29 Years Later, DC's Weirdest Superman Movie Has Aged Like Milk

In the early 90s, DC Comics did the unthinkable and killed Superman. Clark Kent was officially dead in DC canon, leaving behind a literal power vacuum. However, in the aftermath, four different characters stepped up to take his place. Steel, Cyborg Superman, The Eradicator, and Superboy all looked to fill Superman’s boots.It obviously wouldn’t be long until the real Superman would make his return, but the four would-be Supermen still appear in various DC properties to this day. Only one of them, however, got his own live-action solo film.And it was weird.

1997’s Steel starred Shaquille O’Neal in the title role as an armor-clad vigilante looking to clean up the streets of Los Angeles. It would be just his second leading role after 1996’s Kazaam, and O’Neal’s status as an NBA superstar made scheduling difficult, as he’d be playing in the 1996 Summer Olympics and training with the Lakers throughout production. Ray J plays his precocious young wannabe sidekick, the movie’s big baddie is Judd Nelson, and O’Neal even contributed to the movie’s soundtrack on a track alongside KRS-One, Ice Cube, B-Real, and Peter Gunz.

But perhaps the most confounding thing about Steel is that, despite it being based on a Superman derivative, there are seemingly no connections to any larger DC universe throughout the movie. Despite opening with a title card reading, “Based upon characters published by DC Comics,” there’s basically no DC content to be found anywhere in the 97-minute runtime. And that’s exactly what the director wanted.

Steel Is A Superman Movie That’s Anything But Super

When Steel writer/director Kenneth Johnson was approached about the project, he was hesitant to return to the superhero genre, having previously worked on titles like The Incredible Hulk and The Bionic Woman. “I always turned [comic book movies] down,” Johnson said in Steel‘s production notes. “Because I didn’t want to deal with childish characters in funny costumes… I said that if I could lose the comic book cape, then maybe I could make it work.” Johnson got his wish and provided a take on the character that feels entirely disconnected from his comic book origins.

In the comics, Steel, aka John Henry Irons, is a weapons manufacturer and engineering genius who is saved by Superman during a construction accident. So, when Doomsday seemingly kills Superman, Irons decides it’s up to him to take Clark Kent’s place. He builds a full-body suit of armor meant to replicate Superman’s powers, complete with a flowing red cape and the iconic “S” emblem emblazoned across his chest.

Movie John Henry Irons is a similarly gifted engineer, but he only gets into crime-fighting when he learns that the laser rifles he’d been developing for the military were being smuggled into the hands of street gangs. His suit doesn’t have an “S,” there’s no cape, and it looks more like a clunky Medieval knight cosplay than the sleek design comics fans would have been familiar with.

Considering the scale of the Death of Superman arc in the comics, the movie’s take on Steel’sorigin story feels underwhelming and almost quaint in comparison. And the removal of any DC symbolism begs the question of whether this had to be a Superman-adjacent movie in the first place.

Rusted Steel

DC hero and Superman ally John Henry Irons aka Steel

Upon release, Steel was a massive bomb at the box office, taking in approximately $1.7 million off a $16 million budget. And time hasn’t been kind to the movie over the years, as it currently sits with a 19% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a critics’ rating of just 4%.

Nowadays, it’d be hard to imagine a studio green-lighting a movie based on one of the most famous intellectual properties in history, only to ignore that IP. Steel is the perfect example of why that’s a bad idea. While trying to, ostensibly, be a DC Comics movie and a generic, standalone action movie, Steel fails in both regards.