James Gunn’s “Superman”, which released July 11th of this year starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent , brought new life to the ever iconic story of a man who has his heart set on justice.

Superheroes are known for their status as role models, whether it be within their fictional worlds or in real life. Your average everyday hero might be a firefighter, or a nurse, someone selfless who puts others before themselves. People like this are exceedingly important, fictional or not, as violence and hate are at an all-time high. The public, and the youth specifically, need someone to look up to in hard times such as these, someone who will encourage you to keep your heart soft in a world that relentlessly attempts to harden it.

 For the people of Metropolis, Superman is a beacon of hope. When faced with intergalactic foes or evil billionaires, Clark Kent is willing to risk it all to even save a squirrel. He is kindhearted to a fault and even sometimes claimed to be reckless in his pursuit of justice;

One of the biggest events that happens in the film, the fictional country of Jarhanpur is being attacked by a more powerful, U.S backed, neighboring country called Boravia. 

Quay Rodriguez, seventeen year old student of Surratsville highschool,  taking a very similar stance to character Lois Lane, played by Rachel Brosnahan,  feels as though Superman’s methods of protecting said country could have very well done more harm than good.

Claiming that interfering with an ongoing war was “pretty naive of him”, and that if he wasn’t careful he could’ve “caused a whole new war just from that.”

So, is Superman still capable of being the hero he presents himself as? If he isn’t taking the proper meassures, or thinking his actions through?

Themes such as these were covered within the film, the age-old moral debate of doing something and making a situation worse, or stifling with the fact you could’ve acted and neglected to. Kent argues these logistics with Lane quite passionately , but at the heart of his opposition he only cared about one thing. People were going to die. He couldn’t stand knowingly leaving innocent men, women and children to be massacred when he knew he was capable of aiding them, no matter the political or legal ramifications. 

This innate recklesness shows us the raw emotion and passion that Superman feels,  not only for his city, but his planet. His human nature only furthers his ability to have empathy and truly care for others, a true hero.