[DISCUSSION] Superman (2025)
The DCU kicks off with James Gunn's Superman!
Spoilers for the film, obviously.
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Caught it last night... Tonally, Gunn absolutely nails it. The main characters are perfectly done, the B-list characters like Mister Terriffic and Metamorpho are perfectly done.
There are issues with some of the C-list / background characters.
Hawkgirl didn't really have much to do and I don't think Gunn knew what to do with her, which is a shame. Giving her a hawk shriek instead of actual dialog was... a choice. She needed more speaking lines.
Similarly, the background characters at the Planet, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, were just kind of "there". Nobody, not even Perry White, has a "Hey, where's Clark?" moment. I think Gunn was just working from a checklist of who to include.
Ma Kent... I don't know where she's from, but it aint Kansas... Loved the Kents interactions with Clark, but... OK, I'm biased, I married a woman from Kansas, I've been to both Oklahoma and Kansas... I don't know what that accent is.
All of those are minor quibbles. It was a great way to do Superman.
Now: Spoilers:
::: spoiler spoiler
Easter egg reference to Mister Mxyzptlk. Lois and Clark are having a serious conversation while outside the window Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl and Mister Terriffic are fighting a giant glowing eyeball. "Oh, it's just an extra-dimensional imp, they got this."
Setting up Supergirl - Krypyo is her dog, Supes is just pet-sitting while she runs off to a red-sun planet so she can get plastered. The opening of Woman of Tomorrow.
With Mister Terrific and Metamorpho in the same movie, we've now had 1/2 of "The Terriffics", all we need now are Plastic Man and Phantom Girl(!)
:::Hawkgirl didn't really have much to do and I don't think Gunn knew what to do with her, which is a shame. Giving her a hawk shriek instead of actual dialog was... a choice. She needed more speaking lines.
Personally I thought the shrieking was fun. I do agree she should have had more dialogue and story in general, but the story was already full, so I understand somewhat. Mr. Terrific got a great story beat. Guy Gardner stole a lot of scenes he was in. It would have been nice to give her something more.
And I say "something more" because I do think her dropping the villainous president of the foreign country was a key moment.
We see earlier in the film when everyone is fighting the kaiju that the Justice Gang™ don't have much appreciation for it as a life form. But also they don't have many options.
But when Hawkgirl has the dictator, she absolutely has options. In fact he barely seems bothered as he mocks her. And then she drops him to his death.
We know how Superman would react to that. But what about Gut Gardner? Mr Terrific? Lois's interviews with Superman seemed to imply that actually unilaterally is a problem. Isn't that what the Justice Gang just did? Superman gave him a stern talking to. Hawkgirl killed him.
While this doesn't tell me a lot, it does make me interested in her as a character and keeps me looking forward to wherever she shows up next.
Hawkgirl and Hawkman both have long and varied histories depending on which version of the characters we're talking about, but none of them fuck around. 😀
Hawkman from Justice League meeting one of the new kids:
Haha, that's excellent.
For the DCU it looks like we have Kendra Saunders Hawkgirl, which I'm not familiar with.
I know more Shayera Hol Hawkgirl, largely from the DCAU/Timmverse.
I'm excited to see where this Hawkgirl goes.