i was skimming thru all-star superman last night (a pretty regular ritual for me since i renewed my interest in big blue during the lead-up to his new movie) and i was caught off-guard by superman's line when he lands that final blow on luthor: "Brain beats brawn every time!"

in the context of all-star, it makes perfect sense; superman used his uncanny mind to think himself out of a tough spot and defeat his arch-foe (through classic comic book pseudoscience). in james gunn's superman, the same line is used when superman... remembers he can summon his dog to tear shit up? maybe that's a cynical reading of the scene on my part, but it speaks to how gunn would rather engage with the surface level 'weirdness' of all-star (and silver-age superman comics), rather than trying to figure out what actually made those stories work.

it's extra insulting when you remember the final issue of all-star began with a heart-to-heart conversation between superman and his birth father, and the treatment gunn gave to jor-el and lara in the film. zack snyder actually incorporated some of jor-el's lines into man of steel ('they will join you in the sun'), to greater effect than whatever gunn was doing. i'm not a big snyder guy, or a big man of steel guy, but i can appreciate that snyder was trying to portray superman as mythic, larger than life, etc.

basically i guess what i'm saying is i did not like the movie! i thought it was a big stinker! though i still enjoyed watching it in the theater, if that makes sense at all. anyways, on a more positive note, check out this awesome article by Austin English about the puzzle box logic that governed those silver-age superman tales: https://www.tcj.com/mort-weisingers-puzzle-comics/