The age-old question for comic book fans comes up in cinemas this summer – Marvel or DC Comics? David Ho reviews both Superman and The Fantastic Four to find out

Superman

Superman is the first film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) reboot by James Gunn as the DC Universe (DCU). Coming so shortly after Henry Cavill’s run (with his last appearance in 2022’s Black Adam), David Corenswet has big red boots to fill as the newest Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman.

Thankfully, Gunn bypasses giving us another origin story. He drops us three years into Clark Kent’s career as Superman and starts the story three minutes after experiencing his first defeat. After he tries to stop an invasion by the forces of Boravia into a neighbouring nation, Superman gets his red briefs-clad rear kicked by a metahuman called the Hammer of Boravia.

Superman’s intervention in this conflict, along with cunning orchestrations by his arch nemesis Lex Luthor, leads him to face the most dangerous foe of all – bad publicity. The Man of Steel needs to get to the bottom of things while running the risk of being cancelled by the public.

First off, Corenswet’s take on is Superman is square jawed boy scout realness. Though serving it a tad vanilla at times, he brings a certain golden retriever energy to the character with his unrelenting optimism that is not hard to love. While Corenswet doesn’t carry the same weight in cinematic allure as his predecessors yet, we predict time will help him fill out the role with the right gravitas in future installments, especially when his looks and voice already fit so well.

The film’s tone veers between comic book cartooniness (kaiju battles!) with CW Network series realness that Smallville fans will appreciate. It also throws in a dash of sci-fi before veering back into CGI-heavy superhero finale fare. Despite the mishmash of elements, it does a nice job of balancing action, humour and heartfelt moments.

One thing that is surprising to see is how often we see Superman in positions of weakness throughout the film, whether he is getting trounced in battle or weakened by Kryptonite. As arguably one of the most powerful beings in the DCU, Gunn seems to be nerfing his Superman to be a more relatable hero.  

Casting Nicholas Hoult, who originally auditioned for the role of Superman, as Lex Luthor is a genius move on paper. While Hoult musters his best Elon Musk impression for the villain role, his Luthor never comes across as truly threatening. Instead he comes across as a typical high-powered exec on a bad day, even when he is imprisoning people in a pocket universe.

The film’s other villains ring a bit hollow as characters too. Whether it’s The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) or the Hammer of Boravia, they come across as mostly one note baddies. Not every villain needs to be relatable or sympathetic, but fleshing them out a bit more would have upped the stakes more for the film’s enjoyable but generic action scenes.

Fortunately, the script does better with the other supporting characters in Superman’s circle. Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane has good chemistry with Corenwet’s Kent and provides an intelligent mirror to her more idealistic partner. Despite early (and valid) worries that the film was overstuffed, the ‘Justice Gang’ comprised of Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl make for good additions, as do Supe’s dog Krypto and his Daily Planet colleagues.

Superman’s adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell), also provide a much-needed emotional core for the film. Without too much bombast, they give their Clark Kent a development arch without too many words.   

Overall, Superman bodes well for the Gunn’s DCU. As projects get their development sped up to fill this cinematic universe, one hopes the other DCU projects follow the nice balance of elements found in this and expand on it.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps

In the newest iteration of the Fantastic Four, the subtitle of First Steps is not about the early days of the heroic quartet. Rather, it’s about the patter of new life into the lives of the gang in a futuristic version of the 1960s that looks like it came straight out of The Jetsons.

Four years into their superhero careers, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (starring Vanessa Kirby and her industrial strength mascara) find they are parents to be. Unfortunately, this happy period is interrupted by a naked Julia Garner swinging by earth as the Silver Surfer with the sad news that the planet has been marked for destruction by a cosmic being known as Galactus.

It is then up to the Fantastic Four, being the brilliant scientists and superheroes that they are, to save the world from this impending doom. A journey to space for a face-off with Galactus leaves them with a King Solomon-ish quandary.  

Despite a promising premise and a buzzy trailer, the final film itself just feels… staid. It’s visually interesting, with the futuristic 60s props and aesthetic. But it jumps through plot points rather perfunctorily and only touches on, but never tugs, at threads of character development.

There is little in the way of clever humour here, with some ‘jokes’ like Johnny Storm/Human Torch’s (Joseph Quinn) obsession with whether or not the Silver Surfer’s board is part of her body being repeated with diminishing returns. Pedro Pascal’s Mister Fantastic feels surprisingly gloomy and the only time we see his stretchy powers in full effect is when he is being forcibly stretched out by the generic big cosmic baddie Galactus (Ralph Ineson).

Vanessa Kirby and her gravity defying lashes try their best with Sue Storm as mama bear on a mission. But Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer gives us more. Simultaneously icy yet compassionate, she also gives us the film’s most thrilling action moments, more so than the head honcho villain.  

Much like a baby, Fantastic Four’s first steps are shaky, and it stumbles a bit. Hopefully, the next time we see the gang of four-turned-five, they will be making bigger and more steady strides.

Verdict: Both films herald new chapters for their respective comic cinematic universes. But if you have pick one, Superman is the super-ior film here.

Pictures courtesy of Warner Bros and Marvel Entertainment

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