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Kal-El—the Last Son of Krypton masquerading as a mild-mannered reporter by the name of Clark Kent, best known to all as Superman—is back in a major Hollywood movie. (Again? Yes, again. These mega-franchises will be with us forever. There will never be Star Peace.)

The latest version, released to theaters around the world on July 11, is a big bet for Warner Bros. Discovery—the cornerstone of what it hopes will be a series of money-making films and television shows exploiting characters from DC Comics, mirroring the success enjoyed by their eternal rival Marvel (which is owned by Disney). It’s the second recent attempt to launch a DC Extended Universe, following the franchise launched by Man of Steel in 2013, which petered out in 2023 following some less-than-stellar movies. (That year’s Blue Beetle wasn’t that bad, as these things go, but it hardly caused a box office sensation.) By contrast, Marvel’s expanded web of theatrically released films, which began in 2008 with Iron Man, shows no sign of slowing down. Six of the top 20 highest-grossing movies worldwide come from the post-2008 Marvel franchise.

Writer-director James Gunn, who shepherded the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy through the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, leans into Superman’s “Big Blue Boy Scout” persona—a superhero pure of heart though perhaps a little naive—with a tongue planted ever-so-lightly in cheek. It’s an upgrade from previous filmmaker Zack Snyder’s dark, brooding spin, but still begs the question: How is it that an 87-year-old comic book character is at the center of an enormous corporation’s billion-dollar earner?

Corenswet in a still from Superman. Warner Bros. Pictures

Superman was the creation of two first-generation Jewish Americans who grew up in Yiddish-speaking homes in Cleveland, Ohio: writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster. (Shuster was actually born in Toronto, but his family moved when he was 9.) In Superman, they designed a fantasy version of the American Dream—an immigrant who draws might from his environment to grow in strength and then uses that power to protect and benefit all of mankind.

As with much that is successful in art and literature, there is a universality in the specific. Just like Levy’s rye bread, you don’t have to be Jewish to like Superman, but there are some aspects to the character that seem more obvious to some.

Kal-El (a spin on the Hebrew phrase “Light of God” or “Voice of God”) is the lone survivor of a planet (Krypton) destroyed by cataclysm. For Shuster and Siegel’s parents, this would’ve paralleled the pogroms or the Holodomor in Eastern Europe. For refugee readers in the late 1930s, when the comic was first published, it was Nazism. Kal-El is sent to a new life in a space capsule, an interplanetary version of Moses’s basket. He is nurtured by kind, hard-working adoptive parents in the farm community of Smallville. Then, cloaked by his secret identity Clark Kent, he finds purpose as a big city reporter in Metropolis. When his Kryptonian physiognomy is warmed by the yellow sun of earth, he mutates—gaining the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, for example.

Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster pose in front of character sketches.Bettman archive/via Getty Images

I’ve always interpreted that last characteristic to represent how Jews were denied access to certain industries in Europe, and how the free hand of the U.S. market allowed their sechel to flourish. That said, the promise of an American transformation is open to all immigrants, and, in fact, all citizens. (“Go West” was not much more than a call for Americans to go be immigrants on the frontier.)

But of course, Superman has an Achilles heel. The only thing that can tamp down his bullet-proof skin, heat vision, “super breath,” and other powers is Kryptonite—a physical relic of his secret past.

This discovery of one’s origins resonates with every self-made American. This has, though, a special bite for the assimilated Jewish community, historically fearful of being exposed as marranos, or “crypto Jews.” These sentiments informed Siegel and Shuster’s early work, setting the course of the character and his essential conflict throughout the decades.

Superman—who threatened Hitler with a “sock on the jaw” in a 1940s comic strip, earning him a tirade in a Nazi newspaper—was a quick hit in comic book and newspaper comic form, and soon crossed over to radio. The Adventures of Superman ran from 1940 to 1951, and it was here where Superman’s purpose was spelled out in the show’s introduction: He would stand for “Truth, Justice, and the American way.”

The first Superman animated short films began in 1941, followed by live action ones in 1948. Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves ran on syndicated television from 1952 to 1958. The property stayed alive throughout the 1960s and 1970s with a successful stage production, more animated shows (fans of Super Friends will love seeing Cincinnati’s Union Terminal—the basis for the Hall of Justice—in the new movie), and continued comic book stories.

Richard Donner’s 1978 film, Superman, starred Christopher Reeve and reasserted the character worldwide. Production famously paid Marlon Brando, arguably the most respected U.S. actor of the period, a whopping $3.7 million (plus a significant chunk of the profits) to appear in just a few scenes. The performances, the special effects, the sweeping John Williams score, the innovative-for-its-time product placement, and the retro-style storytelling made for a massive success, earning more than $300 million (close to $1.5 billion today). Three sequels of lesser quality and financial take continued through the late 1980s.

The series Superboy ran on television from 1988 to 1992, followed by the more memorable Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman from 1993 to 1997. The teen heartthrob show Smallville then ran from 2001 to 2011. In between was the (in my opinion) underrated feature film Superman Returns (2006) before Man of Steel came in the wake of the successful Marvel movies. In short, it is rare that we have ever been lacking in a mass media iteration of Superman.

And he wouldn’t be this successful if he weren’t beloved around the world. In 2021, DC’s creative director Jim Lee announced that the character’s mission statement was now in support of “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow.” A sad day for, perhaps, for America First-ers and Siegel and Shuster die-hards, but understandable for an executive who needs to sell a product to a worldwide market. Enormous movies like these are not always guaranteed to open in China. Many of Marvel’s recent titles, including Spider-Man: No Way Home, distributed by Sony, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, distributed by Disney, were denied entry to the Chinese market because the studios refused to make specific cuts. Superman, however, will open there on the same day it does in the United States.

What they’ll see is a somewhat daffy, special-effects driven movie that tees up more adventures from a wide slate of DC characters. (The comic book nerds reading this may be surprised to learn that the lesser-known superhero Mr. Terrific gets a ton of screen time and kind of steals the show.)

Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Corenswet in a still from Superman. Warner Bros. Pictures

Much of the new movie’s plot focuses on events that feel sort of pulled from today’s headlines. Superman’s frequent foe Lex Luthor is in cahoots with the government of Boravia, a Russia-like country that is uneasy allies with the United States. Boravia is eager to go to war with Jarhanpur, in order to, as the Boravians claim, liberate the people from an oppressive government. Jarhanpur is a nation vaguely reminiscent of Iran; we’re told that it’s never been the best of pals with the United States—but that’s where Superman steps in and says that the people are not to blame.

This Superman, like James T. Kirk, is a man of interventionist action. While the government may be content to sit and watch, he flies in and destroys Boravia’s tanks—injuring no one and saving lives. (We learn about this after the fact, but rest assured that a thrilling set piece on the Jarhanpurian border comes later in the movie.) Depending on your point of view, Superman is either stepping up to a heroism the U.S. government has no stomach for, or is using his might unilaterally without government oversight. There is an eerie, timely factor to all of this.

Whether the movie causes any international controversy or is just accepted as fun summertime fluff remains to be seen. More importantly, it keeps that “S” in our faces a little bit longer. U.S. symbols have been a little rough for wear lately. If any of them deserve the benefit of the doubt, it’s this one.