Superman has been a beacon of hope in stories for as long as some people can remember. From the illustrations created by Jerry Siegel, the first screen adaptation performed by Christopher Reeve and now to the newest actor to don the “S” crest, David Corenswet.

July 2025 brought an unforgettable year of movies, many in the movie world calling the month period the “Super Fantastic World” due to three big movie releases in the month of July. Jurassic World: Rebirth was released on July 2. Superman (2025) was released on July 11 and the final MCU film of the year, Fantastic Four: First Steps, was released on July 25. This movie theater event was one of the unforgettable moments that made fans, like myself, incredibly happy to be living in such a time where Superman was being given the movie treatment he deserves.

Superman (2025) introduces Clark Kent, the alias of Superman, to the newly developing DCU or DC Cinematic Universe. James Gunn and Peter Safryn in 2022 “have been tapped to lead DC’s film, TV and animation efforts as co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios, a newly formed division at Warner Bros. that will replace DC Films.” (The Hollywood Reporter) With this replacement, James Gunn  released the plans for the first chapter of DC named “Gods and Monsters” in a Youtube video back in Nov 2022. This chapter of the DCU would be kicking off the universe with Superman.

With the announcement of a new Superman film comes fan castings. Some of my personal picks were for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jacob Elordi and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Once the reveal of David Corenswet came to the internet, I was surprised by the pick but optimistic of the opportunity. I had seen him in the films Pearl and Twisters and been very pleasantly surprised by his performances. This gave me hope for the role of Superman he was about to don. 

I had the pleasure of seeing the Superman film early thanks to Amazon Prime and the work my friends and I have done with our podcast, so I was able to see the film the Tuesday before the Friday release. When I was in the IMAX theater with so many other fans of superheroes and Superman, this movie was breathtaking through and through. David Corenswet gave one of the best comic book movie performances of all time, and I believe through one film has already cemented himself as arguably the best Superman actor. Christopher Reeve is always going to be the blueprint for the character of Superman; however, Corenswet has taken the character to a whole new level. His chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane is amazing and truly shows the different and wondrous love they share, along with showing the very human side of Superman although he is an alien.

When it comes down to other Superman adaptations, the main argument for many is Man of Steel from Zack Snyder, with Henry Cavill donning the “S” crest. I argue against this movie and what it puts Superman out to be as a person because of two major actions. The first is how Pa Kent, played by Kevin Costner in the film, is dealt with. His death in many of the comic adaptations is that he dies of a heart attack, which teaches Superman that he cannot save everyone from everything, that there are factors of death even the mighty Superman cannot defend. 

In Man of Steel, Pa Kent dies from a tornado because Pa does not want Clark to give up his identity as Superman. In my opinion, this ruins the character of Superman because it still fails to teach him that he cannot save everyone. Pa Kent can be saved from a tornado by Clark, but they just did not want him to. This then leads to the major plot fight at the end of the movie between General Zod and Superman. Happening in the city of Metropolis, the fight collapses buildings and clearly has victims. 

In an interview after the film was released, Snyder said, “Probably 5,000 people or something like that,” when asked how many deaths occurred in the fight. “I mean I imagine. That’s a horrible thing to say. You don’t want to put numbers on it. But you had to imagine that there were people in these buildings and we did.”(ComicBook) This shows how dark Cavill’s Superman ended up being, which is nothing like the character created by Siegel. He is a beacon of hope, making an effort to save everyone, not a ravaging monster that cares only to kill the bad guy.

With this newest perspective of Superman this past summer, I think it is safe to say that Corenswet is the best Superman we have had and will continue to impress in an already announced sequel, “Man of Tomorrow,” releasing July 9, 2027.