DC WEEKLY: Questions About How ‘BATMAN v SUPERMAN’ Sets Up the DCEU (Spoilers)

Welcome to the DC Weekly, where every week we cover the land of DC comics, TV, and movies. Be it random bits of news, TV show reactions, or miscellaneous reviews, editorials, or speculation, you can be sure to get your DC fix here!

THIS WEEK is post BATMAN v SUPERMAN week, and with that, we have a clever update from the “official” Instagram of LexCorp, and in an interview, Zack Snyder talks about how the death of Robin shaped Ben Affleck’s version of Bruce Wayne. From there, we delve into some serious spoiler territory, asking questions about how BATMAN v SUPERMAN has set up the DC Extended Universe!

But before all that, if you have yet to listen to our spoiler-filled review and discussion of BATMAN v SUPERMAN, I highly recommend you do. We believe it to be a fairly balanced assessment of the film and all its strengths and weaknesses. Check it out below!

BATMAN v SUPERMAN Review & Discussion

NEWS-LETS

Lex Luthor Goes Off the Deep End

Those of us who have seen BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (and if you haven’t, I highly suggests you STOP READING IMMEDIATELY), know that the film didn’t leave Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor in the most stable of mental conditions. The death of Superman had supposedly left the earth vulnerable to attacks, and when last we see Luthor, he says, “Ding dong, the god is dead,” and goes on to say that someone is coming.

The character then goes full crazy, pressing his body up agains the bars in his prison cell, repeating the lines, “ding, ding, ding, ding, ding” non-stop. 

In a strange and (potentially unintentional) hilarious move from the BvS marketing team, they’ve gone and posted under the fake “official” LexCorp account on Instagram. The photo they used is the well-known black-and-white photo they used to introduce Jesse Eisenberg as Lex a couple years back (pictured above).

The caption of the post reads as follows:

“Due to unfortunate circumstances, LexCorp Industries will be temporarily suspending it’s global operations. 

When interviewed about his actions against a fallen alien, Lex Luthor responded with; “Ding, ding, ding, ding. Are we entering the second round?”

We do not understand Mr. Luthor’s actions and LexCorp does not take responsibility for his actions. Thank you for being patient.”

What do you think of this post? Sound off in the comments!

SOURCE: LexCorp

Zack Snyder Talks Robin’s Death and Its Effect on Batman

Fans hit the fan with excitement when that first trailer showed Robin’s grafitti’d suit. We somehow got inserted into a world where a live-action Batman not only had a Robin, but that Robin had also been killed at the hands of the Joker.

Some fans may have gone to the theater expecting this idea to be elaborated on in the film’s runtime, but sadly, it was not meant to be. Everything you saw in the trailer ended up being all we saw of Robin’s suit in the film. There was not so much as an uttered reference to the Boy Wonder.

Though while his death may not have explicitly been mentioned in the film, it was instrumental in shaping the personality of Batman. 

In a recent interview with IGN, Zack Snyder talks about how they used this back story to shape their violent interpretation of Batman.

“In my mind it was that Robin had died about ten years earlier during some run-in with a young Joker, and so there was an interesting…to me there was sort of a fun backstory there to play with. I felt like the whole idea was that there had been loss, and there had been sacrifice. In a weird way, [Bruce] sacrificed everything to be Batman. He doesn’t really have a life outside the cave. I thought that by including a dead Robin, [it] was helping us understand that he’s been on quite a little journey.”

In addition to the psyche of Batman, Snyder went on to discuss the biggest visual influence for Batman in the film.

“DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was a huge influence on the movie. Especially, sort of iconographically. It’s a different story, of course, but, just sort of the images and icons of how he handled the mythological Batman was really inspiring to me. That work was a work that needed to be expressed somehow, visually.”

This point was driven home by Ben Affleck.

“That was the central influence on Zack’s creation and what he wanted to work on with [writer] Chris Terrio as they prepared the film, so it was what I plugged into as the central inspiration for what I was trying to do.”

SOURCE: IGN

DISCUSSION TOPIC

Questions About How BATMAN v SUPERMAN Sets Up the DCEU

Batmad Max

Batmad Max

Plenty has been said about BATMAN v SUPERMAN‘s narrative shortcomings, and as much as I personally enjoyed the film, even I can’t ignore its problems. 

Though when it comes to how the film set up the DC Extended Universe, I find myself torn. Yes, the way it was done in the film was shoe-horned, and a bit lazy, but at the end of the day, they got me THRILLED for the rest of the DCEU.

The most obvious shoe-horned scene showed Diana Prince looking at the top-secret LexCorp files, which showed footage of the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. This scene was obvious enough in nature, and to be frank, I have very little to say on this front other than I’m super excited to see all three supers in the future.

Now, let’s talk about the biggest question mark in the film: The Knightmare/Flash scene.

In this scene, we see a MAD MAX type world, where Batman wears a duster and camo pants. This world has men with Superman emblems on their shoulders, and near the end of the scene, we see Superman kill, and we see a flock of Parademons. Bruce Wayne wakes up in front of his computer, only to be confronted by a strange armored man yelling out to him words of warning. The armored man disappears, and Bruce wakes again, alone in his BatCave.

The Flash cries out to Bruce Wayne.

The Flash cries out to Bruce Wayne.

From the get-go, it was clear that whatever this Knightmare sequence was, it wasn’t a part of the linear narrative. But how does it fit into the film? Well, frankly, it doesn’t. This scene is indicative of the fact that as these shared universes are becoming more TV in nature. Were this simply a scene in a TV show, we’d simply accept it and say afterwards, “I wonder what that was.” But as this scene was in a film — a medium where we expect a self-contained experience — it came across as incredibly weak and contrived.

But what does it mean for the universe? Just where is this story going, and how does this scene fit into it?

Zack Snyder has gone on the record stating that they are committed to the multiverse (via New York Daily News), and considering how the Knightmare sequence ends with the Flash popping out and saying something to the effect of “Lois is the key,” and “You were right about him. You were right to fear him,” it seems safe to assume that the Knightmare sequence wasn’t simply a nightmare, but perhaps a future event.

This idea is reinforced when the Flash looks at Bruce Wayne ina confused manner and says, “am I too soon?”

The appearance of the Flash makes me want to believe that the Knightmare sequence is somehow incited by the Flash. This perhaps shows a potential future — a future not too different from the one portrayed in the video game/comic series INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US, wherein after the murder of Lois Lane — and the destruction of Metropolis — Superman becomes a dictator of sorts, becoming less forgiving than he once was. That’s an ambitious direction for the DCEU to go, and I love that they’re willing to go into that kind of territory.

However, to my knowledge, the Flash does NOT have the power to project visions. This leaves me with many big question:

How do the Parademons fit into this vision?

How do the Parademons fit into this vision?

How was Batman dreaming up the Knightmare sequence? There’s no way Bruce Wayne could dream up Darkseid’s omega symbol and the Parademons. He has no knowledge of them, and there’s no way they could have snuck into his subconscious if he’s had no exposure to it before. Is this a vision of the future, or some alternate dimension? How does Superman’s inevitable resurrection affect his demeanor?

These are questions I am sure will be answered down the line, but still can’t stop thinking about. What about you? Do you have any theories in response to these questions, or do you have any questions of your own? Let us know in the comments down below!

SOURCE: New York Daily News

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