DeConick A.D

78
SUPERPOWERS AND MONSTERS
Figure 3.1 Kal-El (Henry Cavill), also known as Superman, in Man of Steel (2013).
until a time comes when it is necessary to use them to save the world. He
is convinced that Clark’s real father sent him to earth for a reason, and
that Clark needs to find out what that reason is.
David Goyer and Christopher Nolan’s 2013 remake of the legendary
DC Comics story about Superman, Man of Steel , plays with trope of the
Gnostic incognito superpower, resident of an alien world, sent to save us.
In this film, Superman is not just Clark Kent hiding behind big, darkrimmed
glasses, as he is in the comic book and earlier movies. In fact,
Clark doesn’t don these glasses until the last scene in the film, when he
walks into the Daily Planet in his new reporter disguise.
Rather, throughout the film, we have watched Clark constantly disguise
himself in jobs that are “out of sight”—as a fisherman on a small
boat in the ocean, as a bartender in a loggers’ joint, as a bag handler in
the Canadian wilderness. When Lois Lane gets wind of him and wants to
track him down, she wonders how she is ever going to find someone who
has spent his lifetime covering his tracks. Little does she know that Clark
is a god hiding among us.
Eventually, Clark is found out when he ignites a Krypton distress beacon
by accident. This is how General Zod and his militia, fascist monsters
from Krypton, find Clark and begin their plan to terraform the earth.
They plan to remake the earth as Krypton, using Clark’s DNA. But to do
this, Zod first has to kill Clark. Clark’s physical powers incredibly match
his own, making this a tough job. Clark is faster than a speeding bul-