The Emotional, Real-Life Reason Kevin Smith Loves Comic-Book Movies So Much

Kevin Smith is a successful filmmaker whose love of comic books regularly informs his own storytelling. The films in his "View Askewniverse" franchise often reference the nerdy pop culture that inspires him, and it isn't uncommon for his characters to debate topics such as the unlikelihood of Superman and Lois Lane becoming parents. Naturally, Smith enjoys superhero films, but his appreciation for them runs deeper than basic fandom.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Smith said that while he loves being a filmmaker, appreciating cinema is more important to him. Furthermore, he especially loves comic-book movies as they remind him of his deceased father. "[W]ith comic-book movies, I need to love this s**t like I did before I was in the movie business, because that's part of what fuels me," he said. "My father's been dead for 20 years. But like, when I go see something like The Flash, my father's alive again, because he used to take me to see s**t like that. And that's far more important to me than like, 'Oh, I'm directing one of these things now.'"

Kevin Smith has no plans to direct a superhero movie any time soon, but he's flirted with the idea in the past. In fact, one of Smith's abandoned comic-book adaptations is referenced in "The Flash," and the "Mallrats" director couldn't be happier about it.

In the 1990s, Warner Bros. hired Kevin Smith to write a script for a movie called "Superman Lives." Tim Burton was set to direct the feature, and Nicholas Cage was cast as the titular Kryptonian hero. During the writing stages, however, a producer named Jon Peters asked Smith to add polar bears and giant spiders to the story — and one of these moments is brought to life in "The Flash."

Cage's Superman makes a brief cameo in the film, battling against a giant spider. It's a deep-cut reference to Smith's old script, and the "Clerks" director was delighted to see his abandoned story receive an acknowledgment in one of 2023's biggest releases. Back in the day, he wasn't thrilled about being told to add a gargantuan arachnid to his "Superman" story, but he loved seeing it go down in "The Flash."

"It has been an absolute delight for me," he told Rolling Stone. "Like, if I had made the Flash movie and that moment showed up, people would have been like, "What a self-serving son of a b***h." But the fact that it showed up as essentially a deep–cuts pop-culture reference delights me. After all these shout-outs all these years, the things I love are starting to shout-out back."