“It’s about politics”: New “Superman” film draws Israel-Palestine comparisons on social media

The latest Superman film was even more political than many were expecting, and it’s rattling opinion-havers across the internet. The easy comparisons between its plot and the war in Gaza angered those from the center to the right, while leftists are rediscovering their love of this immigrant superhero.

The Boravia-Jarhanpur conflict

After its release on Friday, the plot of Superman soon drew comparisons to the real-life war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian region of Gaza. In the film, the hero stops Boravia—a fictional U.S. ally—from invading the neighboring Jarhanpur. Billionaire villain Lex Luthor, meanwhile, assures the U.S. government that he can take Superman down.

Luthor also uses Superman’s literal alien status to turn public sentiment against him.

The film portrays the nation of Boravia as having genocidal intent against the people of Jarhanpur, mirroring the image that Israel has among many leftists and other supporters of Palestine. This, plus the pro-immigrant message, didn’t poll well among the right.

Right-wing movie lovers have long decried anything that smacks of a lefty message as “too political” or “pandering to the left.” Especially when it comes to fun action films such as those in the superhero genre, they claim they don’t want any politics involved. However, they had no reason to suspect this Superman flick would be apolitical.

In a July 4 interview with the Times of London, director James Gunn made it clear.

“Yes, it’s about politics,” he stated.

He went on to claim that the plot is not an allusion to any current real-world conflict, but some may find his description familiar.

“It’s an invasion by a much more powerful country run by a despot into a country that’s problematic in terms of its political history, but has totally no defence against the other country.”

“Praying for Boravia”

Right-wing social media influencers leapt to declare a boycott of the new film. Ben Shapiro himself did watch it, but promised a negative review with a photo that begged to become a Photoshop meme.

“Not. Good,” he wrote. “Review coming soon.”

As the right complains, the left is, as per usual, enjoying their pain. Many rubbed the film’s $122 million opening weekend in some choice faces.

“Sure seems like going woke does not make you go broke,” said @esjesjesj.

The main theme on leftist social media right now, however, explicitly targets Israel and its supporters. Post after post directly compared the fictional nations to Israel and Palestine and reveled in the movie’s alleged message.

Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement

On X, user @pekennenino asked angry Israeli viewers, “So you agree? You agree that Boravia, a fictional country committing a genocide funded by the US and attempting to take over another country, represents what Israel is doing to Palestine?”

And over on r/Israel on Reddit, there appears to be quite a conversation happening about it all.