The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is a collection of movies inspired by the characters of DC Comics. Most of this movies are not very good and the DCEU itself had a very troublesome history. They didn't know how to please audiences and constantly changed from dark, desaturated and depressing movies to corny and funny flicks that attempted to attract children.
In 2022-23, the DCEU died with the movies Flash and Black Adam. A new version of the DCEU will be rebooted in 2025 with a Superman movie.
Today we are going to focus on the movies that belong to the DCEU (short for DC Extended Universe). We will give special treatment to the ones that were directed by Zack Snyder.
Man of Steel
This movies give special attention to Superman, as Zack Snyder's adaptation of this character offers quite a lot to discuss.
Snyder saw Superman as some sort of Jesus Christ figure. (or, should I say, rip-off). A savior from another world, a lover of humanity who uses his power to save everyone.
Man of steel is a rather dark adaptation for the kryptonian. Instead of the charming boy-scout character most people knew from the comics, movies and television shows, here Superman barely ever smiles and behaves grimly, even suggesting some degree of madness.
The reason this movie catched my attention is rooted on an article I read on a lefebvrist website long ago. This article was written by a protestant minister and claimed that Man of Steel was a movie in which Superman would be the Antichrist and his enemy, Captain Zod, the God of the Bible, who would be of course portrayed in a negative way.
So, was this article entirely incorrect or did it had something to offer to the discussion?. In this article I will attempt to find out the answers to 3 questions: Is Man of Steel about Antichrist? Is Captain Zod a parody of God? How far did Zack Snyder go to bring parallels between Jesus and Superman?
Synopsis
First we have to resume what happens in this movies. Therefore, let me begin:
Man of Steel begins in the planet Krypton, which is about to explode because the kryptonians used its core to fuel themselves. Superman's father, Jor-el, chastises the kryptonians for their stupidity and warns them of their impending doom.
Kryptonian society is decaying too. For starters, their children are fabricated; motherhood and fatherhood do not exist. This isn't the case with Kal-El, the future Clark Kent; whose birth is natural. His father infuses within him the genetic codex of his species and prepares to send him off, while his mom suggests he will be treated as an outcast and executed.
But Jor-El insists he will actually be appreciated "he will be treated as a god" and off he goes.
General Zod, who is our generic space-nazi villain attempts to take control over the planet and preserve only the best Kryptonians. After killing Jor-El he and his followers are defeated and sent to the phantom zone in capsules. He warns Supie's mom he will find the codex & baby as Kal travels its way through the galaxies and krypton explodes.
Kal-el is found by Martha and Jonathan Kent. The later doesn't want his adoptive son to save people because he is afraid the government will find him and do things to him. That's reasonable, but he takes this fears to the extreme. He is smothered by a tornado for refusing his son's help, and even suggests he should just let people die before risking being recognized.
Later on, the young Clark Kent dedicates himself to save people while hiding at the same time, following his desire to save people while honoring Jonathan's desire for anonymity.
He has an identity crisis until he finds the Fortress of Solitude, where an AI version of his dad - "his consciousness" - tells him the story of Krypton and simultaneously asks him to be a guidance for humanity and chose his own path.
While this two seem to be contradictory statements, I think that Jor-el wants his son to teach people to chose freedom, and to incite others to chose freedom by his example.
Pay attention to his words:
"You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders"
Why would they join him in the sun? Does Jor-El worship Apollo?
Just as Kent and Lois Lane are starting to fall in love, Captain Zod arrives to earth and informs the whole of humanity about his existence. Zod says he knows there is a kryptonian on the planet and wants him to present himself to their spaceship or else he will punish humans.
Kal-EL starts doubting whether he should trust the American government to capture him and present him before Zod, betraying Jonathan's sacrifice. Clark could fly all the way to the spaceship and present himself; he could also look for advice to NPC Jor-El, but instead he goes to the worst place you could possibly go for advice: a novus ordo church.
The novus ordo priest gives him generic advice about "trusting your gut". He also says that sometimes you have to give a "leap of faith", which based on the context of a movie he is talking about faith in humanity. Only after "the leap of faith", Superman will be able to see if people are worth trusting.
After this he offers himself up to be captured by America and extradited to Zod.
After extracting the codex from Superman, Zod explains to Supie that he will terraform the earth so he and his fellow space nazis get to inhabit the planet. He is making a "new krypton" and will use the codex to perpetuate the species.
However, terraforming the planet will kill all humans, so Superman decides to push his limits and defeats the space nazis. While fighting with Zod, he destroys half of Metropolis. Superman also exterminates kryptonian eggs, meaning the species will be extinct once he dies.
At the end of the movie he promises the American establishment that he doesn't hate them but will work independently. He chooses to hide himself behind a pair of glasses and live as a reporter for the Daily Planet.
Jesus, Superman & The Antichrist
We begin the discussions by pointing out the similarities.
