Superman has always been one of DC Comics’ most powerful and beloved characters, really only sharing the top tier with Batman among male fans, while a significant portion of female fans tend to direct their loyalty toward Wonder Woman instead. Henry Cavill did a genuinely impressive job carrying the role, even if the broader handling of the DCEU consistently got in the way of the Superman stories that could have been told.
He is also the character who kicks the entire movie universe off. We follow him through his development as Clark Kent and eventually see him as a grown man trying to hold down a reporting job at the Daily Planet. The one persistent credibility problem with Cavill’s version is that even as Clark, he is almost imposingly handsome and physically commanding. The whole premise of the disguise has always depended on Clark coming across as “weak” and forgettable, and that is a harder sell when the actor looks the way Cavill does.
In Man of Steel, his only genuine solo film, the main conflict is with General Zod, who wants to rebuild Krypton and has little interest in humanity’s survival. The most debated moment in the film is Superman snapping Zod’s neck to stop him from killing a family with his heat vision. I did not have a major problem with the choice itself given the circumstances, but I struggled to accept that the family in question apparently could not think to step aside or duck below Zod’s line of sight.
Batman v Superman then arrived and managed to burn through the potential of two landmark comic storylines, The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman, by forcing both into a single film that could not do justice to either. Superman ends up sacrificing himself and is killed by Doomsday.
As in the source material, the death does not hold. His return in Justice League skips the extended buildup the comics gave that arc and moves relatively quickly to his resurrection, which temporarily leaves him disoriented and aggressive until Lois Lane brings him back to himself. Another story that deserved more room to breathe ended up compressed into something functional but far from what it could have been, largely because the DCEU was rushing to catch up to what Marvel had spent years building.
His final substantial appearance in the DCEU involves leading the Justice League against Steppenwolf, who is hunting for the Anti-Life Equation on behalf of Darkseid. The Zack Snyder cut handles the material better, but the core story is essentially the same either way. The DCEU also gestured at the video game Injustice storyline, the version of Superman who goes rogue and becomes a dictator, without ever committing to it in a meaningful way.
Cavill spent several years away from the role before returning with a brief appearance in Black Adam, having stepped away from The Witcher on Netflix to make it happen. The timing turned out to be deeply unfortunate. Almost immediately after that comeback was announced, the DCEU was declared finished, and a new movie universe was confirmed to be in the works, effectively making the whole return pointless.