Luigi Mangione Is Getting Some Superman Comparisons After His Escort Photo Went Viral

The new Superman trailer has garnered a wide variety of reactions online, including plenty of excitement for the new movie. Following that excitement, there's also been a desire to compare Superman to a real-world folk hero with a more sinister story.

All across the internet, people are comparing Superman to Luigi Mangione, the young man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The comparison comes in part because of photos that went viral online of Luigi being escorted back to New York by what seemed like way too many people, including the mayor.

The main reason for the comparison appears to be a combination of admiration for Mangione and the physical resemblance he has to Clark Kent. In behind-the-scenes imagery from the new film, we can see footage of Superman getting arrested and escorted by a group of men who look remarkably similar to the escort that Mangione faced after he was extradited to New York. Mangione's curly hair also bears a striking resemblance to the Clark Kent look in this movie.

"In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the best optics to parade Luigi Mangione to his extradition on the same day that the Superman trailer came out… (At least from law enforcement's POV.)," one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

"They tried to show force but it's backfiring. Now he'll be seen as a superhero. NY … full of fails lately," another person added.

The photos of Mangione being escorted went viral precisely because the massive escort made it seem like they were dealing with one of the biggest threats the world had ever seen. Mangione's reputation is already far more mixed than the reputation of a typical accused murderer.

In some circles, he was already seen as a folk hero, and the decision to give him this kind of police escort only makes him seem cooler, at least in some people's eyes.

Although Mangione might bear some physical resemblance to this new Superman, and his police escort was drawing parallels to scenes that might be in the new movie, pushing the parallel too far isn't healthy.

Mangione might be valorized in some circles as a hero because of his choice of target, but Superman has never been the kind of hero who does much extra-judicial killing.

Although the character's legacy is somewhat contested, Superman has traditionally been the kind of character who fights for good and has a fairly inflexible moral code. That doesn't mean that he would not sympathize with the many people who have been screwed over by insurance companies.

It does mean, though, that Superman probably wouldn't just kill a healthcare CEO as some kind of symbolic act. There are plenty of people looking for a real-world hero like Superman worth rooting for, and there are plenty of good people out there. Mangione's story, though, is more complicated than that.