There are few visual icons as ubiquitous as Superman.

His logo and tri-color primary palette adorn t-shirts, backpacks and toy shelves the world over. The Man of Steel is intrinsically linked to his World War II roots, the brainchild of two Jewish immigrants who championed ‘right against might.’ As such, some of Superman’s world-the major metropolitan newspaper, a cast of bowtied and bowler-hatted villains, and the once-uncomplicated ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way credo-have seemed staid in the years since his 1938 conception. Every so often, Krypton must explode anew and rocket Superman into a new decade.

Pulp Hero: A recreation of an HJ Ward painting which once adorned the DC offices. Ward, who painted covers of adventure stories in the ‘30s and ‘40s, was among the first to ‘realistically’ render Joe Shuster’s Superman as a standard strongman of the day. © Aidan Moyer

Arguably, no relaunch has had as enduring an impression on Super-Media than his first major motion picture, Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978). Portrayed by relative unknown Christopher Reeve, the sprawling film literally reinvented the visual effects wheel to steep Superman in a pseudo-reality and make good on the tagline “you’ll believe a man can fly.” Superman’s latest incarnation, brought to life by David Corenswet and director James Gunn, wisely embraces the shadow cast by Reeve, not least in its score’s direct quotes of John Williams’ “Superman Theme.”

Electric guitars cut through the Arctic fortress and the sinister machinations of Nicholas Hoult’s maniacal Lex Luthor. These cues, composed by John Murphy and David Fleming and strummed by session guitarist Yvette Young, repurpose the iconic Williams melodies for a modern re-score. Other composers have tried their hands at new Superman themes – of note are Shirley Walker’s sublime tune for Superman: The Animated Series, the sprawling Hans Zimmer Man of Steel theme, and Remy Zero’s delightfully Y2K “Somebody Save Me” (Smallville) – but the sheer ubiquity of the 1978 film has ensconced the original as an inextricable facet of the character.

Gunn doesn’t try to outdo Williams. Indeed, the opening titles for 2025’s Superman borrow the same font as Donner’s flick and the henchpeople Otis and Miss Tessmsacher appear in tribute to the original film. Gunn’s working title was Superman: Legacy, and the film honors just that.

The Blueprint: Christopher Reeve’s dual portrayal of Clark Kent and Superman has cast a decades-long shadow and reshaped the icon of Superman himself © Aidan Moyer

Gunn’s screenplay takes several conceits for granted-we, and Metropolis at large, know who Superman is and how he has operated for years. He scraps with giant monsters, lifts skyscrapers and flies faster than a etc, etc. Lois Lane, portrayed with aplomb by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan, is well aware of Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent and the two are, in Gen Z terms, “in a situationship.”

The first scene that is a direct answer to Donner’s film arrives early in the first act, when Clark agrees to grant Lois an interview “as Superman.” This calls to mind an iconic and largely improvised scene between Reeve’s Superman and Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. Superman provides Lane with an exclusive before the duo take flight amidst the cues of Williams’ ’70s love ballad, “Can You Read My Mind?”

A Friend From Another Star: Kidder and Reeve take flight © Aidan Moyer

Author’s note: Kidder was initially supposed to sing this tune over the flying montage; saner heads prevailed and Lois merely recites the lyrics as an internal monologue. The original vision for the tune was realized in this delightfully schmaltzy rendition by Maureen McGovern.

Corenswet’s Kent – and, by extension, the audience – are expecting the same innocuous line of questioning. The Lois Lane-Superman dynamic is, after all, simple: A tough-as-nails reporter falls for the aw-shucks charm of a farmboy and demigod who are one and the same.

Brosnahan’s Lois, however, is unrelenting. She calls Superman’s cowboy diplomacy into question, as he acts unilaterally and threatens the dictator of the fictional Jarhanpur. Kent protests – he was only standing for “good, and what’s right,” not operating as an emissary of America – but Lane presses him on the controversy.

Finally, Kent snaps, “People were going to die!!”

In the previous filmic take on Superman, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, swathes of civilians are collateral damage in a brutal Metropolis battle. This new Superman’s pure heart and clarity of character are set against a world that isn’t so sure it can trust a hero.

Gunn, a comics aficionado, embeds deep cut characters into this narrative and asks the uninitiated to ‘catch up’. True oddballs Metamorpho (Barry’s Anthony Carrigan), the surly Green Lantern Guy Gardener (Firefly’s Nathan Fillion), the scrappy Hawkgirl (Dora’s Isabela Merced) and the understated uber genius Mister Terrific (X-Men First Class’s Edi Gathegi). Gathegi gets a sonic centerpiece, easily dispatching legions of henchmen as Lois Lane is shielded in a holo-bubble with a radio playing ‘5 Years Time’ by Noah and the Whale. This oddball ukulele track is a hallmark of Gunn’s soundtrack-based humor, which was most famously codified in the Guardians of the Galaxy’s “Awesome Mix” cassettes. Going the extra mile, Gunn co-pens the theme tune for a fictional pop punk band, The Mighty Crabjoys. Lane teases Superman for remaining loyal to the mainstream, radio-friendly “punk rock” Crabjoys, but Clark protests “maybe kindness is the REAL punk rock.”

Portrait of a Man of Steel, circa 1977 © Aidan Moyer

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the Superman soundtrack emerges at the last minute, before the end credits scrawl. Contended and victorious, the Man of Tomorrow gazes up at a video montage of his adopted Earth parents. Cue “Punkrocker,” an obscure cut by Swedish duo Teddybears featuring an Iggy Pop vocal. Though Iggy may seem an odd fit for the clean-cut “Big, Blue Boy Scout,” he sings:

I listen to the music with no fear
You can hear it too if you’re sincere
‘Cause I’m a punk rocker, yes, I am
Well, I’m a punk rocker, yes, I am

Superman is nothing if not sincere. An icon has been reinvented once again for a fresh audience, with heart, visual panache and a score embedded in the character’s history. That is “the real punk rock.”

The Superman soundtrack is now streaming on Warner Bros. Records.

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