DC Confirms the Comic Book Stories That Inspired James Gunn’s Superman Movie

James Gunn’s Superman movie pays homage to dozens of the legendary creators who contributed to the Man of Steel’s 87-year history in comics. From writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), to prolific penciler Curt Swan (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen) and DC Comics publisher and artist Jim Lee (Justice League), there are a number of Easter eggs for the Eagle-eyed super-fan to spot. But there are three titles in particular that influenced the previously-titled Superman: Legacy: 2005’s All Star Superman, 1998’s Superman For All Seasons, and 2005’s Lex Luthor: Man of Steel.

Issues from All Star Superman (a 12-issue miniseries by Batman and Robin dynamic duo Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely), Superman For All Seasons (a four-issue limited series by Batman: The Long Halloween collaborators Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale), and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (a five-issue limited series from Joker scribe Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo) are collected together for the first time in DC Comics Presents Superman: The Official Comic Book Stories That Inspired the New Movie.

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Borrowing its name from the Superman-fronted title DC Comics Presents and featuring a cover by fan-favorite artist Dan Mora (Batman/Superman: World’s Finest) paying homage to Superman’s first appearance in 1938’s Action Comics #1, the limited-edition collectible magazine contains All Star Superman #1, Superman For All Seasons #1, and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #1. Each issue is accompanied by an introduction explaining how that comic book story influenced the new movie.

All Star Superman

Gunn has long cited the timeless All Star as the biggest influence on Superman, with the 12 issues (referred to as “episodes”) recounting Superman’s legendary twelve labors. The book featurs the likes of Krypto the Superdog, cape-clad Superman Robots attending to the Fortress of Solitude, Lex Luthor, and a kaiju-esque monster that attacks Metropolis — all elements that appear in the new movie.

“There’s a couple of [influences], but All Star Superman is the thing that we borrow the most heavily from,” Gunn told ComicBook and other outlets during a press event for the Superman trailer premiere. “Our plot has nothing to do with All Star Superman, but some of the aesthetics of what Grant wrote and what Frank drew were incredibly influential.”

“They also had that sort of science fiction, and the idea of Lex as a mad science sorcerer, almost. You know, science is his own sort of sorcery,” Gunn continued. “And the giant monsters and the threats and all of that, the Silver Age look through a green lens. I think a lot of that was taken from All Star Superman, and that was my biggest one, for sure. Also my favorite.”

Superman For All Seasons

All Star Superman and Superman for All Seasons are also collected in The Superman Box Set releasing in August, which is adorned with a movie-style Superman logo and collects “some of Superman’s greatest and most influential tales,” including Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (by Alan Moore and Curt Swan) and Kingdom Come (by Waid and Ross).

Taking place over the course of four seasons in Superman’s life, All Seasons chronicles the Last Son of Krypton’s humble beginnings as a farm boy raised in Smallville, Kansas, who becomes the mythic Man of Steel of Metropolis. The four issues are told from four unique perspectives — Pa Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang — but For All Seasons is, ultimately, a story about how it’s the person, not the powers, that makes Superman a hero.

Lex Luthor: Man of Steel

Originally released as Lex Luthor: Man of Steel before being collected as Luthor for DC’s Black Label imprint intended for mature readers, the five-issue series is told entirely from Luthor’s point of view. When Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor refers to David Corenswet’s Man of Steel as an “it” in the latest Superman trailer, it’s a line inspired by Luthor: “He’s not a man,” Lex says while scholding his right-hand woman, LexCorp employee Mona.

Believing Superman to be dangerous and an affront to humanity, Lex refers to Superman as “it” again in conversation with Wayne Industries’ Bruce Wayne. “It isn’t natural,” Lex says, adding that the name “Superman” is a name “we gave him, an attempt to humanize him — as pointless as naming a hurricane.” Whereas All Star Superman and Superman For All Seasons are about humanizing the Man of Steel — not as a god-like alien, but a farm boy from Kansas — Luthor is about dehumanizing the glowing red-eyed alien as an “it,” and it’s science, not Superman, that humanity must strive toward for a better tomorrow.

As his answer to Superman, Lex engineers a new superheroine he calls Hope, a lab-grown android who appears to have inspired the role filled by María Gabriela de Faría’s character — Angela Spica, a.k.a. the Engineer of The Authority, known for her nanotech-based liquid machinery biology — in Superman.

DC Studios’ Superman — starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. — is only in theaters July 11.