By describing his upcoming Superman flick as an “immigrant story,” director James Gunn is basically looking to kiss the ass of the wokester brigade.
Rather than deifying Superman/Clark Kent as a true-blue heartland innocent who believes (or once believed back in Chris Reeve‘s day) in truth, justice and the American way, Gunn is trying to “woke” up this decades-old tentpole franchise.
Superman is an immigrant…wokey-wokey! Just like some guy from Nicaragua swimming across the Rio Grande in the dead of night. Just like young Vito Corleone arriving at Ellis Island at the turn of the century. Just like Elon Musk arriving in Canada from South Africa in 1989.
Cut the shit…Superman has never been and never will be “an immigrant.” He’s a saintly, goody-two-shoes, all-powerful alien from another planet…a visitor with powers well beyond those known to mortal men. He isn’t an Eastern European Jew fleeing from hate and oppression.. He isn’t a Gaza Palestinian looking to escape Israel’s wrath. He hasn’t crossed the Mexican border while listening to Tejano music. He’s a musclebound, axe-blade handsome, red-cape-wearing whiteboy who zips around and wows the womenfolk.
Seriously: When immigrants arrive in this country, legally or illegally, they start at the bottom of the social totem pole. They take the shittiest, grubbiest jobs that pay the least. Superman, by contrast, was way ahead of the eight ball when he on.arrived from Krypton. So he’s no “immigrant”. He’s a solid, square-shouldered, good-looking guy with a big, swinging Krypton dick….flyin’ faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, an ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound.
“Superman is the story of America,” Gunn has told The Hollywood Reporter. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country”….bullshit!
Gunn has explicitly framed Superman “as an immigrant, emphasizing that he is not from Earth and must navigate a new world and culture“….bullshit, James! This allows Superman “to explore themes relevant to the immigrant experience, such as adapting to a new environment, dealing with prejudice, and finding a sense of belonging”….you’re full of it!
Gunn: “For me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.” Agreed but so what? This world is rough, and if a man’s gonna make it he’s gotta be tough.
What a load of crap this “Superman is a lowly immigrant” thing is. Crap! A tall pile of it!
For those of you who never saw that 1979 “Saturday Night Live” skit (1.20.79 to be exact)
The skit that asked what might have happened if Superman/Clark Kent’s Krypton meteor had landed in a village in Germany in the 1930s instead of the Kent farm in Smallville.
The idea was that Superman’s gullibly nationalistic philosophy (i.e., equating “truth” and “justice” with “the American way”) would have conformed to the realities of Nazi Germany, and he therefore would have been Uberman/Klaus Kent, and he would have been inclined to identify Jews-in-hiding with his x-ray vision, etc.