In an extremely contentious interview with her boyfriend/coworker Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) in James Gunn’s 2025 reboot movie Superman, Lois Lane presses him about the fallout of his intervention in an overseas war between the aggressive country of Boravia and its weaker neighbor, Jarhanpur. “You seemingly acting as a representative of the United States will cause more problems around the world,” she notes.

He testily counters, “I wasn’t representing anybody except for me.”

Gunn’s version of the hero isn’t a traditional defender of “truth, justice, and the American way.” But that’s far from a radical spin on the character. Writers of Superman movies, comics, and TV shows have spent decades grappling with how closely the hero should be tied to the U.S. government. Superman is from an alien world, but he was raised in Kansas as Clark Kent. He’s been embraced as an American icon, appearing on U.S. postage stamps, and receiving commemorative statues in the city of Metropolis, Illinois and in Cleveland, the city where the character was created. Just as the date of his arrival on Earth has shifted from decade to decade to keep the story modern, his values and actions have changed along with the political climate.

The first Superman story was published in 1938, but the character quickly became narratively tied into America’s 1941 entry into World War II. Superman comics showed him fighting Nazis and pitching war bonds, and “the American way” was added to the list of causes he fights for, along with “truth and justice.” But at home, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster portrayed him as absolutely willing to challenge authority and take on powerful people in America, ranging from slum lords to........

© Polygon