The 1951 film 'Superman and the Mole Men' finds the Man of Steel lecturing a bigoted mob - and taking away their guns

The Man of Steel became a political lightning rod this summer with the release of the new movie, but world's most wholesome hero has actually been under attack since 1954, when Dr. Fredric Wertham published the anti-comics treatise 'Seduction of the Innocent.

“That was really unfortunate,” Gunn continued. “So Peter and I [thought] the right thing to do was to sit down with [Cavill] and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.'”

A new report confirms that James Gunn’s Superman is boosting Man of Steel‘s viewership along with several other DC titles on Max. Following the film’s theatrical debut, multiple Superman-related movies and DC series have seen major spikes in engagement,

EXCLUSIVE: Good news for Warner Bros. Discovery, the theatrical release of James Gunn’s Superman seems to be driving audiences to familiarize themselves with more DC offerings. Deadline understands that titles like Man of Steel,

James Gunn’s Superman Sparks Major Streaming Surge on HBO Max James Gunn’s new Superman film has triggered a wave of renewed interest in DC Universe conten

Man of Steel prompted a lot of incensed and opinionated responses when it premiered, but none of Snyder’s choices in the film drew as much ire as the decision to have Superman kill Michael Shannon’s General Zod during their Metropolis-destroying battle.

"Man of Steel" opened in 2013 with a respectable $200 million global cumulative, but also received middling reviews from critics.

To underwear or not to underwear, or how to underwear, has been a focal point of virtually every Superman production. In the last big “Superman” adaptation, filmmaker Zach Snyder did away with the trunks, which he said he couldn’t make “cool.”

There's more good news for Superman, because after soaring to the biggest Wednesday of 2025, the DC Studios movie has already grossed more than Black Adam did during its entire run at the U.S. box office.