While the DCEU is over and the DCU is carefully building out its mythology, director Zack Snyder has kept his past superhero universe fresh in the minds of his audience. The director has made a habit of sharing pictures from his past DC works on Instagram, providing interesting looks at the likes of Ben Affleck's Batman, Henry Cavill's Superman and Jared Leto's Joker.
Out of all the characters he's shared pictures of, Henry Caviil's Superman has seemingly been among his favorites. Now, the director has taken to social media once again to share another picture of the actor as the Last Son of Krypton from 2013's Man of Steel. The image shows Kal-El during the film's final battle, with the US flag behind him. Though the image is not new, Snyder shared it to commemorate Veterans Day.
The caption on his post read: "To those who stand for truth, justice and freedom—grateful today and every day. Thank you. #VeteransDay."
During production on Man of Steel, Collider sat down with Snyder for an interview. The director discussed what he perceived as Superman's "Americanism":
"You know, I think Superman, for me, I've been a big fan of the character, and honestly, I wasn't sure about this project before I talked to Chris Nolan about what he and David [Goyer] had come up with. So, I don't know. I think that I like the fact that Superman's American, you know? I think that that's cool. I know that in the past or in recent years, his Americanism, his Americanness has been a liability for him. But I think that there is an amazing amount of naïveté, and an amazing amount of, sort of... Superman could not be of any other nationality other than American because he's so naïve. [Laughs] But at the same time, he has this weird morality that actually makes him ideal superhero material. I don't know that he couldn't – you can't have a Superman that is reasoning."
Regarding the aesthetic of the image, though Man of Steel is ontroversial among comic book fans, it's curious to see how enduring its imagery has been. Man of Steel's costume design, special effects and cinematography created a distinctive visual identity for the film.
This allowed the project to stand out among other offerings in the comic book genre to such a degree that, even 12 years after its release, it continues to have an instantly recognizable aesthetic. This is specifically evident in Cavill's Superman costume, which perfectly encapsulates the visual language of the film. Speaking to Collider during the aforementioned interview, Snyder explained just how difficult it was to create Man of Steel's super suit:
"I have seen every possible version of that suit, versions with underwear, versions without underwear, but I'll say that we had versions without the red, without a cape, with a cape, everything you can imagine. Just to look, to see it. It's funny because the suit, it’s really all about, for me, it's all about like, sort of the squint test kinda concept. Like, it’s gotta be Superman [instantly]. [...] Well, what we kind of went with, I think in the end, is because we tried to explain a lot of the 'why' of it from a sort of logic standpoint, which is really difficult to do, you have to create like, a whole culture."
Man of Steel and Superman are both streaming on HBO Max.