‘Superman’ Too Woke? MAGA Would Have Hated the First Man of Steel Movie, Too

Even before James Gunn’s “Superman” flew in to multiplexes and made a handsome $125 million at the domestic box office, conservative pundits were mad about it.

“We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us.” That was Kellyanne Conway talking to Fox News, a network whose whole business model is lecturing and throwing their ideology onto people. Apparently they don’t know much about Superman. Or irony.

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Conway and her MAGA ilk, many of whom have expressed consternation and wrung their hands over Gunn’s so-called “woke” version of Superman, are entitled to their opinions. They are allowed to dislike and even hate Gunn’s take on the character. They have every right to disagree with Superman’s ethos that all human beings should be treated equally and that every living creature on the planet matters (even the squirrels).

But I’ll be gosh darned if I’m going to stand by and let those folks rewrite history. Superman has been “woke” (translation: not racist) since the very beginning. He was an undocumented immigrant in this country on the very first page of the very first Superman comic. Superman fought the Ku Klux Klan in a hit radio series way back in 1946, as part of a heavily-researched 16-part serial called “Clan of the Fiery Cross,” which exposed and decried the white supremacist hate group. That serial later inspired the award-winning miniseries “Superman Smashes the Klan” by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru.

“Superman Smashes the Klan” (Credit: DC Comics)

Superman’s stories haven’t always lived up to the character’s ideals — one episode of the early 1940s Max Fleischer cartoon series was named (sorry, we can’t change history) “Japoteurs,” and includes extremely racist caricatures — but they’ve almost always tried to stand for actual truth, actual justice, and if not the actual American way, then at least an optimistic interpretation of it.

If you need more proof, I suggest watching the first-ever Superman feature film, “Superman and the Mole Men,” released in 1951. Superman had already appeared in live-action serials, radio dramas, cartoons and (of course) comics, but “Superman and the Mole-Men” was his first standalone, full-length feature adventure, coming in at a whopping 58 minutes. (Which is brisk, even for the time, but according to the Oscar rules, to this day, it still counts as “feature-length.”)

“Superman and the Mole-Man” is what we’d now call a “backdoor pilot,” a demo for a potential TV series which, even if that series never got picked up, could be released on its own to make the producers’ money back. It worked. “Adventures of Superman” debuted one year later and ran for six seasons. George Reeves stars as the title character — Superman, not the Mole Men — and would go on to star in the hit television show, which ironically ruined his career (his life ended early and tragically). And who were his first live-action villains? They were the most dangerous creatures the filmmakers could think of: American citizens, who let fear and ignorance transform them into a racist lynch mob.

Phyllis Coates and George Reeves in “Superman and the Mole Men” (Credit: Lippert Pictures)

The plot of “Superman and the Mole Men” finds Clark Kent and Lois Lane investigating a mining company. The company claims to have set a world record, digging deeper into the Earth than anyone else in history. That’s how humanity first meets the title creatures.

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They’re a race of subterranean, short humanoids with male-pattern baldness. Or maybe they like wearing unconvincing bald caps (or possibly unflattering hats). These Mole Men crawl up from the ground and innocently explore small-town America, accidentally giving an old man a heart attack and terrifying everybody — except Superman and a young girl who hasn’t learned how to be racist yet.

Superman tries to protect the Mole Men and talk sense into the All-American lynch mob that’s gathered against them since their arrival. “I’m going to give you one last chance to stop acting like Nazi stormtroopers,” he shouts to the civilian mob. When the mob responds by firing a gun, nearly killing Lois Lane, Superman announces, “Obviously none of you can be trusted with guns. So I’m going to take them away from you.” (Do you think the NRA would approve?)

As for Lois Lane, played by Phyllis Coates, her character might actually appeal to the MAGA crowd in “Superman and the Mole Men.” Lois spends the whole film scolding Clark for interfering with a violent mob because “they know what they’re doing.” At one point, Superman has to prevent Lois from filing a story before they have all the facts, lecturing her about the importance of responsible reporting, and the dangers of news outlets stirring up a panic. (Sorry-not-sorry, Kellyanne Conway, but lectures have been part of Superman’s schtick from the beginning.) It’s not the most iconic version of Lois Lane, that’s for sure.

There’s one plot point that threatens to undermine the message of “Superman and the Mole Men.” The creatures come from the center of the Earth and everything they touch starts glowing. Maybe it’s deadly radium or maybe it’s “harmless phosphorescence,” but nobody knows for sure. It’s possible these undocumented visitors are infecting everything they touch, tainting America just by being there. When the Mole Men climb on top of the town reservoir, Superman warns the mob not to shoot them since their bodies could contaminate the water supply. The mob shoots anyway. (Bigots aren’t very bright.)

George Reeves in “Superman and the Mole Men” (Credit: Lippert Pictures)

Fortunately for everybody, in the film and the audience, we learn the Mole Men weren’t radioactive after all. As the little girl who befriended them points out, all they’ve actually done is make everything prettier. In exchange, Americans shot them, tried to burn them alive and when Superman brought a wounded Mole Man to the hospital, most of the staff refused to even treat their wounds — an unmistakable allegory for the ignorance and evils of segregation.

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“Superman and the Mole Men” isn’t a particularly exciting movie. It’s competently presented, not thrillingly filmed. Superman is never even challenged physically. But like James Gunn’s film, the point is that Superman is challenged morally. He tries to do the right thing in a world populated by people who, by intention or ignorance, are determined to do wrong. That’s what makes “Mole Men” resonate, even though it’s arguably the least entertaining film in the “Superman” franchise.

Superman has been woke — or proudly and publicly opposed to bigotry — longer than most of the MAGA pundits complaining about this new movie have been alive. These folks may bemoan the fact that Superman spends all his time saving people instead of stripping them of their human rights and tossing them into extra-judicial, inhumane concentration camps, a la Lex Luthor. But they don’t get to pretend that Superman was always on their side until now.

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