‘Superman & Batman’ movie will follow ‘Man of Steel’

I am hoping they still call it The Last Son of Krypton

Or, to incorporate both heroes, they call it

The Last Sons

 

I don't really see that being necessary myself. They can establish what kind of Batman this is (and what kinds of villains he fights) easily with an introductory action scene in Gotham.

And as far as his temperment, it's almost certain to be similar to the Bale Batman, since Warners won't want to veer too far from what audiences loved in the immensely popular Nolan movies.

Eh, certainly to some degree Warners is relying on Batman to bolster their new DC universe, but so what? Batman is a hugely popular character, and a founding member of the Justice League. So of course he's going to have a big role in future movies. I don't think there should be any shame in relying on him in that way.

 

Man of Steel
Men of Justice

 

Well, Bond has had 23 official films, plus the '67 Casino Royale spoof and Never Say Never Again (plus the original live-TV Casino Royale adaptation starring two-fisted American agent Jimmy Bond). Godzilla has had 28 Japanese-made films (15 in the first series, 7 in the second, 6 in the third) and one US-made film to date, plus the American versions of Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and King Kong vs. Godzilla that incorporated large amounts of new English-language footage. Not counting those, the 2014 film will be the 30th in the franchise.

 

I don't think they even need to have an introductory scene in Gotham. He can show up in Metropolis and it can be shown what type of Batman he is as the film progresses.

 

And we have a winner!

 

Or even Man of Steel: Men of Justice with the subtitle being a reference to Bruce and Lex, then Batman and Superman.

 

Dark Steel. ...no, wait, that was the porn movie I watched last night.

 

Exactly. In this day and age, I don't think moviegoers want or expect Batman to be a "light-hearted crime-fighter" with a Boy Wonder sidekick. Or that the general audience will be obsessing over what particular bits of comic book trivia apply to this particular version of Batman.

Batman will be a dark avenger of the night, motivated by the violent death of his parents so many years ago. As long as you stick to the broad strokes: Batcave, Batmobile, Bat-Signal, stately Wayne Manor, the average movie-goer is going not to be any more confused than when Daniel Craig took over as James Bond after the Pierce Brosnan era.

No one is going to be sitting in theory wondering where exactly Joe Chill or Jason Todd fit into the continuity!

 

Goddammit. If Joe Chill isn't in the new movie, I'm boycotting the whole thing and making a bonfire in my backyard with my hundreds of Superman and Batman comics and all my movies.

 

I just don't want to sit through another origin story for Batman.

 

Actually, I've had the passing thought now and then that in the wake of the Nolan trilogy, it might be cool to see a version of Batman that recaptured the zany fun of the Adam West series and film. After all, it worked for Batman: The Brave and the Bold on TV. But then I remember that Batman and Robin was basically an attempt to do a modern big-screen version of Adam West-style camp, and that was painfully garish, self-conscious, and tonally inconsistent. It's something that would be very difficult to do right, especially given how much more crass and sophomoric the modern style of feature-film comedy has become, and how much modern tentpole features are dominated by excess. Good comedy, or good camp, calls for a certain restraint, knowing how far is far enough.

But I don't want something that's just Nolanverse Batman with the face and backstory changed. The fun of a reboot is getting to see a different version of the character and the world, to see a new and distinct variation on the theme. I've had my fill of Frank Miller-inspired screen Batman; let's see some Denny O'Neill or Steve Englehart-inspired Batman, say.

 

Snyder made it clear at Comic-Con that the tone he wants to strike in the next film will be similar to Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. He even had an excerpt from TDKR read on stage by actor Harry Lennix.

 

Didn't they just do that in the last film?

 

The excerpt Lennix read was the speech in which Batman threatens to take Superman down should it be necessary. That's the tone Snyder wants.

 

It helps when you have Oliver on hand to shoot Superman with a Kryptonite-tipped arrow.

 

I hope the new Batman has a goofy voice like Bale. I think they should let whoever they get to play Bruce Wayne voice him in unmasked scenes, but get Gilbert Gottfried to dub the Batman voice. It would still be more threatening than Christian "I need a lozenge" Bale. Atleast when you had a bad James Bond (like Dalton, atleast from the general opinios I've seen) he was gone in a movie or two. Bale isn't even playing Batman, and his Batman will probably be in movies for decades now.

I'd like that too, but they won't do it. It will just be the typical Nolan Batman played by a different actor. Heck, if Superman is basically that, why would they change up Batman? DC probably thinks that having two guys constantly brooding in a color muted world will get them double the money. Still, they could give Batman a bit more personality. It would be awesome if he spends the movie making cracks about Superman

Spoiler: Man of Steel

being a murderer

It will be a change to see Batman having the obvious moral high ground on Superman (not counting stupid Frank Miller comics and stuff like that). I can hear it now:

Batman: Sure, I break bones sometimes, put people in the hospital and generally terrify criminals, but atleast I'm not you, Clark.

That would almost make it worth putting up with Nolan's Batman again for another 2+ hours. Still, atleast this announcement came along with an apparent Flash movie being planned. Hopefully Goyer will be too overworked by the Superman/Batman stuff to turn Flash into another dark, boring hero. It would be awesome if people who still believed in movies having fun and happiness in them got to work on a DC superhero movie again.

 

Yes, I know. That's why I made a point of saying I'm not eager to see that. I think it's taking completely the wrong lesson from TDKR to treat it as an exemplar for portraying Batman. TDKR was meant to be a deconstructive, alternative, somewhat satirical take on Batman and the DCU, exploring how the characters would change in an extreme dystopian future. It's a terrible idea to use it as a stylistic or conceptual model for Superman & Batman's first meeting. Snyder and Goyer got a ton wrong in MoS, and now it feels like they're still fundamentally missing the point.

 

But considering the destruction caused in MoS, wouldn't they want someone (who is not a villain) willing to take on Superman should he run amok again? Batman has protocols to take down everybody. That's really the only Superman-Batman dynamic the modern comic reader knows.

 

Yep, we had 3 actors over 4 movies all theoretically in the same continuity. Audiences never got confused and asked for an origin story every time a new actor stepped in. The only people that feel the need a reboot with an origin story every time there is a change are the people on this board.