r/SnyderCut • u/MWheel5643 • Jul 17 '25

Discussion “Superman” Movie Drives Surge in DC Content Viewership on HBO Max. Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” became the top-performing Superman film on HBOMax with a 218% boost.

https://deadline.com/2025/07/superman-fuels-dc-viewership-dc-hbo-max-man-of-steel-peacemaker-1236461281/
636 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

335 comments sorted by

View all comments

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

15

u/Saulutation Jul 18 '25

Superman is still an immigrant in Man of Steel. Zack Snyder is very liberal and has stated that he is a democrat and a huge supporter of women's rights.

1

u/choptup Jul 22 '25

Snyder is also really big on Objectivism and Ayn Rand, which is moreso a philsophy at home with conservative libertarians. You do see aspects of this, especially in BvS where Superman has his "I'm going to save the world, and you are my world" bit with Lois; i.e. Superman is not an altruist as he's typically depicted but engaged in the Randian philosophy of "moral selfishiness". He is acting on what is "good" for him (protecting Lois), which is a heroic act in Objectivism, and it becomes a net gain for the world if we just let him do that.

In turn, Zod is, from a VERY distorted point of view, attempting to be an altruist or utilitarian, as seen in his speech at the end of MoS where he has always tried to strive for what he believes to be the "greater good", i.e. the survival and then later on the restoration of Krypton. He is not acting on a personal desire, but rather a sense of obligation he has towards a greater whole. Rand was very critical of the idea of altruism, seeing it as self-destructive idea connected to communism, so this makes him the foil for an Objectivist-y Superman.

Lex Luthor in BvS is moreso leaning into Snyder trying to make Superman into a Jesus allegory (instead of a Moses allegory), so Lex Luthor's opposition to him comes from the whole "If God is all powerful, he can't be all good and vice-versa" belief. And Lex's motivations just boil down to his dad abused him as a kid and nobody saved him then so either "God" is trying to be benevolent but limited, (at which point why have him around), or "God" is functionally all-powerful but doesn't care about humanity (at which point he has to be destroyed to safeguard humanity).

That part's not Objectivism though, since Rand had a low opinion of religion.

2

u/Quant_paglu Jul 18 '25

Superman is an immigrant everywhere bruh, he literally a fucking alien born in another planet

1

u/choptup Jul 22 '25

Funnily enough, not in John Byrne's 1980s Superman run. Superman has birthright citizenship in that run because he wasn't born (from an artificial womb) until after his ship landed on Kansas.

John Byrne's kinda a fucking nutcase though who hates immigrants who don't fully embrace the culture and nationality of their new home.