James Gunn's Superman: A Dive Into the Source Material He Says Inspired Him

The Golden Age Superman

The first image used by Gunn was from the Golden Age of comics (1938 to 1956). It's lifted from the back cover of Superman #1 (1939), which may be the first "pin-up" back cover published in the history of comics. Certainly the first in superhero comics. In later years, of course, things like pin-ups and tear-outs would become the bane of hardcore collectors, making it more difficult to find high-grade copies of the book.

The image of Superman breaking chains is an iconic one that has been reinterpreted many, many times over, and it seems this is the first published interpretation of the idea. It also first appeared (small and wish washed-out colors) in a small space on the top-left cover of Action Comics #12, which was published in 1939 just before the first issue of Superman. It was later recreated by famed comics and pop culture painter Alex Ross.

In the Golden Age, Superman was significantly less powerful than we now think of him. Yes, he had bulletproof skin, but he couldn't yet fly, and was basically "just" invulnerable and had significantly-enhanced strength, but nothing like what we think of when we say "super-strength" in the modern era.

His personality during that era was also a bit more gruff with criminals, particularly the kinds of criminals who made him angry -- which included corrupt businessmen and husbands who beat their wives. This Superman has retroactively been branded as a "social justice warrior," particularly by Grant Morrison, but even before Morrison's 2011 use of a Superman styled after the Golden Age version, writers like Louise Simonson had already played with that idea somewhat during the character's "triangle era," between 1991 and 2001.

All-Star Superman

While it's hardly a surprise that Gunn is being inspired by All-Star Superman -- he has said as much numerous times -- it's likely important that he shared this specific page.

In this scene from All-Star Superman #10, writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely deliver the powerful message that Superman cares not just about the amorphous idea of saving Metropolis -- think of Batman's relationship with Gotham, for instance -- but that the Man of Steel cares about each individual person. He could be stopping a rockslide or bank robbery, but instead he is here, in this moment, making sure this girl gets the support she needs, and that she knows she is seen.

The scene has made the rounds on social media thousands of times in the years since Man of Steel came out, and audiences started bemoaning the need for a more "traditional, upbeat" Superman.

A moment like this in the film (or the wider DC Universe) could be a great way to differentiate Superman from other heroes of the DC Universe. With The Authority in the mix, and a Booster Gold show on the way. The idea that Superman would do something like this -- it's powerful, but done entirely in private, with no one there to see it except Regan herself -- would differentiate him from the performative heroism of Booster or the militaristic bent of The Authority.

Max Fleischer's Superman

The first animated iteration of Superman, Max Fleischer's classic animated shorts provided so many iconic images of the Man of Steel that it's hard to keep track of them all. The quality of Fleischer's animation was nearly unmatched, and it's probably these, as much as anything else, that helped inspire the Superman connection in The Iron Giant.

The animated shorts themselves are in the public domain, so you can find them pretty easily and in reasonably high quality not only on YouTube, but even on physical media for dirt cheap. A recent, HD remaster by Warner Bros. has made the cartoons available in the highest quality to date.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

A weird, wild story that served as a coda to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Superman, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (yes, the Watchmen team did a beloved and pretty straightforward Superman story) answers the question in its title by showing the hero's final battle -- and giving a sense of what happened to him after the never-ending battle, ended.

You can get a copy here.

This one is interesting because, along with All-Star Superman and some of the Silver Age imagery on the list, it could very well suggest Gunn will get weird with the project, introducing some of the bigger, weirder concepts that existed in the Silver Age and have been largely absent following Crisis on Infinite Earths, or at least toned down. Writers like Morrison and Mark Waid have done what they can to reintroduce a lot of those concepts over the years, with mixed success.

Gunn, of course, has proven he's pretty good at getting weird with projects like this, whether it's the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise or Starro showing up in The Suicide Squad.

The Superman Family

This image of the Superman Family by legendary Superman artist Curt Swan feels like a potent blast of nostalgia. Featuring Supergirl, Krypto, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and others, it gives us a Superman who is fundamentally different from the one in Man of Steel in a key way: he is not alone.

The idea of Superman as the story of a lone refugee is a compelling one, and it comes with plenty of strong story potential attached. The Superman family -- both the literal family like Supergirl and the more figurative type, who he inspires and who inspire him -- makes him feel more like part of an immigrant family. That's a very different dynamic, and while there's still a lot of story there, it's a different kind of story, and one that weighs a lot less heavily on the character's shoulders.

Grant Morrison's Action Comics

In addition to All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison had a defining run on Action Comics, and it seems clear Gunn is drawing some inspiration from that.

You can buy it here.

Again, the Morrison Action Comics run tends to call back to the Golden Age a bit, with a Superman who leaps tall buildings and bends steel, rather than one who flies to space and creates diamonds from coal. It's also a Superman who is learning the ropes of being a superhero, trying to incorporate his rural childhood into life in the big city and his identity as a regular guy with that of being a hero to the world.

Kingdom Come

Gunn's Superman has a logo that is inspired by Kingdom Come (and the live-action Crisis on Infinite Earths, along with Morrison's Superman and the Authority). It makes sense, then, that he shared an image from Thy Kingdom Come, a story that brought Superman from the potential future of Kingdom Come back to the present day canon of the DC (comics) Universe.

You can get a copy here.

In Kingdom Come, Alex Ross and Mark Waid explored what makes Superman special among superheroes, looking at a future where most metahumans were ultra-violent and the public supported that approach. Superman is forced into retirement for years, but the story picks up after he comes out of retirement to deal with the fallout of a disaster caused by Magog, a next-gen antihero.

Similar themes were explored -- ironically through the lens of The Elite, a team that was clearly inspired by The Authority -- in Action Comics #775, "What's So Funny 'Bout Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" and its animated adaptation, Superman vs. the Elite.

Superman: The Animated Series

The DC Animated Universe is the definitive DCU for a lot of fans, so it's arguably not surprising to see the Superman of Superman: The Animated Series -- who lived in a stylized version of Metropolis and regularly interacted with the rest of the DC Universe while remaining the main focus of his stories -- represented in Gunn's list. It's hard to know what to expect him to pull from that characterization, other than a Superman at home in his role as a leader of the wider universe of heroes.

You can buy it here.

Superman For All Seasons

From Jeph Loeb and the late, great Tim Sale, Superman For All Seasons is, more than a single story, a vibe. It gives a sense for Superman's character, his ability to slow down and appreciate the world, and what shapes him as a person.

You can get a copy here.

Since Sale worked on it, it's also full of beautiful, stylized art that may inspire some of the look and feel of the movie itself.

Superman & Lois

The final image is a piece of art from Daniel Sampere in a 2022 issue of Action Comics, but really it was just a showcase for the romance between Superman and Lois Lane. It seems likely the pair's love story will be front and center here, as it was in Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie and (kind of -- in an awkward way) in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns.

A good book to buy if you want to get a sense for the romance between Clark and Lois is actually Superman: Lois and Clark by Dan Jurgens, Lee Weeks, et. al. The story looks into Superman and Lois as semi-retired parents, living undercover on a world that doesn't need them every day (because it already has a different Superman and Lois). You can get that here.