Well that didn’t take long. Just hours after James Gunn unveiled the first image from his Superman film — the highly-anticipated kick-off to his tenure at the helm of the comic book studio, now rebranded as the DCU — parodies are flying in fast and furious (ooh, speaking of, someone should do a Vin Diesel one, pronto!).
The original image, posted by James Gunn on Threads with the caption “Get ready. Superman 7.11.25 @dcofficial” features Superman sitting in a chair putting on his signature red boots in what appears to be a high-story apartment building in Metropolis, as some sort of alien light show beam greets the skyline outside the window.
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Gunn released a follow-up message explaining “The above photo was taken on set by Jess Miglio and was entirely in-camera.”
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The “in camera” reference raised some eyebrows since that would mean no AI or editing was involved with the picture — a picture was simply taken of what was happening on set at the time. The question then becomes… how exactly is a giant pink laser beam emitting out of a jelly fish-looking object in real life?
Rather than answer that one, movie fans decided to use their own AI and editing tools to insert any and every character they could think of in place of Superman in the chair, generating parodies galore in a matter of hours.
Among the most popular spoofs as of Tuesday morning are one of Garfield the cat slumping lazily in the chair, and another of the horror alter-ego of Winnie the Pooh from his breakout slasher pic Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, in which the pooh bear is staring with his creepy dead eyes into camera with the caption “Ready for another deadtime story?”
But other inspired parodies are rolling in as we speak. Someone cleverly noticed the pink laser beam resembles Godzilla’s fire breath from the latest Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire film and added Godzilla to the background of the image.
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Yet another observant social media user noticed a striking similarity between the new Superman actor, David Corenswet, and Wicked Game singer Chris Isaak and decided to post a side-by-side pic of the two.
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There was also of course the requisite post of Superman now sitting in the infamous Game of Thrones chair.
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A Marvel fan, meanwhile, chose to poke fun at the MCU’s biggest rival by taking Superman out of his current dire situation and changing the backdrop to a Payless shoe store. It paints the superhero in a far more humbling light as he now just appears to be trying on discount boots, wondering “Do you have anything in a size 12?”
If you have your own Superman picture parody to add to the mix, best to get on it now, because the internet waits for no one! So get creative, and soon you too will have people saying “Look, up in the cloud, it’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s…” whatever AI image generator you think will garner the most views.
