Superman 2025: Merch as Marketing

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

We have Superman (2025) on the way, which means a whole new, very specific wave of merch will roll out from now until, likely, next Christmas.

In a general sense, *some* Superhero nerds will buy almost anything with the right logo or image on it.  T-shirts, sure.  But I've had toothbrushes, picture frames, piggy banks, rubber ducks...  I'd feel worse about this, but I also follow sports, and, friends, there is *nothing* you cannot buy that doesn't come with a Cubs logo slapped across it.  The point being, one will find a wide array of items featuring superheroes, and for a bit, this will feature the Superman movie-specific license.

Back in 2001, I remember my own brother, Steanso, saying to me "if I put a Superman sticker on a pile of dog@#$%, I think you'd buy it."  And that has haunted me ever since.  But he's not too far off when it comes to how far DC and Marvel will go in letting just about anyone license DC and Marvel art to slap on a product.  

And, since Zazzle showed up 20+ years ago, DC in particular, has been pretty free with "yeah, here's some clip art.  Go nuts."  And a lot of their imagery has just been out there, with Superman logos showing up on anything you can imagine.  

The onslaught of super-product can be overwhelming, and it does not help that some people don't bother to get the license.

(special thanks to JimD who spotted this in the wild and sent me a pic)

These days it's fair to say I am more discerning about what I'll pick up just because it's a Superman or WW product.  But I might also pick up some things on a goof (see the image above), and I also seem some things and can feel my pupils dilate.  

Superman (2025) doesn't come out for months, and we're already getting toys on the shelves.  Which is going to drive Jamie nuts, as she wonders aloud for the 100th time "how many @#$%ing Kryptos do you need?"*  

Just today, I saw that someone is selling a Krypto toy that looks, honestly, pretty fun.

Yes, it's February and the movie arrives in July.  But, these days, DC and Marvel have figured out they need the merch out *before* the movie. It's essentially soft marketing.  Get people excited, get them thinking about shirts and posters and coffee mugs to keep them on the trail to the movie.

My guess is that they also use the sales to track *something*.  Ticket sales, how much other merch to produce, etc...  To that end, there's certainly stuff on Amazon.com already, and DC has used their official shop to go nuts with plenty of gear.

The merch must be carefully controlled in release waves, so as not to spoil the movie.  To date, Superman (2025) has been pretty well under lock and key in regards spoilers, and the merch to hit has been very general with imagery.  General enough that... I've not been into it.  The graphic design is kind of dull, right on the edge of the sort of thing people make that is kinda trying to skirt trademark and copyright.  And, the offerings mostly looks like "print-on-demand" stuff that Amazon has gotten very good at.  Whether AI is involved or they just have workflows that take an image and populate it across an ocean of goods, I can't say.

I did pick up a shirt early on featuring just the shield, and I will pick up a Krypto shirt, certainly.  That is my curse.

Right now, you can get officially licensed insulated mugs, ear buds, guitar picks, phone covers, license plates, coasters and dozens of more items.  And most of it's not-great and will seem odd about two minutes after you've actually seen the movie and better merch is released.

I mean, it's possible you'll still be using this in 2029, but...

Superman is leaning hard into the "Take Me Home" line from the trailer, which I did not expect would resonate so hard, but it sure seems to with the nerds.  They're using the S-logo, as they should.  There's the sky image above, pics of what I think is the Fortress of Solitude, and images of Krypto.

And, as evidenced at the top of the post, maybe that art is being tossed hither and yon without much thought as to whether it makes sense or not.  Which is pretty funny.  I'll take a DC licensed Krypto Flask, please.  

But it's also a *lot* of landfill, is my guess.  As Simon would say, this is intended to be cheap and cheerful, and get us walking around as advertisements for the movie.  If someone sees you with a Superman cup, they may say "gee, isn't there a movie coming?" and now you're basically pitching your enthusiasm for the movie, which may convince them to check it out.  It's not rocket science.

It is a weird emotional labor for WB to put on you, because it also means you will be asked to defend a movie you haven't seen.  And lord knows, I have put in my time on that front (thanks, Superman Returns!).

Anyway, the real wave of telltale spoiler-iffic merch isn't out yet, but will be when action figures start getting solicited.  And probably and books or whatever that need to get produced and sold.

But for now, we're basically buying on speculation.  We liked the trailer, we have high hopes.  

That said, it was my tell from Disney that they had zero faith in John Carter that there was no merch coming.  All they did was throw some designs on Zazzle, I think, and said "enjoy!".  So those decisions were made well, well in advance for what could have been a toyetic, merch-laden film.

And so far, I've got a shot at a Krypto flask.  So how worried should I be?

yup.  no AI here.

For fun, a quick entry of "Superman 2025" into Amazon's search provides you with plentiful results.  The thing I am 1000% curious about are the array of "books" out there that are, apparently, self-published takes on the coming film.  And they aren't cheap.

Anyway - I'm not too good to be out there as a billboard for this movie.  I'm excited for it!  I'm choosing to have my fun.  And I'll be discussing action figures and whatnot, soon.

*all of them, Jamie.  Krypto FOMO is the worst FOMO.