Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for James Gunn’s Superman
Superman marks an exciting new era for the new DCU. While it’s technically the first true live-action movie under the DCU banner, it’s been confirmed that the bulk of past James Gunn DC projects are part of the official continuity as well. However, it seems very likely that Superman just retconned a key moment from The Suicide Squad.
In 2021’s The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller sends a team of operatives led by Idris Elba’s Bloodsport to Corto Maltese to erase all evidence of Project Starfish (Starro). Likewise, these events were largely canonized when referenced in 2024’s Creature Commandos, the DCU’s first official project before Superman. However, it seems as though Superman has rewritten a key part of Bloodsport’s backstory within the first three minutes of the movie.
James Gunn’s Superman Suggests Bloodsport’s Greatest Feat Never Happened
Putting The Man of Steel in the ICU With A Kryptonite Bullet
In The Suicide Squad, Robert DuBois’s Bloodsport is a highly trained ᴀssᴀssin/marksman. Utilizing an array of high-tech weaponry, it was said that Bloodsport’s claim to fame, and reason for being imprisoned in Belle Reve to begin with, was for shooting Superman with a Kryptonite bullet, landing the Man of Steel in the ICU. However, it’s now quite likely that this never happened in the official DCU continuity.
James Gunn’s Superman opens with some important introductory text, revealing how long metahumans have been on Earth (3 centuries), how long ago Kal-El was sent to Earth (3 decades), when he started operating as Superman (3 years ago), his interference in Boravia (3 weeks ago), and when he started fighting the Hammer of Boravia (3 hours ago). However, the final line is perhaps the most noteworthy:
“3 MINUTES AGO, Superman lost a battle for the first time…”
Before his fight with the Hammer of Boravia (secretly Lex Luthor’s enforcer Ultraman), Superman had apparently never lost a fight before in the DCU. As such, this strongly implies that Bloodsport putting Superman in the hosptial is no longer canon. While it’s a bit disappointing, this does make a certain amount of sense.
Kal-El losing for the first time in Superman carries more thematic weight, kicking off the entire film. Likewise, it wouldn’t be the first instance where a moment has been erased from one of James Gunn’s past projects due to the new DCU, like the DCEU’s Justice League showing up at the end of Peacemaker season 1, something Gunn has obviously confirmed is not part of the new continuity.
That said, it will be fascinating to see if Elba’s Bloodsport ever makes a return to the big screen in the DCU, even if one of his most impressive feats has more than likely been left with the old DCEU canon.
James Gunn’s Superman is now playing in theaters from DC Studios.
