Veteran DC Writer Breaks Down What James Gunn’s Superman Gets Wrong

It may have won over critics and crowds, but DC veteran Grant Morrison says James Gunn’s 2025 Superman still falls short, detailing where the David Corenswet–led reboot inspired by All-Star Superman misses the mark.

James Gunn's 2025 Superman landed big with critics and audiences, but not everyone walked out fully sold. Grant Morrison - who wrote the 12-issue All-Star Superman and helped define the modern vibe a lot of fans associate with the character - had praise, and a few sharp elbows, for Gunn's first DCU swing.

What Morrison liked, and what stuck in his teeth

Morrison, a veteran DC writer who knows the cape inside and out, called it the high-water mark for the character on the big screen, even while flagging some choices that did not sit right.

"The best Superman movie yet."

He also said it came closest to capturing how Superman feels on the page. Then came the caveats.

• Too much 'Superman gets pummeled' to make him relatable. Morrison wants to see him push back, not just take hits.
• A hard left turn on his origin that leans more 'raised to conquer' than 'last son of a fallen world' - a choice Morrison flat-out dislikes.
• At times, he felt the character's moral center came off wobbly, veering into wish-fulfillment nonsense, before righting the ship by the finale.

On the first point, Morrison did not mince words about watching Clark eat punches all movie.

"In order to make him seem more relatable, he had him getting beaten up an awful lot. I want to see him stop getting beaten up and fight back."

The Krypton curveball

The biggest sticking point was the origin update. Unlike the classic comics version, Gunn's movie frames Kal-El's launch to Earth as part of a plan from his Kryptonian parents - a setup that points him toward conquest before he chooses a different path. It is a bold swing, and Morrison was not into it.

"I didn't like it because I prefer it when Krypton's this lost utopia."

For him, the tragedy of Krypton works best when an extraordinary civilization gets wiped out by forces it did not control - and, yes, by its own blind spots - not when the baby rocket doubles as a Trojan horse. He also admitted the change made Superman's morality feel a little fragile in places, which almost upset him.

The ending that won him back

What did work for Morrison was where Superman ends up. The climactic monologue to a battered Lex Luthor - played with smug glee by Nicholas Hoult - reassured him that Gunn's take still knows the heart of the character. Morrison worried the film might push Clark off his compass; it did not. That mattered.

What is next

Gunn, now steering DC's film slate as co-CEO and the director of this first chapter, is moving ahead with a follow-up. The next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow, is currently aiming for July 9, 2027.