When filmmaker James Gunn known as his new Superman movie an immigrant story, critics accused him of politicizing Superman. However you possibly can’t politicize the reality. Superman has been an “unlawful alien” for 87 years—a truth we helped America bear in mind once we launched our 2013 campaign, Superman Is an Immigrant.
In fact, we couldn’t have predicted Donald Trump—the person DC Comics literally used as their mannequin to reboot Lex Luthor in 1986—waging battle on the very immigrants Superman represents. In 2000, Luthor turned president within the comics, full with an anti-alien agenda. Nobody imagined the actual President Trump would observe the identical playbook.
Superman entered America with out papers, a child refugee fleeing a dying planet. Like numerous immigrants earlier than him, he modified his identify from the foreign-sounding (in his case, Hebrew) Kal-El to the anglicized Clark Kent. He realized new customs, balanced his heritage along with his adopted tradition, and used his distinctive talents to serve the nation that originally feared him.
This isn’t subtext—it’s textual content. Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, have been kids of Jewish immigrants who understood displacement intimately. In 1938, as Hitler rose to energy, they created a hero who embodied their American dream: somebody who may defend the weak as a result of he knew what it meant to be solid apart. Superman’s very essence springs from being what he known as “a universal outsider.” This outsider standing isn’t incidental to his heroism; it’s the supply of it. Those that have identified rejection develop into champions of acceptance. Those that have felt powerless battle for the defenseless.
At the moment, that outsider could be deported. In reality, with out birthright citizenship, Superman would by no means have existed in any respect. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, born in Cleveland to Jewish immigrant dad and mom, would have been stripped of citizenship and deported to Nazi-controlled Europe—to face sure loss of life in nations they’d by no means identified.
No Jerry and Joe means no Superman. No Superman means no superhero style. The kids of immigrants who adopted their lead—creating Batman, Captain America, Spider-Man, and no less than 90 p.c of all iconic superheroes—would have met the identical destiny. The trendy mythology that defines American widespread tradition worldwide: all erased.
Superman endures as a result of he represents one thing bigger than politics: the American paradox itself. We’re a nation constructed by the displaced—keen immigrants and unwilling slaves, refugees and dreamers, all orphaned from elsewhere. Superman, the final word orphan, transforms this shared wound into function, proving that our biggest power comes not from the place we’re born, however from what we select to develop into.
In 2013, our marketing campaign sparked a nationwide dialog via a easy selfie problem: People sharing their household immigration tales whereas declaring “Superman Is an Immigrant.” Critics inadvertently amplified our message—each time they mentioned the phrase to mock it, they strengthened the plain reality of it.
As Gunn’s movie opens and Trump’s deportation machine accelerates, that reality feels extra pressing than ever. Superman returns to theaters simply days after America’s last Fourth of July earlier than its 250th birthday. The query isn’t whether or not we’ll proceed celebrating our independence, however whether or not we’ll bear in mind what made us tremendous within the first place.
At Monday’s premiere, Gunn said, “This can be a film about kindness, and I feel that’s one thing everybody can relate to.” However media on the proper, the truth is, doesn’t appear capable of relate to this message of kindness. On Fox Information, Jesse Watters joked below a “Superwoke” chyron that Superman’s cape reads “MS-13” and questioned whether or not he’s “from Uganda.” The conservative outlet Outkick argued that America doesn’t have “to be ‘form’ simply because a fictional character from one other planet introduced some good to a fictional Earth,” and that “America is determined for apolitical leisure.”
Accusations of “politicizing” Superman come laughably late. Since 1938, Superman has outlined “the American Approach” via motion. In 1940, whereas the isolationist America First motion preached neutrality, Superman took on Adolf Hitler. In 1949, he spoke on to schoolchildren: “In case you hear anyone discuss in opposition to a schoolmate due to his faith, race, or nationwide origin—don’t wait: inform him THAT KIND OF TALK IS UN-AMERICAN.” He promoted vaccines, serving to fund the polio vaccine. He uncovered the Ku Klux Klan’s secrets and techniques on nationwide radio. When a gunman opens hearth on immigrants, blaming them for stealing his job, Superman blocks each bullet. He stood between peaceable protesters and riot police after Ferguson. After the homicide of George Floyd, he declared: “Desires save us. Desires raise us up and remodel us. And on my soul, I swear… till my dream of a world the place dignity, honor and justice turns into the fact all of us share — I’ll by no means cease preventing. Ever.”
Superman is America’s conscience sporting a cape—and that terrifies critics as a result of they’re supporting a real-life supervillain.
Our biggest superpower as a nation has all the time been our means to welcome the stranger and watch them soar. Like Superman himself, America attracts its power not from what it was born with, however from what it chooses to develop into—a spot the place the orphaned can discover dwelling, the place the powerless can uncover their energy, the place those that flee dying worlds may also help construct new ones.
In selecting concern over hope, partitions over welcome, we don’t simply betray Superman’s legacy—we abort our personal future. The true superheroes have all the time been immigrants. It’s time we began appearing like we consider it.
Andrew Slack is a story strategist who co-founded the Harry Potter Alliance, mobilizing over 1,000,000 followers worldwide for social justice. He writes about how historic and fashionable myths form democracy and is engaged on a e book exploring mythology’s position in American civic life.
Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and founding father of the immigrant storytelling non-profit Define American. An up to date version of his memoir, Expensive America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, for 2025 is now accessible.