Seems as if film-makers feel like they have to “re-imagine” each hero’s origin story with every new movie, so after re-telling Supe’s origin and Batman’s origin, there will only be time for one major battle with Lex Luthor and the Joker (no need for any new villains) before Superman flies around the world at super speed turning back time and solving all problems. Opening weekend grosses through the roof, 'cause audiences don’t care as long as a lot of shit blows up along the way.
Yep, good call. I forgot that twist. I’d be A-okay with a film version of this interaction in the first act.
Meh. I am apparently the only geek in the world who lacks the gene that makes one long for crossover films. Comics would be much better (and continuity would not be such a clusterfuck of a Gordian knot) if superheroes would stay in their own goddamn universes.
Ah! That makes sense now.
Oh, but, come on! Superman and Batman have been teaming up since June of 1952 (Superman #76). World’s Finest featured their team-ups for over a decade. No other two heroes have teamed up nearly as often.
“I bet your desk is very neat.”
- Jim Gaffigan
They met on radio in 1945. I like their teamings, but I gather in recent years there’s been some kind of effort to stress how intertwined their lives and destinies are, to the point where retcons show them repeatedly meeting (or nearly meeting) as children, the Wayne and Kent families have historical connections going back centuries, Jor-El scopes out Earth before sending his son there and contacts Thomas Wayne, every event in one’s life has an analog in the other’s… it was getting annoying.
Dammit, man, don’t I deserve to be zung (zinged? zingered?) with a better comedian than Jim Gaffigan? I obviously need to try harder.
For what it’s worth, Superman/Batman specifically doesn’t bug me all that much–it’s definitely a time-honored thing at this point, and just having the two of them sharing a universe doesn’t cause too much trouble. (Plus, I love Batman and while Supes has a problem with being boring due to overpoweredness, it’s hard to really dislike him.) It’s more the notion of having every DC title share a universe and the fallout from that that bugs me.
Shared continuity and crossovers are what bugs me about comic books, since sometimes you have to buy books of other heroes to get the full story on one event (Age of Apocalyse, Onslaught, Infinity Gauntlet, Crises, etc), but for a 2 hour movie, I can live with it. Even if badly done, I’m gonna see this, just out of morbid curiosity. I think Marvel’s long-term planning definitely is the standard that all future superhero movies will be judged, and that’s not a bad thing to set such a high standard. DC has its work cut out for it
Personally, I think that Batman and Superman need to trade villains. Batman is the world’s greatest detective… And he’s continually facing off against foes like the Joker or the Riddler, who waste his talent. When the Joker commits some crime, he lets you know, plain as day, that it was him who committed it. The trouble with the Joker is, it’s too hard to keep him securely confined.
Meanwhile, Superman is a physical match for nearly any foe, and can easily subdue them… But first, he has to figure out who to subdue, and Lex Luthor is always managing to stay just short of enough evidence for Superman to defeat him once and for all.
But now, swap them: Batman uses his detective skills and knowledge of high finance to prove just how thoroughly Luthor is cooking the books and just what nefarious plans he’s up to, and gets him committed to a mundane maximum-security prison and his assets confiscated, and Superman ferries overt criminals like the Joker to a prison on the Moon that even they can’t escape from. Win-win.