Ever since the trailer was released, online debates have raged about whether the new Superman (played by David Corenswet) is too "woke", said Nicholas Barber on the BBC. The superhero is known as the "ultimate all-American Mr Nice Guy" these days, but it hasn't always been this way.

It’s been almost 50 years since Christopher Reeve starred in “Superman,” the 1978 movie that opened what is now an endless spigot of superhero movies. It didn’t invent the tropes of messiah-like figures with supernatural powers or the building of elaborate on-screen worlds only to reduce them to apocalyptic rubble,