of a lot of tension, and changes the story as it goes on. However, one of the interesting things about it is that Gunn doesn’t take the easy way out and try to say that it was a trick engineered by Lex. Gunn embraced this post-Crisis idea of Krypton, which leaves a lot of places for him and other filmmakers in the DCU to go.

In the comics, this idea of the cold, eugenicist Kryptonians would last until the early years of the ’00s, when creators who grew up on comics from the ’70s and ’80s brought back the DC Universe they liked the most. This meant moving the Kryptonians back to their warmer, more human pre-Crisis conception. While a lot of readers like the more wholesome Kryptonians, it’s awesome that Gunn is taking a chance with Superman, and embracing the early post-Crisis years of Superman, not only giving the comics a major nod but also giving fans a richly complex hero to enjoy on the big screen, too.

What do you think about this Jor-El revelation? Sound off in the comments below.