6 Things That Already Make No Sense About Superman & The DCU

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It’s no surprise that many people, including us, have found themselves captivated by James Gunn’s Superman. We’re now two weeks into its cinema release and it’s still raking in the cash at the box office. Despite its numerous merits, the film does present some puzzles and areas for improvement. Although James Gunn effectively incorporated a more comprehensive perspective of his new DC Universe through David Corenswet’s introduction as Superman, the movie did spark some questions.

James Gunn, the Director, has already clarified some of these questions conclusively – Lex Luthor did not fabricate the message from Superman’s parents. However, there are still many unresolved plot points in the story, and in some cases, Gunn’s explanations have only added to the confusion. Here are seven aspects about Superman and the broader DCU that currently seem illogical or unexplained. Let’s dive right in!

The Director, James Gunn, has already provided definitive answers to some of these questions – it was not Lex Luthor who forged the message from Superman’s parents. Yet, there remains a host of unexplained plot threads, and at times, Gunn’s clarifications have added to the mystery. We’ve rounded up seven of the most glaring inconsistencies that Superman left hanging in the story, so let’s take a closer look!

1. Why Did Ultraman Care What Eve Was Secretly Telling Jimmy Olsen?

It’s clear from the storyline that Ultraman learned about Eve Tessmacher (Sara Sampaio) plotting to deceive Lex Luthor, and he informed his master of her treachery. This sequence of events seems logical for progressing the plot, but it depends on Ultraman experiencing a temporary intelligence surge. Prior to Eve’s exposure, and afterward, Ultraman is portrayed as a thoughtless beast with minimal cognitive abilities, requiring Lex Luthor to essentially program him like a video game character in Mortal Kombat.

It seems strange that for just one scene, Ultraman exhibits intelligence by comprehending Eve’s message to Jimmy as a plan to undermine their superior and then communicates this understanding to Luthor. This instance suggests that Gunn may have momentarily disregarded the established rules of his universe in order to expediently progress the plot from one point to another with minimal complexity.

2. The Kent Home Movies Should Have Been Superman’s Comfort Watch From the Beginning

At the start of Superman’s story, the Man of Steel experiences his initial defeat and returns to his Fortress of Solitude for recovery. To ease him through the agonizing healing phase, his robots from Krypton play a message sent by his biological parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. However, as the movie progresses, it is revealed that these parents were not as benevolent as Superman believed. Consequently, he switches to watching videos of his adoptive family during the healing process instead. The question arises, why didn’t the Kent family home movies serve as Superman’s preferred comfort videos earlier on?

As a movie critic, I’d rephrase it like this: From the moment Superman was unaware of his true birth origins, Ma and Pa Kent played a significantly larger role in shaping him than his biological parents ever did. Reminiscent of Star-Lord’s emotional revelation in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ about Yondu being the father he yearned for, Superman’s discovery about the Kents is just as poignant, albeit not a sudden epiphany. Instead, Clark Kent grew up with loving and guiding parents who were more like his true guardians.

It seems that once more, James Gunn’s storytelling approach allowed the world of Superman to follow its narrative, instead of letting the inherent rules of that universe guide it.

3. No One is Horrified That Hawkgirl Killed the Leader of a Foreign Nation

Three weeks following Superman’s intervention to prevent Boravia from attacking Jarhanpur, a situation that spared countless lives but stirred up debate, finds our hero in the midst of controversy. Later in the movie, Hawkgirl nonchalantly throws down the ruler of Boravia to his death, and there is no reaction. Hang on, isn’t that odd?

In the beginning of the film, James Gunn clearly set up that politics within the DCU operate much like they do in our world, implying that a private U.S. mercenary invading a foreign country to assassinate its leader, regardless of their actions, should lead to global turmoil. Such an event could potentially ignite World War III in reality. However, the movie overlooks Hawkgirl’s war crime and proceeds as if it never occurred.

4. Superman Was Awfully Chill About Killing Ultraman

James Gunn made it clear that his interpretation of Superman was significantly lighter than Zack Snyder’s portrayal. Throughout the movie, it’s evident that saving lives is Superman’s top priority; he even saves a squirrel at one point. However, in his last fight with Ultraman, Superman doesn’t actively prevent Ultraman from flying into a black hole, although he had narrowly escaped from it earlier in the film. Unlike Henry Cavill’s Superman, who deliberately broke his adversary’s spine, David Corenswet’s Man of Steel refrains from intentionally causing such harm to Ultraman.

