The DC Universe’s Superman prequel makes one explanation for how the scene of the Man of Steel lying bleeding in the snow seem all the more likely. With mere days left until the DCU’s first movie hits our screens, anticipation for the story of Superman is higher than ever.

While there’s a lot we don’t yet know about the DCU’s world, there are still plenty of hints to help us get a better idea of what’s to come. The DCU releasing a Superman prequel makes this particularly true for the 2025 movie – especially since its story appears to provide one solid explanation for why we find Superman alone, defeated and bloody at some point in Superman‘s story.

Superman’s Prequel Provides A Lot Of Useful Context About The DCU Hero & His Story

The Superman prequel, Superman: Welcome To Metropolis, offers plenty of useful context about how the Man of Steel’s life led to the events that appear to transpire in the Superman movie. The tie-in novel focuses on Clark Kent moving to Metropolis and starting to work for the Daily Planet, meaning it’s an origin story of sorts for the hero.

We also get to see some of the earlier days of Superman, both in terms of him facing what is seemingly the first villain he’s fought in Metropolis – Metallo – and meeting the likes of Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific. Perhaps most importantly, though, the book sheds some light on the very start of Superman and Lex Luthor’s rivalry.

Superman stopping Metallo, unbeknownst to the hero, is also him stopping Luthor’s plans – since Lex made Metallo in the first place, and unleashed him on Metropolis. As such, Lex quickly develops a dislike for the Man of Steel that will no doubt be crucial for the Superman movie itself.

Interestingly, the prequel also teases the methods it looks like Luthor will employ in order to take down his new nemesis. Given just how effective we already know one of said methods is against the Man of Steel, it seems very much likely that the prequel provides some useful foreshadowing for the film itself in this regard.

Superman’s Prequel Shows That Lex Luthor Learns The Man Of Steel’s Weakness Before The Movie

While the Superman prequel ends with Superman defeating Metallo with the “Justice Gang” for the final time – and managing to earn the respect of Lois Lane as Clark Kent shortly after doing so – it also closes with an ominous note for the future. This is namely because the prequel’s final fight shows Lex Luthor that Superman is weak to Kryptonite.

After Superman initially defeats Metallo, Lex upgrades the villain with a newfound material he believes will help him in battle. The fact that this is said to be a glowing green rock is a pretty early giveaway, but it’s later even clearer this is Kryptonite when Superman feels weak “for this first time in his life on Earth” upon getting close to the upgraded Metallo.

Luthor is able to have Metallo’s head retrieved after the cyborg’s defeat, and in this scene, tells his henchman Otis that he was particularly intrigued by Superman’s reaction to “the stone“, which Metallo’s head is shown to still contain. With this in mind, it seems both Superman and Luthor have learned about a crucial weakness of the Man of Steel.

Since James Gunn has been clear as far back as the first DCU Chapter 1 announcement that the DCU is intended to be one cohesive story, unless a release is “clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds“, it seems this should directly lead into Superman. Taking this all into account, it seems highly likely that the scene of Superman lying bleeding in the snow connects to this moment.

Lex Luthor Being Responsible For Superman Lying In The Snow Bleeding In The 2025 Movie Would Make Perfect Sense

The Superman trailers have also now shown the DC hero dealing with colossal monsters and showing off some major powers, boasting his impressive strength. As such, the idea of him being defeated in the way we see at the start of the first Superman trailer – lying in the snow bleeding and defeated until Krypto appears – is all the more mysterious.

However, if Lex Luthor begins the movie with both access to and knowledge of Kryptonite and how it can be used to neutralize Superman, it seems this is the most obvious explanation for how Superman has been so brutally beaten here. This is doubly true if Lex is once again using figures like Metallo to face down Superman for him.

With Luthor positioned to be the main antagonist of Superman, having him be responsible for what appears to be Superman’s most brutal loss in the film would help reinforce the significance of their conflict. It would also be a potent way to show the threat Lex can pose to the Man of Steel, despite not having powers of his own.

Given how much more interesting the Superman prequel makes the DCU movie look already, I’m hopeful the franchise will lean into the plot threads and setups that Welcome To Metropolis introduces, even if it is in a very different format. Mercifully, we don’t have long to wait before we can find out if this is indeed the case.