The reactions to James Gunn’s Superman movie have been divisive to say the least, but when it comes down to the Jor-El change, most fans seem to be on the same page: they hate it (even Kevin Smith).
I’ve been on the fence about it, because I hoped the Jor-El change wasn’t set in stone. Various fans have suggested that maybe Brainiac changed it.
What does James Gunn’ say about Jor-El in Superman?
However, in a new interview about Superman, James Gunn spoke with Rolling Stone and doubled down that the message is legit, going so far as to tell fans, “They’re shit out of luck!”
Gunn also makes the excuse that the comics may have touched upon it. Well, there’s like a hundred years’ worth of comics, and just because it might be in the comics doesn’t mean it’s good. There’s plenty of garbage in the comics. So the excuse “it’s in the comics” doesn’t hold much weight (the past 10+ years’ worth of comics have been garbage).
Gunn also comes up with the excuse that not having the Jor-El thing in the movie would have hurt Superman’s emotional journey, as it wouldn’t have made the David Corenset Superman as “human.”
That’s hilarious considering Gunn has his Superman get his a– kicked the entire movie, where a dog is more super than Superman. He also cries and pouts like a baby. How more human can he be? Also, let’s not forget that Superman was raised by the Kents for 30 years. I guess they had nothing to do with Superman being Superman, well, until Superman realized Jor-El and Lara were complete pieces of sh-t?
So according to Gunn, Superman only became Superman because of the garbled 30-second message from his Kryptonian parents, right?
That’s right. That’s the whole point of the movie, that Superman thinks he is doing something because it is his destiny and his Kryptonian parents have set him out to do this thing, and along the way he discovers through the love of the people who are actually his parents that he’s doing these things not because of someone else, but because of himself. It’s like taking accountability in the deepest way possible that his morality is not based on some figure outside of himself, but on his own choices. I think it’s really beautiful in that way, and I’m not gonna change that.
Gunn also adds he doesn’t think Jor-El is evil, who basically told his son to do whatever it takes to be fruitful and multiply:
And I don’t really even think of Jor-El and Lara as being totally evil. They just have this mindset that humans are less than what they are. We’re sea turtles to them. They’re just trying to keep the Kryptonian genes alive.
What about Supergirl?
We’re not done as the end of Superman includes the Supergirl cameo. Well, what does that mean for the cousin of Superman who was actually raised by Kryptonians? Gunn’s explanation? Supergirl doesn’t know jack sh-t, LOL!:
You’re assuming that everybody on Krypton is the same! And how would she know? She’s younger than him, so she wouldn’t know. She wouldn’t know anything about his parents.
Supergirl’s parents are already cast for the Supergirl movie.
Gunn recently said about Supergirl: “She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet, and she lived there for the first 14 years of her life.”
So we can guess either her parents raised her in that “horrible situation” and died on the rock (like in the comics), or they were on Krypton when it exploded. Either way, she was raised Kryptonian, right? And in Silver Age comics, her father sends her to Earth to be raised by Superman.
“Where she watched everyone around her die,” Gunn added. “So she’s a much harsher and more f-cked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.”
Gunn’s Supergirl is adapting Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The origin is similar to the Silver Age origin, but Tom King has Supergirl’s father, Zor-El, basically think of his brother Jor-El as a lune (maybe that’s where Gunn got the idea?). However, Zor-El remembers Jor-El’s idea about the ship (they’re both scientists), so he builds one for Kara. He then sends her off into space.
So according to Gunn, the Kryptonians she grew up with didn’t share the same values as Jor-El (so her father sending her off wouldn’t have told her to be fruitful and multiply whatever it takes)? And assuming Zor-El was around, he apparently never once mentioned his brother or his super-powered nephew who made it off Krypton (maybe he didn’t know)? So how does Supergirl and Krypto (who, in the comics, belongs to Superman — but that doesn’t matter now, apparently) even know who Superman is?
According to Tom King (and Gunn?), it’s all just… coincidence, right? So that’s how Gunn’s Supergirl magically meets Superman? It wasn’t because Zor-El sent his daughter to Earth to be adopted and raised by Superman (can’t have that, right?). It was just a coincidence that of all the millions of stars in the universe, Supergirl’s ship ended up on Earth, too?
DCU already sounds like a big mess
I don’t even know what to make of it all.
This all sounds like a complete mess! Gunn should never have touched upon Jor-El. Not including that switcheroo makes ZERO difference in what happens in the movie. I hope it’s never brought up again.
