Since the last trailer full of action for James Gunn’s reboot film landed, fans have wondered about the identity of one of the villains in the film, the heavily armored murdered murdered murdered under the name of Boravia hammer.
The fact is that the bad guy known as Boravia hammer is actually a newly created character for Superman – a character who does not come from comics at all. There is a fictitious nation known as Boravia in the comics, but it does not have its own hero.
Speculations around the character have skyrocketed since his name was revealed, with many people who became that the so-called “Hammer of Boravia” is a bad orientation to avoid showing a violet and classic green battle armor of Lex Luthor, his armor has recolored that the trailer keeps the secret.
It is not impossible, but the fact is that the armor does not look much like a version of Luthor’s armor, whatever the color palette. And we have also seen troops of armored luthor in their own purple and green armor, which does not look like it either.
Perhaps Gunn pulled the same studios Trick Marvel once played on viewers by replacing Hulk in the trailer for Avengers: Infinity Wars in scenes which actually presented the Hulkbuster armor in the final film. But would DC start the money and the workforce it takes to simulate an entire CG character? Probably not, especially considering that Marvel’s baits have been trial.
It may be more likely that there is actually a comic inspiration behind the Boravia hammer – simply not a single visible without a little excavation.
This character is Rocket Red, or in fact the Rocket Red Brigade, a team of armored supersolders who served as heroes of the USSR in the DC universe of the 80s, one of whom joined justice League International – a team which also included Superman’s Green Lantern, Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), and which was also organized by Maxwell Lord, which is played by Sean Gunn in Superman and in Superman and the Peacemer.
If you look carefully at the Boravia armor hammer, it has a belt strip through the chest flanked by a star – the same emblem of the Rocket Red Brigade, but with gold exchanged by red, because the USSR has not been since the early 90s.
Is the Boravia hammer certainly A rocket red palette exchange? We will never know it unless James Gunn one day overflows the beans on the official inspiration of the character. But the connection is not so eccentric, given the aesthetic similarities and the fact that Gunn is already based on the casting of justice League International.
Superman flies in the cinemas on July 11, 2025. To find out more, consult the new DC films that arrive, as well as our guide on how to watch DC films in order.