Online fans often employ the familiar comic book convention that “absence of a body suggests the character may still be alive” to explain Superman’s behavior. However, regardless of whether Ultraman emerges from the black hole in one piece or transforms into a DCU Bizarro-like character, for Clark, his clone is deceased and he appears unfazed by it. At least Henry Cavill’s Superman let out a heartrending howl as he snapped Zod’s neck.

5. Supergirl Should Have Told Her Cousin How Kryptonians Viewed Humans

A contentious aspect of the new Superman lore being developed by James Gunn is the disclosure that Kal-El’s parents didn’t dispatch him to Earth to protect mankind, but to govern it instead. To be impartial, this doesn’t portray Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van as malevolent aliens aiming for universal domination, but rather as members of a doomed race urging the last of their kind to subdue a primitive world, transform it into Kal-El’s personal nursery, so to speak, to preserve the Kryptonian lineage.

To make the revelation impactful, it needs to take Superman by surprise – and it does just that. Introducing Supergirl into the story raises a question: why didn’t she warn Superman that his parents weren’t very nice? James Gunn has attempted to explain this apparent inconsistency by suggesting that not every Kryptonian shared the same view of humans, and that Supergirl wouldn’t have confided in her aunt and uncle about this. However, this explanation seems somewhat unconvincing.

One point to note is that, based on Gunn’s earlier remarks, it’s established that this Supergirl was on Krypton when it exploded. It seems unlikely that she accidentally landed on the only planet where her cousin, the other surviving Kryptonian, happened to be. Given that she apparently knew about Jor-El and Lara’s plan to send their child to Earth, one might wonder why they didn’t share their thoughts on humans or their aspirations for their offspring with Supergirl once he arrived on Earth.

Understandably, given the situation, it’s plausible that Clark Kent, thrilled to discover he had a fellow Kryptonian and a blood relative, wouldn’t hesitate to inquire about her insights into his parents. Is it conceivable that they never discussed this topic or that Kara is unaware of her connection to Uncle Jor-El and Aunt Lara Lor-Van? However, for this unlikely scenario to be convincing, many assumptions would need to be made.

6. Peacemaker Being in Superman Blurs the Dividing Line Between the DCEU and the DCU

As a die-hard movie enthusiast, I find it rather perplexing when it comes to the cameos in Superman, particularly Peacemaker. His appearance just doesn’t seem to fit the narrative flow, not only within the story but also from a production standpoint. The announcement that the DC Extended Universe was coming to an end and a new cinematic universe was being formed left a certain group of DC fans rather disheartened. While it’s fun for many to tease the Snyderverse, there’s a dedicated fan base who cherished it and yearned for its continuation.

James Gunn swiftly silenced those fans by emphasizing that the DC Universe would introduce a new Superman, a new Batman, marking a fresh beginning for DC on both TV and movie screens. However, he instantly complicated matters by announcing that John Cena will still embody Peacemaker in the DCU, contradicting the notion of a clean slate.

The situation isn’t that we don’t grasp why Gunn chose to retain Cena. In fact, according to the director himself, Peacemaker Season 1 was one of his top favorites. However, replacing Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot only to keep Cena and the rest of the Peacemaker cast seems odd to some fans, even disrespectful to others. To many more, it’s simply perplexing. Why does Superman and Supergirl appear different in the DCU while Peacemaker remains unchanged? Why do key characters have new origins, yet most of Peacemaker Season 1 remains valid?

In simpler terms, the preview for Peacemaker Season 2 addresses the inconsistency by presenting a DC multiverse and depicting the authentic Peacemaker moving between dimensions. Although it might seem premature to blend the DCEU and the DCU so closely – Marvel took Phase 4 to incorporate actors from outside the MCU – it does make sense from a storytelling angle. However, director Gunn recently clarified to Rolling Stone that while Season 2 of Peacemaker involves two dimensions, neither will be the DCEU.

Essentially, if “Peacemaker” Season 1, as stated by Gunn, is considered canonical within the DC Universe (DCU), it implies that the events portrayed in the show align perfectly with those in the DCEU. This raises more questions, such as whether parts of “The Suicide Squad” are also part of the DCU. Since “The Suicide Squad” was a sequel to the 2016 “Suicide Squad”, it suggests that some elements from that movie could be considered canonical as well. The question then arises: where does the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) end, and the DCU begin?

In a fantastical universe teeming with avian humanoids, super-powered canines, and pocket realms, anything is possible. Yet, it seems prudent to avoid overly tying the DC Universe to the floundering DCEU in order for it to thrive effectively.

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2025-07-28 03:10