Homages in Man of Steel

As I've watched and rewatched Man of Steel, not only does it get better with each viewing but I've also noticed more and more nods that Zack Snyder and company gave to various movies and comic books that came before. In the video below, I show 29 homages that can be seen in Man of Steel. Of course these can't be something as generic as "Kal-El is sent to Earth by his parents" or "Krypton was doomed to be destroyed" or "Jax-Ur is a Kryptonian scientist" because things like that are just facts about the mythos of Superman. What I considered to be homages are things that are more specific and could have easily been otherwise -- implying that the fact the filmmakers made these specific choices is either to pay homage to some source material or because they drew inspiration from it and thought it was a wise story or character decision.

Admittedly, I could have easily missed other homages because I haven't read or seen the entirety of the Superman canon. So if you have caught other homages, please leave them in the YouTube comments. Mine draw on the movies and the comic books that I've appreciated over the years, but I also think these are ones that were close to the filmmakers' minds (e.g., David Goyer wrote the forward to Superman: Secret Origin and talked about how certain scenes by Geoff Johns really made him connect with Superman in new ways).

If you're curious about what prior material had the biggest influence on Man of Steel, here's my tally (though they aren't necessarily all of equal importance):

• Superman: The Movie (Donner) - 8
• Superman II (Lester) - 5
• Superman: Earth One (Straczynski) - 5
• Superman: Birthright (Waid) - 4
• Superman: Secret Origin (Johns) - 2
• Superman: Last Son of Krypton (Johns) - 1
• All-Star Superman (Morrison) - 1
• Action Comics #1 (Siegel) - 1
• Superman #1 (Siegel) - 1
• Superman: The Animated Series (Timm) - 1
• Superman Lives (Peters) - 1

Credit goes to Man of Steel Answers (MOSAIC) for catching the Action Comics #1 tribute.