So much of conservative peacocking is about trying to make something out of nothing. Attacking immigrants, the trans community, and people of color is always couched in some insane narrative that isn’t supported by facts. They make false equivalencies, fire off ludicrous accusations, and occasionally laugh as they spew bullshit most of them know isn’t true. Sometimes, they get so caught up in scoring points on whatever “hot-button” issue they’re parroting, they don’t even realize that they’ve undercut it in the next breath. That was certainly the case with Dean Cain’s recent comments about James Gunn’s Superman.
Cain went after the new film in a new interview with TMZ, but still held back. Most conservative figures ran headfirst into criticizing the new film because Gunn, as Mike so eloquently put it, “played [them] like a fiddle.” Gunn stated in an interview that the story of his new film is about an immigrant in America, with a focus on basic human kindness. Given the reaction, you’d think Gunn straight up said that Superman would chair the DNC. All he did was point out basic tenets of the character, something Cain admits, but he still has to get them CPAC points.
“What cracks me up is that people don’t like Superman — he was traditionally called the Big Blue Boy Scout. And Superman’s inherent weakness is his goodness,” Cain, who once threatened a child, explained to TMZ via a grainy laptop video (get a better camera, Dean). “I mean, sorry, those are great values, in my opinion, and I root for that.” Whoa whoa whoa, everybody, watch out! Dean Cain thinks that goodness is a good quality. You’d think that would put him on board with Gunn’s new film, since it’s about human kindness. Not so fast! The Media machine is in full spin, and Cain can’t make all his money off of low-budget Christian films that don’t have Wikipedia pages.
Anne Watters’ least favorite son, Jesse, made a joke on FOX News this week about Warner Bros putting MS-13 on Superman’s cape because all immigrants are criminals in their eyes. That isn’t even an exaggeration. That’s how they push that issue. So, if a beloved character is identified as such, they have to get all pissy (again, Gunn played them hard). But, as Cain sees it, Watters was simply saying that Warner Bros was doing something they weren’t. “How woke is Hollywood going to make this character?” he asked before pivoting further. “How much is Disney going to change their Snow White? Why are they going to change these characters [to] exist for the times?”
The thing is that James Gunn isn’t changing Superman to match the times. That is, technically, what Zack Snyder did. Gunn is presenting a Supes that feels perfectly in line with the character’s history, but, because he isn’t explicitly presenting his ideals as American, Cain can’t take it. “Changing beloved characters, I don’t think, is a great idea. I think if you wanna create a new character, go ahead and do that, but for me, Superman has always stood for truth, justice, and the American way,” he explained before stepping on his argument. “And the American way is immigrant-friendly — tremendously immigrant-friendly, but there are rules.” That’s a pretty big “but,” Dean.
You can’t say a country is immigrant-friendly when they’re rounding up immigrants (and citizens) with a secret police force and disappearing them to countries where they may be hurt or killed. What’s worse is that Cain then argues, in no uncertain terms, that immigrants should go back to or stay in the country they’re from. It’s the opposite of what he claims Superman is, but even he can’t keep up with his own hypocrisy. Still, he stops short of burning that Warner Bros. bridge, because Cain is still dining out on the few years he played Superman, and he doesn’t want that gravy train drying up.
The God’s Not Dead star, who doesn’t want movies to be too preachy, claimed, “It was a mistake by James Gunn to say it’s an immigrant thing,” and that it may hurt the box office, which is dumb as hell. “I was excited for the film. I’m [still] excited to see what it is, because James Gunn seems to have a sense of humor, and the last iterations of Superman didn’t have much humor. So I’m rooting for it to be a success, but I don’t like that last political comment.” He may as well have said, “I need to keep booking these OAN interviews, but I also want to keep working comic conventions with other Superman actors and possibly return to play an alternate version of myself.”
He could go scorched Earth if he wanted to, but the dude was in Supergirl like eight years ago, and it isn’t like his shitty opinions sprang up overnight. Gunn can’t stop him from doing comic conventions, but he can certainly keep him at arm’s length regarding retrospectives and the like. So, Cain doesn’t want to step on any toes too much, and I guarantee that, if this film is a box office success, he and the conservative mediasphere will claim they liked it all along or some such nonsense. Then they’ll tell us how people who dye their hair want to steal your children.
