Now WB has handed the reins to Gunn, who has seen great success with his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel as well as The Suicide Squad for DC (not to be confused with Suicide Squad…yeah, DC’s movies are a mess). Can Gunn, with his clear love for comics in all their complicated silliness, turn this ship around? As a fervent Superman fan, I hope he can. If nothing else, he’s sticking with his brand by bringing in about a zillion comics characters, some pretty obscure. Here’s a quick rundown of the characters known to be appearing in Superman:
Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet): In case you yourself just landed on the planet, welcome, and also: Superman is the (almost) last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton, who escaped to Earth as a baby and was raised by kindly farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent. He works as a reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and his powers include flight, super strength, super speed, heat vision, X-ray vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, super hearing, and freeze breath. He is a very nice man. Corenswet has said he took inspiration from All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely as well as Christopher Reeve’s iconic performance.
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Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan): Lois Lane, a star reporter at the Daily Planet, has been around since Superman’s very first appearance; she is smart, reckless, and tough as nails, with unimpeachable journalistic integrity. In the comics, Clark and Lois have been married for several decades, minus a reboot or two, and have one biological son and two adopted children.
Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult): Superman’s most iconic foe, Lex Luthor started out as a mad scientist before being revamped into an evil businessman in the late 80s. Hoult was inspired by, among other sources, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azazzarello and Lee Bermejo and Michael Rosenbaum’s performance on Smallville.
Mister Terrific/Michael Holt (Edi Gathegi): Mister Terrific is a tech genius with multiple PhDs and is also an Olympic decathlete, because why not. Though he’s most strongly associated with the Justice Society of America in the comics, in the movie, he’s a member of the “Justice Gang,” which I’m guessing is a corporate predecessor to the Justice League.
Metamorpho/Rex Mason (Anthony Carrigan): An archaeologist whose exposure to an ancient artifact mutated him; he can now shapeshift and transmute his body into different elements, and is a member of the Justice Gang. Carrigan previously played the villain Mr. Zsasz on Gotham and said he drew on his own alopecia to portray Rex’s struggles with his appearance and powers.
Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion): My absolute favorite of the many Green Lanterns in the DCU, Guy is basically a space cop/ranger with a ring that can do anything. Fillion previously played the Detachable Kid/Arm-Fall-Off-Boy in The Suicide Squad, so he’s clearly a huge nerd and always up for playing DC’s goofiest characters. He insisted on sporting Guy’s iconic terrible bowl cut, and drew inspiration from Estelle Getty’s performance on Golden Girls for the character, of all places. Honestly, just give him the Oscar already.
Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced): The final member of the Justice Gang, Hawkgirl has a famously incomprehensible backstory involving reincarnation and aliens. Merced previously played Anya Corazon in Madame Web, so, uh, hopefully this movie will be better for her.
Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn): The business mogul who funds the Justice Gang. In the comics, Max was the sketchy-but-basically-decent civilian manager of the Justice League before going full supervillain about 20 years ago, so look out, Superman. This version has no connection to Pedro Pascal’s portrayal in Wonder Woman 1984. Gunn, of course, is James Gunn’s younger brother and has played a number of DC and Marvel roles in his brother’s projects before.
Jonathan and Martha Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell): Clark Kent’s adoptive parents. They’re great.
Supergirl/Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock): Superman’s first cousin, who also survived Krypton’s destruction and has the same powers as him. Alcock will reprise her role in next year’s Supergirl.
Krypto: OKAY, HERE WE GO! The true star of the film, Krypto is Superman’s childhood pet who also survived the destruction of Krypton. He is a very good boy and I love him.
Superman robots: Superman has long had anywhere from one to innumerable robots on hand to assist him with his various Super-duties. They are voiced by Alan Tudyk (of course), Michael Rooker, and Grace Chan.
Daily Planet staff: Besides Clark and Lois, the movie features all of their most iconic coworkers: gruff but lovable editor-in-chief Perry White (Wendell Pierce), eager young photographer and Clark’s BFF Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), gossip columnist Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover), sports reporter Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett), and political reporter Ron Troupe (Christopher McDonald).
Rick Flagg, Sr. (Frank Grillo): Director of the government organization A.R.G.U.S. and father of Rick Flagg, Jr. from the various Suicide Squad films. Grillo is reprising his role from Creature Commandos.
The Engineer/Angela Spica: Luthor’s ally, who uses nanites to turn her body into liquid metal. Angela is a member of the Authority, a team of edgier superheroes who have a future DC film planned, although no date or even year has been announced yet.
Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) and Otis (Terence Rosemore): Luthor’s bumbling henchmen have appeared occasionally in comics as Easter eggs, but they originated in and are primarily associated with the 1978 Christopher Reeve movie.
Whew! If nothing else, no one can question Gunn’s nerd bonafides. Will this huge cast help us believe a man can fly? We’ll just have to wait and see, but gosh, I sure hope so.
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting a post discussing becoming a reader as an adult. Whether you’ve never been a big reader or lost your reading spark along the way, these tips and tricks will help you get into books.
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Some people are book nerds from the start (myself included), but that’s not the case for everyone. When I was in college, my partner didn’t see himself as a reader, even though he read more in magazines each week than I did in books. One day, he told me he felt like reading a book and asked if I could recommend one to him, please?
Y’all: the pressure was real. I suspected that finding a good match might ignite something for him, but choosing poorly could further alienate him from the world of books.
This story has a happy ending. I set him up on a book date with a popular sci-fi read that appealed to his logical mind and love of adventure. He’s never looked back. Now he reads all kinds of books I’d never think to pick up, and it’s pretty cool to see how different our reading tastes are.
So, how do you get into reading? How does one simply begin reading as an adult? There are so many books published annually–estimates range from a few hundred thousand to a few million, depending on whether or not you include self-published books and audiobooks. How can an aspiring reader find a book that works for them?
Don’t let the numbers intimidate you. Here are some pointers to help you get started.
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