WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Future State: Batman/Superman #1 by Gene Luen Yang, Ben Oliver, Arif Prianto and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
It’s not often that someone can get the drop on Superman, but that’s exactly what happens at the end of Gene Luen Yang and Ben Oliver’s Future State: Batman Superman #1. When Superman heads to Gotham tracking down a new street drug, he tries to help one of its victims, but instead finds himself being attacked. And it’s a moment that brings to mind a similar scene from a Superman film many fans might not want to remember.
The drug known as the False Face Serum allows its users to temporarily take on the appearance on any animal. The drug originated in Gotham as a means to avoid facial recognition technology employed by The Magistrate, the city’s brutally oppressive police force. One of its users, a former college professor who’s gone into hiding and formed a new resistance group he calls the False Face Society, has taken the name Mr. Toad. After seemingly agreeing to allow Superman to help him, Mr. Toad reverts to his human form and, without warning, stabs Superman with a knife made from Kryptonite.
If Superman getting shivved with a Kryptonite blade sounds familiar, it’s because it’s happened to him before. In 2006’s Superman Returns, Superman, played by Brandon Routh, gets gored with a Kryptonite shard by Lex Luthor, played by Kevin Spacey. The moment takes place on Luthor’s newly formed Kryptonite-infused landmass, which had already greatly weakened the Man of Steel.
The scene was one of the more controversial moments in an already divisive movie. In the film, Superman returns to Earth after five years away, only to find Lois Lane, played by Kate Bosworth, has moved on from her fixation with Superman and started a family with her boss’ nephew Richard White, played by James Marsden. As it turns out, though, Richard isn’t the father of their son Jason, played by Tristan Lake Leabu, Superman is.
The film was panned for its characterizations of Superman as an unknowing deadbeat dad and his abandonment of a planet he’d sworn to defend. Luthor, likewise, was portrayed as overly serious and sadistic, and Superman’s takedown by him and his henchmen came across as excessively mean-spirited, rather than genuinely threatening. Superman’s eventual defeat of Luthor was marred by the seeming impossibility of the character’s ability to move a large mass of land infused with the same substance that had nearly just killed him.
Mr. Toad’s unexpected knifing of the Man of Steel in Future State: Batman/Superman #1 doesn’t carry that same sense of meanness, but it’s a surprisingly awkward moment nonetheless. There’s no indication that Mr. Toad would even pack a knife within the safety of his hideout, let alone one with a Kryptonite blade -- nor any explanation why he would have such a blade at the ready. Further evoking the comparison is the appearance of Mr. Toad in his human form -- his baldness and adornment in plain clothes make him appear little different from Luthor on one of Lexcorp’s casual Fridays.
It's not clear if the scene was an intended homage to the film, or merely superficially similar. But with Superman Returns largely left in the dust by way of 2013’s Man of Steel and subsequent DCEU projects, it’s a reminder of a movie that -- with the exception of Brandon Routh's turn as Superman -- is best left in the past.
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