Someone from the skies is sent and decides to use his power to save people. He hides from them and lives as a misunderstood outsider, but is forced to reveal himself. After he is captured and taken from earth, people are saved from something evil.
The part when he goes to the church is like the prayer in Gethsemane because the evil of humanity overwhelms a doubting Superman.
Even the over the top destruction of Metropolis we see in Man of Steel - which was criticized by classic superman fans - makes sense from this perspective: let us remember what happened to Jerusalem after rejecting the Messias.
In fact, something that Zack Snyder understood about the Messias is that the Messias is saving people who reject and ostracize their Savior. In other Superman products this isn't the case.
On top of this all, there are many scenes where the framing suggests this similarities to the viewer. For example, as Superman returns to earth from the nazi spaceship he positions himself like if he were crucified.
When he decides to offer himself up he stands in front of an image of Christ. In fact, Clark is 33 during the main events of the movie.
I take retellings of the story of Jesus quite personal, because while there is nothing wrong with writing a character who imitates Jesus, both should be sufficiently distinct to avoid cringe and/or blasphemous comparisons and avoid adapting the story of Christ in an irreverent or ridiculous manner.
I believe Snyder went too far but still retained many important differences. People were waiting for the messias, while nobody expected Kal-el. Kal-el had a natural birth instead of a virgin birth, he was not sent by God, but by a creature, and his mission stays within tangible things.
Kal-el does not come to preach an ancient religion, but generic "chose fweedom" and "trust humanity" messages he stole from Jor-el and a novus ordo priest.
All of this leads to the next question:
Is Man of Steel an Antichrist Figure?
My opinion is that this version of Superman is an imperfect antichrist figure, an imperfect antichrist analogy. Let me defend my position:
Antchrist is someone who pretends to be Jesus to deceive the masses into accepting a false religion. Antichrist refers to an individual who will do this in the strongest manner, close to the end of times.
Man of Steel is an antichrist figure in the sense that he is some sort of faith-in-humanity and freedom messias. This was the intention of Jor-el who sent him, and eventually he agreed to do this.
I believe Kal-El is sufficiently similar to Jesus to pretend to be Him (at least, in an allegorical manner), but their doctrinal differences are sufficient to set them both apart. In Man of Steel, this doctrines position Superman as a humanist-antichrist.
There are 3 reasons why this is imperfect:
1: Kal-El isn't specifically similar to the antichrist as described in Scriptures. Had he been, he would have been jewish, would have explicitly claimed to be Jesus and would have asked people to worship him.
2: Snyder wanted to give us a humanist hero but then proceeds to make him destroy an entire city, participating in the equivalent of multiple 9/11 attacks.
3: The movie is riddled with disjointed oideas, and there might be a legitimate way of interpreting this movie in a way contrary to what I believe.
Is Captain Zod a Demiurg?
The writer for the aforementioned article argued that Captain Zod was a figure for the Demiurg, the evil creator from the gnostic religion. The gnostics believed the Demiurg stole power to create a world almost as evil at itself, which is the one in which we live in.
The reason this is important is that some people interpret the Demiurg to be our God, the God of the Old Testament. This article claimed that Zod was the demiurg, who came from the heavens, and had a confrontation with Supie who would either be satan or antichrist.
The problem with this article is that Zod is not a good figure for a demiurg. He never claims to be divine, but most importantly, he never participated in creating the world. Unlike accurate demiurg figures in fiction (like The Celestials in The Eternals or The Architect in The Matrix), he is not the creator of the world we live in. He is not even able of achieving omnipotence.
Unlike the God of the Old Testament, Zod doesn't judge people based on a judgement of their character but on the power of their species. He doesn't come to impose a law and physical limitations, he just comes to destroy because he was programmed to perpetuate Kryptonians since he was conceived.
A real parody of the God of the Old Testament would be King Magnifico, from the Disney movie Wish. Unlike Zod, he actually pretends to be a good person and look for the interests of his own people. However, his real motivation is power and he seeks to prevent the protagonist from becoming like him. This is similar to God punishing humans for attempting to be like him; the Tower of Babel and the Garden of Eden being prime examples. Zod is nothing like this.
He is just a space nazi who hates people and wants a planet for himself and his fellow space nazis. Rather than representing God, Zod represents those racial supremacists who conspire against freedom and refuse to take the "leap of faith" in humanity that we are told Superman did.
Conclusion
It is likely that Zack Snyder wanted to tell his own analogy for the history of Jesus. Since Zack Snyder is not a fundamentalist, he reinterpreted and deformed the Messias to his own liking, making an imperfect antichrist figure. On the other hand, Zod is not a parody of God but yet another cinematic Hitler for the protagonist to kill.
I do not want to do a temerarious judgement of this directors, and this might just be one of many internet theories. However, I consider the evidence is sufficient for this theory to be worth pointing out.
If anyone disagrees with this interpretation on the movie, let him post his arguments and we will listen to him.
You can find more information on IMDB.
