Thoughts on Superman/Batman Announcement

[David Swan]

It's Comic-con and Disney/Marvel is announcing film after film to support their comic lineup and delight their fans so Warner Brothers/DC counters with the team up of all team ups, Superman/Batman. Here is a list of some thought that popped into my head after reading this announcement.

 

1. This announment reeks of desperation. A film like this should arrive organically. It took well over a decade before Warner Brothers could approve a -script and choose a director for a Superman movie. That long process ended with Bryan Singers Superman Returns; a film that could generously be described as imperfect. David S. Goyer is now tasked with coming up with a -script for a film intended to be released in two years. It has to be set in the realistic Christopher Nolan universe featuring a God teaming up with a man. Oh yeah, have fun with that Goyer.

 

2. This film cannot use the Nolan Batman. Nolan's trilogy began with the origin of Batman and ended with his retirement. In The Dark Knight Returns Batman had been absent for seven years and nobody mentions that time he teamed up with an ultra powerful alien to save the planet so they can't have it set prior to Dark Knight Rises. They could have Batman come out of retirement ala Frank Millers Dark Knight Returns but is the hobbled old Batman really the one Warner Brothers wants to go with for the JLA movie? Unlikely.

 

3. This film must use the Nolan Batman. It's far too recent for fans to simply forget Nolan's take on Batman. Christian Bale played a more human Batman than the uber competent comic book hero. Bale's Batman was not going to be doing things like building giant spy satellites like Omac or taking down killer robots with his batarang. This makes him real but even less useful to someone like Superman. My take on Nolan's Batman is that his Raison d'être is crime in Gotham City. I don't even see him going "on patrol" as in the comics. He comes out when needed for the biggest criminals. If Nolan's Batman was sitting in his Batcave and the events of Man of Steel came up on his monitor I imagine him sitting that fight out completely. He would accurately gauge it as out of his league and not relevant to his own struggle.

 

4. World's Finest Comics started publishing in Spring 1941 but it wasn't until July 1954 that Superman and Batman actually appeared in a story together. Those stories were generally light hearted so the idea of Batman assisting Superman was more of a fun pairing than a serious partnership. If you read the comics Batman generally wasn't a great help. Man of Steel introduced a more fully powered Superman with Super speed and the power to hit like a hundred locomotives. Batman on the other hand is watered down and lacks the comic hero's super intellect and detective skills. Those latter skills are about the only ones that could assist Superman.

 

5. Anyone who thinks Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Batman is out of their mind. There is no way Warner Brothers will allow anyone but Bruce Wayne to put on the cowl and having Gordon-Levitt play Bruce Wayne would be highly confusing because fans think he's Robin. In fact having Christian Bale play Batman would be confusing since he would almost assuredly have to be an alternate Batman to the one in the trilogy. Gordon-Levitt also doesn't have the physicality to play opposite Henry Cavill unless he's capable of bulking up big time.

 

6. I happened to have loved Man of Steel. Now Superman will have to split screen time with another character who will almost assuredly have to have at least some kind of limited origin story. Maybe they could make the film a two parter but Warner Brothers seems intent on getting the JLA film out ASAP and that would put the second part in 2016 at the earliest.

 

I have more thoughts but the post has gotten somewhat long winded. I'd love to hear others opinions.

 

See more journals by David Swan

[meshuggah]

I'm pretty stoked for this movie. I do agree it seems to be a desperate move since Superman did so well and Marvel is already entrenched in making pretty much everything they can. So now they feel they have to go harder to play catch up.

 

There's no way they can use the Nolan movies Batman, though. As you've stated he's retired and to try a retcon this large in such a popular movie is crazy. I don't think people will be too confused since it will be a different actor playing Bruce Wayne. No one was really confused when they went from Keaton to Kilmer to Clooney except for the fact that we all wondered how those last two were even made.

 

I don't think they need to give Batman a huge origin back story. We all know it and don't really need to see it. They can sum it up in a few lines of dialogue. I'm really curious as to what/who the threat/villian turns out to be. It needs to be something pretty grandiose to pull these two together but not something on a JL level. Or they risk having to try and top this with that. I do look forward to more announcements especially with other movies.

