Almost at the end of the characters from Man of Steel: today, another one who had just a cameo in the movie, but has a little bit more relevant backstory in the comics. When Clark Kent is looking for a meaning to his life, at a certain point he meets a priest: he’s Father Daniel Leone, portrayed by Coburn Goss. In the film, he just gives some advises about a necessary leap of faith, when Clark seeks a voice of wisdom in order to decide if he’s supposed to accept General Zod‘s requests or not. In the comics, Leone acts as an adviser and a friend to the Man of Steel, until a somewhat tragic ending. Let’s see together.
Daniel Leone was born and raised in Metropolis, just a regular guy who looked for his place in the 
world. When he was still young, he met a girl, Lupé Teresa Leocadio-Escudero, a hot-head who he fell in love with. The two started a passionate relationship, but things weren’t meant for lasting. At a certain point in his life, Daniel felt like he wasn’t in the right place, and wasn’t leading his life as he was supposed to. A religious man, he started interrogating himself, until he realized God asked him something else than a family life. Answering to the call, he left Teresa, entered seminary, and became a priest. In Metropolis, he became pastor of the Sacred Heart Church, and established a good friendship with Teresa, who had in the meanwhile entered police, in Metropolis Special Crimes Unit. It was shortly after he became a priest that Father Leone was diagnosed a terminal, incurable cancer. Now a man of faith, he accepted this as a test from God, even if he struggled with his own mortality, like anyone else would have done.
Father Leone made the least predictable meeting when Superman, distraught over The Vanishing, a strange phenomenon during which millions of people (including his wife Lois Lane) had disappeared, came to him to seek advice. Superman felt guilty, since when the mass-disappearance occurred he was in space to save Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and felt like he abandoned Earth in the moment of need. Daniel helped him face his own humanity, his limits, and to accept that he couldn’t possibly save everyone. The two met once again, when Superman informed the priest he had tracked the Vanishing back to a small country in the Middle East, where he had fought General Nox, a 
deranged military leader in possession of the Vanishing Device, and his cyborg minion Equus. The fight led to a second Vanishing, that Nox and Equus used to escape, and Leone traveled to the Fortress of Solitude with Superman to try and find where they had gone. While Superman reached the disappeared people on Metropia (a world he himself had created and then exiled in the Phantom Zone, and from which an alternate General Zod had kidnapped all the people), Leone was contacted by Elias Orr, a mysterious man that told him he had a cure for his cancer. Overwhelmed by doubt, Leone agreed to the cure, but he was transformed into a monstrous, enhanced version of Equus, called Pilate. When Superman came back, Leone, horrified for what he had become, asked his friend to kill him, but the hero refused. At that point, they were both attacked by Equus, who thought to have an ally in Pilate; the latter, however, defended Superman and fought with the cyborg, and both of them fell to the Phantom Zone, continuing their fight on an island of Metropia.
Daniel Leone is a man of tried honesty and reliability, a wise pastor who uses his own faith to help people around him clarifying their doubts and fears. His faith is often put to the test, especially after he learnt of his cancer, but he never ceases to trust God and his will, proving a strength that many wouldn’t have. As Pilate, Daniel possesses many superhuman abilities, such as enhanced strength, stamina, durability, reflexes and speed, retractable claws and maybe other weapons implanted in his body; as a cyborg, he’s immune to any illness, thus also his cancer has disappeared, but part of his humanity is gone too. Now struggling to keep whatever remains of his old self, Pilate has to live with the consequences of his choices.
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