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Why Snyder’s Superman Speaks the Same Language as the Dark Legacy Series (and Why Gunn’s Doesn’t)
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Warlock Judas Lakayre to Sam Talbot
“Just because it can be done easier doesn’t mean it should be.”
In this Founder’s post we’re going to be diving into the world of cinema and how it relates to my staple series: the Dark Legacy Series. The brimstones are calling for no mercy, just blood, and we’ve got to feed them.
This isn’t a film debate. I’m here to tell you the clear winner, and why the other one is clearly the wrong answer. Again, this is how it relates to the Dark Legacy Series. You could call it an autopsy of tone and intention. If you liked one or the other or even both, great. That’s not what we’re discussing. So, strap in.
People have asked me which Superman I prefer. That answer’s fairly easy: the one who knows he’s damned if he acts, and damned if he doesn’t. The one who kills a god to save a family. With his back against the wall, the narration built with no way out, it forces Superman to bear the cost of being a savior, even at the cost of his own soul.
A lot of people were miffed when Henry Cavill’s Superman killed Zod. I wasn’t. I understood the dynamic at hand. There’s about to be a butt-load of people getting miffed. “Well, Superman doesn’t kill!”
My interpretation of the film, the origin of the story, wasn’t that Superman doesn’t kill; it’s that he wasn’t Superman yet. To me, I looked at it as a defining moment in his life, and maybe because of this, he never kills again. He hadn’t become the boy scout we know: “Truth, justice, and the American way.” He was beginning to. But more than all of that, there was the anguished cry at the end. This, dear viewer, was the realization of what the choice cost him, and it shows in a breathtaking moment.
And it hit hard.
So, let’s take a closer look at Man of Steel vs. Gunn’s Superman, and how it hits the Four Pillars of my storytelling. In case you’ve forgotten, go see the post: Inside the Mind of a Dark Fantasy Author | The Hidden Architecture posted on 11/20/25.