[David Swan]

I don't think people will be too confused since it will be a different actor playing Bruce Wayne. No one was really confused when they went from Keaton to Kilmer to Clooney except for the fact that we all wondered how those last two were even made.

 

I agree that they can (and must) use a new actor.

 

I don't think they need to give Batman a huge origin back story. We all know it and don't really need to see it.

 

This is where things get all funky. In the Burton/Schumacher movies, although they used three different actors it was considered a continuing storyline. Clooney's Batman had the same origin as Keaton's and theoretically had battled the Joker earlier in his career. Unless fans are to accept the Nolan's origin story as the origin story of the new Batman they may have to carve at a new one. Was the new Batman's parents killed by Joe Chill? Did an encounter with Carmine Falcone push him to train to be a crime fighter? Was he trained by Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows? Unless a differentiation is made fans will probably just assume the events in the Batman trilogy somehow relate to the new Batman.

 

At the very least there is no way the Superman/Batman movie can merge as seamlessly as Marvel managed to do.

[Brandon Shepherd]

David, THANK YOU! I have similar thoughts on this as well, I know it's early but I'm alarmed. I'll have to elaborate more when I get home from work.

[mzhammer]

JL should come first.... There's nothing more I can say.

[Brandon Shepherd]

David, as I said earlier, I share your same thoughts and concerns. One point you make in particular, point #6, I would like to elaborate on. I'm not sure if it is such a good idea to have Superman split screen time with another major character also. Man of Steel, in my opinion, got right to the point and developed the characters just enough. The film ended well and left plenty for a sequel to explore, all in the Superman world - the role of Clark Kent in Metropolis as a new reporter for example, or how the government will pursue and track Superman. Throwing in Batman could crowd things, remember Spiderman 3? - too many characters and an anticlimactic ending.

 

I know it's early and I'm not exactly lining up to take part in the firing squad yet. I'm reminding myself that in the mid 2000s when a skinny blonde guy was introduced as the new James Bond, I was not interested, I thought he did not look like a Bond and that the Bond movies were beyond saving, I was pleased when I saw Casino Royale. I also wasn't too impressed or hopeful when the first pictures for the first X-Men movie came out in 1999/2000.

 

I hope this is not a response to the success of the Avengers and all the forthcoming Marvel sequels on Warner Bros. part, it will be interesting to see how Zack Synder and David Goyer respond to how this idea came about. If it were up to me, I'd say keep the focus on Superman, wait awhile to reintroduce Batman.

 

Brandon

[David Swan]

I agree with just about everything you said. I wish DC would stop this obsession over JLA. Man of Steel was a huge financial success. It made far more than Batman Begins which then went on to make over a billion on the next two films. It took Iron Man three films to break the billion dollar mark Spider-Man never managed that feat despite the huge popularity of the character. If Goyer or someone else came up with an absolutely killer Superman/Batman -script I say go for it but I can't imagine there was any -script to go along with the announcement.

 

It could be the all time great superhero movie but this is going to be a real tough one to pull off and I pray it isn't Superman vs Batman because it's hard to imagine that one not being a major misfire.

[The Brain]

I agree with just about everything you said. I wish DC would stop this obsession over JLA. Man of Steel was a huge financial success. It made far more than Batman Begins which then went on to make over a billion on the next two films. It took Iron Man three films to break the billion dollar mark Spider-Man never managed that feat despite the huge popularity of the character. If Goyer or someone else came up with an absolutely killer Superman/Batman -script I say go for it but I can't imagine there was any -script to go along with the announcement.

 

It could be the all time great superhero movie but this is going to be a real tough one to pull off and I pray it isn't Superman vs Batman because it's hard to imagine that one not being a major misfire.

 

Perhaps not. They just may follow a well thought plot that takes these characters

 

far from what the average non-comic-fan has seen or thought of before, such as

 

"...I want you to remember, Clark… in all the years to come, in your most private

moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to

remember the one man who beat you…"

 

From:

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/20/official-a-superman-batman-film-will-be-the-next-dc-universe-movie/