James Gunn’s Superman avoids rehashing the Man of Steel’s origin story, instead opening with a simple round of on-screen exposition explaining that Kal-El arrived on Earth 30 years ago, and has been known as the most powerful superhero on the planet for the past three years. But the film’s intro also contains another detail that will shape the rebooted DC Universe in film and on TV: People in this setting have been aware of metahumans for 300 years.
Metahumans in DC Comics are normal humans with a special gene that can give them superpowers. Unlike Marvel’s mutants, who typically manifest their abilities during puberty, DC metahumans typically have to be exposed to some sort of extreme circumstance, like intense stress or dark matter. Gunn is using a broader definition of the term by making it apply to Superman, whose powers come from being a Kryptonian, and to pretty much anyone else with superpowers.
In Gunn’s DCU, metahumans are no longer a terrifying new phenomenon, and have become more like celebrities. But why set their debut 300 years ago? The most likely reason is he just liked the parallelism of everything in his pocket history of the world coming in threes, since the crawl also has Superman intervening in a war in Boravia three weeks ago, starting a relationship with Lois Lane three months ago, and losing his first fight three minutes ago. Still, the “300 years” framing has implications for which familiar DC metahumans are known to be active in this new setting.
How long have metahumans been around in DC Comics?
Metahumans go way back in DC Comics. The first one is the supervillain Vandal Savage, a prehistoric man who was exposed to a meteorite that made him immortal 50,000 years ago. He’s often been at odds with Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who in some versions of their story have been reincarnating since ancient Egypt. Superman’s Hawkgirl doesn’t get any backstory, so it’s unclear whether this version is reincarnated, an alien from the planet Thanagar, or something else entirely.
There are lots of other very old characters with superpowers in DC Comics. Black Adam also hails from ancient Egypt. Wonder Woman’s age isn’t especially clear, but her mom Hippolyta goes back to ancient Greece. Jason Blood has been around since the 6th century, when Merlin bound him to the demon Etrigan. Ra’s al Ghul dates back to the 13th century, staying young with the power of the Lazarus Pit.
The fact that metahumans have been common knowledge for 300 years in Gunn’s DCU doesn’t necessarily mean that none of these characters exist in this setting. Black Adam was imprisoned for 5,000 years before the beginning of Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2022 film, and Vandal Savage, Ra’s al Ghul, and Jason Blood all prefer to operate in the shadows. The Amazonian island Themyscira could remain hiding until the Wonder Woman movie Gunn says is in development.
Who were the first metahumans to appear in Gunn’s DCU?
It remains to be seen how metahumans revealed themselves to the world 300 years ago. The oldest ones Gunn has introduced to the DCU are Creature Commandos’ Eric Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein, who are about 200 years old. There aren’t any DC Comics stories set in the 18th century, unless you count the parts of The Sandman featuring Johanna Constantine. The 19th century introduces the Civil War veteran Jonah Hex and is the setting from the Elseworlds Gotham by Gaslight stories. DC Comics history really gets going in the 20th century. It seems like the 300-year mark gives Gunn the freedom to tell whatever story he wants, free from canon constraints. But as the DCU continues to unfold, we’ll see whether he has a specific hero or villain in mind to define that 300-year timeline.
