I recently wrote about the Comic-Con news that Man of Steel 2 would feature Batman. I stand by my statement that it’s a dream match-up for any fan. There’s always been the age of argument of who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman? And while it’s not guaranteed the film would be about the two iconic heroes in a battle, we can guess it pretty much will be.
While the initial reaction is “mind flipping blown!” Reality has now begun to sink in, will this actually work? Hear me out.
I don’t doubt for a second that seeing arguably the two biggest Superheroes in the same film will work, there’s a few issues that need to be addressed:
1. We don’t have a Batman!
Is it really a wise move to introduce a brand new untested Batman in Man of Steel 2 before we get a chance to see what he’s made of? Batman VS Superman (or the other way round, depending on your preference) could be bigger than any superhero film we’ve ever seen, including The Avengers, but The Avengers had years to build up to it. This could be Warner Bros’ Avengers film, scrap Justice League, I’ve said it for a while now it’s a doomed project. Why not instead focus on making a solo Batman reboot (as annoying as it’ll be, but we know it’s going to happen so we might as well go with it), have Man of Steel 2, during which we tease Bruce Wayne/Batman before finally having the epic Batman VS Superman title. Nothing The Avengers franchise could do would beat this because you cannot beat the Batman/Superman names, but rushing it would be foolish from Warner Bros’ point of view, but sadly it seems that is what they’ll do and, worse, they’ll almost certainly push on with a Justice League film too.
2. Batman vs Superman or Man of Steel 2?
Is this film going to be Man of Steel 2, briefly giving us a glimpse of Batman part-way through or right at the end? If so, what a huge let down that would be. We want to see Bruce Wayne meeting Clark Kent for the first time, not being aware of each others alternate egos, before the interesting showdown of Batman and Superman. But to do this we need a large portion dedicated to Bruce Wayne/Batman. We can’t just have Batman appear out of the blue donning the cowl and cape. If we get no build up, instead the new actor/Batman just appearing on screen, we’ll miss out on a vital part of the journey, and the anticipation that comes with that. But by granting Batman equal screen time we’ll only get confused, thinking “wait, isn’t this meant to be a Superman sequel?” Whichever way around director Zack Snyder does it, he’ll be running into problems.
3. Villains?
In complete symmetry to our second issue, our third issue is who are the Villains? If this is a Superman movie, then of course the Villains need to be associated with Superman, mostly likely Lex Luthor. If it’s a shared movie we could see one of Batman’s foes enter the mix, but once again this brings us back to “so who’s film is this exactly?” Also, would you really want to waste a big Villain on Bats when it’s a certainty he will get his own solo film, if given the green light, once the credits roll on Man of Steel 2/Batman vs Superman. Snyder could throw us a curve-ball and literally have the film about Superman and Batman, setting Batman up to be Superman’s one and only nemesis for the entirety of the film. Of course we the audience would know this is not the case and would most likely result in an alliance being formed (Justice League) at the end, but this way of doing it could provide for an interesting and entertaining viewing experience as we’ve never had a Superhero film that doesn’t actually feature a big Villain.
2015 is a long way off yet (some might even say 2 years) plenty of time to iron out the finer details of the idea that Snyder/Goyer most likely already have planned. The big kid inside of me hopes it will work, because if done right it would be a moment we’ve wanted to see on the big screen for years, but right now I’m still dubious.
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