Yes, Superman is an immigrant – it's a crucial part of his myth

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Gunn explained his core approach for the new film: "Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost."

For most people interested in Superman, Gunn’s comment would be an encouraging and, indeed, comforting sign that he knew what he was dealing with and was treating an American icon with due respect and care.

However, for former Superman Dean Cain, Gunn’s mere mention of ‘the I-word’ in relation to The Man of Steel was a grave sign of the film being tainted by politics and, worse, the dreaded spectre of ‘wokeness’.

"How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?" Cain fretted to TMZ. "I think that was a mistake by James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing, and I think it’s going to hurt the numbers on the movie. I was excited for the film. I am excited to see what it is… I’m rooting for it to be a success, but I don’t like that last political comment."

Cain, who played the Man of Steel in the popular and fondly remembered TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman between 1993 and 1997, seemed prickly about the mere idea of this aspect of Superman’s identity being included in the film – "We know Superman is an immigrant – he’s a freaking alien" – but this is to downplay just how utterly central it is to the character.

For author Tom DeHaven, it was first and foremost on the list when considering the superhero’s appeal in his book Our Hero – Superman on Earth: "Superman is an immigrant, which gives him American cred instantly and automatically. But he’s also the ultimate immigrant. The Patron Saint of Immigrants.

"Superman didn’t just cross steppes and continents, borders and oceans to get here, he crossed the universe!"

It’s an element that was at the core of the character’s genesis in the 1930s. Superman’s teenage creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were the sons of European Jews who had travelled to America for the promise of a better and more prosperous life.

For author Glen Weldon, the pair’s decision to make Superman an immigrant – as well as an orphan – gave Superman "an emotional resonance" that other action heroes of the period lacked.

More crucially, according to Weldon, it made Superman into "the ultimate American". In his passage from the doomed planet Krypton to the idyllic plains of Kansas, Superman "arrived on a bright new shore, having propelled himself there by burning his own past as fuel".

"The Old World could no longer touch him and now it was left to him to forge his own path." He was explicitly emblematic of a dream experienced by millions.

Consequently, Superman’s devotion to his adopted home has habitually been foregrounded in various media iterations, as audiences entirely expect.

In Richard Donner’s seminal 1978 film, Christopher Reeve’s Superman states, with unshakeable earnestness, that "I’m here to fight for truth, justice and the American way".

Even in Zack Snyder’s notably darker and more dour Man of Steel, Henry Cavill’s hero tells a suspicious military commander that "I grew up in Kansas, general… I’m about as American as it gets".

It’s somewhat disheartening to see Cain, an effective and memorable temporary custodian of the character three decades ago, deem this core aspect of Superman to be a potential drag.

It’s odd, too: for all its small-screen limitations and goofiness, Cain’s Superman was a firmly traditional take on the character and, as many commentators swiftly pointed out, Cain’s show dealt with immigration in its final season, leading to a full-throated assertion of Superman’s Americanness.

If Cain was expecting Gunn’s film to feature a blunt, ham-fisted, cringeworthy pro-immigration sequence, he was surely disappointed. Having seen the film twice, the simple truth is that Gunn lightly peppers his film with this aspect, tactfully and engagingly.

In one scene, where a stricken Superman crashes into the streets of Metropolis, a falafel vendor climbs into the crater to help Superman up and out… one American helping a fellow American.

In his haste to pre-emptively cast doubt on this new film, Cain has perhaps wilfully ignored the compact that exists between Superman and his custodians – be they writers, artists, actors – best described by Scottish comics writer Grant Morrison in his book Supergods: "Generations of artists leave their interpretations, yet something persists, something that is always Superman.

"We have to adapt to his rules if we enter his world. We can never change him too much, or we lose what he is. There is a persistent set of characteristics that define Superman… and it’s that essential, unshakeable quality of Superman-ness the character possesses in every incarnation."

In other words: let Superman be Superman.

Superman is now showing in UK cinemas.

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