Superman is on the cusp of greatness, and DC is taking advantage of that. Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is the kind of book that is perfect for new fans of the character and those of us who have followed Superman for decades. The story sees a mysterious alien invasion blitz the Earth, with Superman captured and put into mental trap, one where he’s shown a version of his life without Superman. One of the earlier scenes in this fake world takes place in Smallville, and it shows the Kent family, along with Clark’s friends Lana Lang, Pete Ross, and Lex Luthor, go through a terrible tragedy — the death of Pa Kent. The scene is partly familiar, though, as Jonathan Kent is killed by a tornado that hits the Kent farm.
This is highly reminiscent of Man of Steel‘s most controversial scene. Man of Steel has become a huge bone of contention among Superman and DC fans. Some people love the DCEU’s conception of Superman, others think it was nothing like the character they grew to love over their lifetime. Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is Superman perfection — and honestly nothing like the DCEU Superman of the Snyder movies — so it’s interesting they remixed this particular scene.
The Death of Jon Kent in the DCEU Was the Icing on Man of Steel‘s Terrible portrayal of Superman’s Adopted Father
Fans of Superman comics have a lot of problems with Man of Steel, but the biggest has always been Jonathan Kent. In the comics, Jonathan taught Superman to help others, to use his powers to make the world a better place. In Man of Steel, Jonathan Kent taught his son to hide his powers from the world as a way to protect Clark from the attentions of those who would want to use him. These two versions of Jonathan Kent are completely different and the latter’s death is honestly one of the dumbest moments in cinematic Superman history for a variety of reasons. As a tornado bears down on a bus full of kids, Jonathan tells his son to escape, believing that there would be no way Clark would be able to keep his anonymity if he used his powers to save everyone. This is one of the more asinine moments in the history of Zack Snyder’s movies, as even Clark could have easily moved so fast that no one saw him while still saving everyone. Jonathan Kent’s “sacrifice” in Man of Steel completely misses the point of every other Jonathan Kent death in Superman media. The reason Jonathan usually dies of a heart attack is to teach Superman that he can’t save everyone. Jonathan’s death in Man of Steel is an emotionally manipulative moment scene that misses that point entirely and makes no sense as it pertains to Superman. Jonathan’s death in Man of Steel is literally stupid — a scene that is completely deficient in any kind of intelligence.
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 takes several aspects of the Man of Steel scene and uses them in a new way. Superman is in a trap where telepaths are keeping him in a fake world so he won’t help the other heroes stop the attack on the Earth. This Clark Kent has no powers, and when the tornado comes, he’s powerless to do anything but follow everyone down into the storm shelter. Jonathan is last one out there; while everyone else gets into the storm shelter thanks to his warning, he himself can’t make it. He saved Martha, Clark, Pete, Lana, and Lex because of his quick thinking, but can’t save himself. While it uses ideas from the terrible Man of Steel death of Jonathan, it actually hits the same notes as one of Jonathan’s deaths by heart attack — a death that Clark can’t stop and feels somewhat responsible for because he couldn’t stop it. It’s a sad moment in a comic that finds a way to use every aspect of Superman as a character to inform its story. It does everything Jonathan’s death in Man of Steel thought it was doing and it does it showing the kind of person that Jonathan Kent is — a man who is willing to do anything, including sacrifice himself, to keep his family safe.
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 Does Everything That the Man of Steel Didn’t
As a long time Superman fan, I wanted to like Man of Steel, but the amount of things that it got wrong about the Superman mythos was much greater than the fans who liked to say it was comic accurate (who usually have never read comics and are only fans of Snyder’s DC) imagine. Jonathan Kent’s death was one of those perplexing moments from the movie, because it was so unlike any other Jonathan Kent out there. It remains the worst scene in a movie that did a lot of damage to the conception of Superman in pop culture.
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 takes the basic ingredients of the Man of Steel scene — a tornado, people in danger, and Jonathan Kent — and remixes them. Instead of being one of the least intelligently written scenes in a movie full of them (remember when Superman flew over the tanker truck and let it explode as it hit a building full of civilians?), it uses the same factors to create a story that not only has emotional resonance, but still finds a way to teach Clark an important lesson — that he can’t save anyone.
Superman Treasury 2025: Hero for All #1 is on sale now.
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