As Warner Bros. Studios and James Gunn’s Superman film continues to rock the domestic box office, DC Comics is already synergizing with the blockbuster to include one of the movie’s best jokes. One of the recurring gags in the motion picture is Clark’s Boy Scout personality. The character attempts to fight back against this assumption by claiming he’s into punk music, listing off his favorite punk rock bands. One of which is the fictional The Mighty Crabjoys, a choice that Lois Lane quickly mocks, claiming they suck. The joke is a follow-up on when Lois takes Superman back to his childhood home, where he recovers from Kryptonite poisoning in his boyhood bedroom.
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Lois spots a Mighty Crabjoys poster, featuring the presumed members of the band in over-the-top punk outfits and making cool poses. The poster invokes the cheesy side of punk rock, perfectly representing Superman’s earnest persona. Comic writer Joshua Williamson and artist Dan Mora seemed to be fans of the joke, as a Mighty Crabjoys poster is spotted in Clark’s childhood room again in the upcoming issue of Superman #28.
Comics Superman is Also a Fan of The Mighty Crabjoys
The three-page preview for Superman #28 shows the hero in his daily life, with the final page in the preview having him return to Smallville to look at his Legion ring in his room. The Mighty Crabjoys poster can be found in the panel, but it isn’t anything like the poster in the film. Whereas the film leaned on the silly punk rock aspect of the fictional band, the poster in the comic doesn’t seem to match anything we know about the band from the movie. The poster in the comic is more like a generic anime poster, leaning closer to Dragon Ball than a punk rock band.
It’s possible Mora drew in the poster to be a generic poster for an anime that Clark grew up watching and slapped on the Mighty Crabjoys text after the fact. The in-universe explanation for the anime-inspired Mighty Crabjoys poster is that the band commissioned artwork for a specific album cover that invokes something like Dragon Ball. Many popular artists and bands use unique artwork for album covers all the time, though Dragon Ball tying into a punk rock band feels like a stretch. Either way, Superman #28 confirms The Mighty Crabjoys are now official DC Comics canon, sharing the same origin for Superman in the comics as they do in Gunn’s film.
While the band doesn’t exist, James Gunn did write a song for the band alongside Eric Nally and Devin Williams. “The Mighty Crabjoys Theme” is the final track of the Superman (2025) album, featuring an earnest rock rendition of feeling like an alien, an obvious metaphor for how Clark feels throughout the film. Fans also discovered that The Mighty Crabjoys made a cameo appearance in Gunn’s Creature Commandos animated series. Frankenstein’s Monster is shown wearing a T-shirt of the band during the flashback between him and The Bride.
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Image Courtesy of The WB Television Network -
Image Courtesy of DC Studios.
