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The new Superman trailer has an interesting opening that anime fans were very quick to jump on. The very first thing we see is Superman plummeting out of the sky, crashing into the icy expanse of what we can assume is the Arctic.
The Man of Steel comes to rest in a small crafter of his own making, curled up on his side in what Dragon Ball Z fans will recognize as the Yamcha pose. This is a somewhat famous and highly memed pose that a defeated Yamcha ended up in after getting killed by a Saibaman in the incredibly popular Dragon Ball Z anime. The Saibamen were strange, humanoid creatures that grew from seeds and were used by early antagonist Vegeta to check the power levels of the defenders of Earth and give them a challenge before deciding if they were worth fighting himself.
The reason the pose grew to become such a meme is that it was used to signify failure after attempting something practically impossible. Defeat was not just a possibility but almost a certainty for the person in question, and usually through some fault of their own.
Now, realistically, you could argue that Superman fell in that pose for the same reason that Yamcha was animated that way in the first place; there are only so many ways for a body to fall that can retain any mystery. Lying on your back is too comic, while lying on your face lacks dignity, so on your side it is. This also allows cameras or animators to do slow reveals on the extent of injuries and exactly what kind of shape the character is in.
This is exactly what happens in the Superman trailer, as we get to see the Man of Steel fall, the slow reveal that this film’s hero does, in fact, bleed, and then the arrival of his caped canine friend to help. It’s disarming, showing that Supes will be taking on some major challenges in the show. Of course, writer and director James Gunn could also be very much aware of exactly what it is he is signaling to potential fans, and it might be a very conscious choice to echo Yamcha’s failure to a generation of people who know exactly what that means.
A common criticism levied against Superman as a character is that he is just too strong. The Son of Krypton can basically do it all, and anyone familiar with the world of comics will be aware that while this problem, and the ridiculous power and threat scaling required to keep things interesting, is common for many heroes, Superman, in particular, is haunted by it as a character. When you, in essence, are a god, it takes another god to harm you, after all. So showing us early that this Superman, while not an origin story, is still establishing himself, is a great selling point for fans.
There is one other reason why Superman might have struck the iconic pose. Perhaps Gunn has used it as an expression of his own situation, as he has opened up about feeling a lot of psychological stress while working on the project. With the potential for a whole new cinematic universe riding on how this film is received, it’s easy to understand even Gunn, who has proven to be something a comic-book movie miracle worker, might be feeling the heat.