Over on io9, there is the following quote from someone involved with the movie:
I thought of Miller’s Dark Knight showing a big Batman was more just Miller’s art and his Batman’s older age. I think of Superman as more bulked up. And if Henry Cavill is freaking balloon-man huge like he was in Man of Steel, what does that mean for Affleck’s Batman?
I agree. That’s now how I thought of Miller’s Batman. I think they’re confusing “large” with “muscular”. Looking at some of the panels from Dark Knight though, I can see how you can get that impression. If we’re really looking to emulate the artwork though, does that mean we get a Robin with that ridiculous pointed hair?
And Superman looks pretty damn bulky in that comic as well.
One of Bruce Timm’s animated shows (I forget which) sort-of addresses this - Batman has gone missing and Superman puts on the Bat costume and impersonates him. After a meeting with Commissioner Gordon, Gordon turns to one of his officers and asks “Did he look… bigger to you?”
As far as I could tell, though, the characters’ outlines were virtually identical.
Maybe he was talking about the “package” that seems to have obsessed recent superhero costume designers and directors. 
I’ve never run across a convincing explanation why Superman doesn’t look like a couch potato. How does he maintain that hunkalicious physique when he gets what amounts to no exercise? He spends most of his life deliberately moving slowly and gently to avoid destroying his surroundings and harming innocents. That does not build huge, sculpted muscles. I always figured Batman should be more athletic looking than Superman because he is more athletic.
Superman, starring Jack Black!
You know, that is a pretty good description of what I was picturing.
Heh… Really. Yeah, I always felt Miller’s TDKR representation was of a Batman that was… “beefier” overall rather than just “more pumped” – in one passage he comments on how fit and lean is the leader of the Mutants gang, and how he has to use superior fighting skill to fight the faster, stronger young man.
Of course one of the things with the characters is that there should be no need for Supes to look like a Mr. Olympia contender, he is naturally superpowerful. He really would only need to look like a fit, healthy man due to superior Kryptonian genes. How would he BUILD such a musculature? 5 sets of 50 reps of overhead pressing a small planet three times weekly? So we have to accept that all male Kryptonians just naturally look like bodybuilders.
ETA Ninja’d by Jack Black , HA!!
Isometrics.
In DK, Bruce Wayne was a fairly bulky guy. Batman was, too.
By DK II, there was no longer Bruce Wayne,but Batman was at Incredible Hulk levels, despite being in geriatric territory.
Whatever ate Frank Miller’s mind has apparently affected his art style.
And I’ve always wondered why Superman was so pumped. Depending on whether you like the Silver Age or Modern interpretations, his powers come from being born in Krypton’s greater gravity, or from Earth’s yellow sun radiation.
So if I moved to Mars, would I suddenly develop massive pectoral muscles? I’d be more inclined to think I’d either get pretty flabby or pretty thin, depending on my caloric intake.
And if I moved to a planet with a blue sun, would I suddenly develop massive biceps?
IIRC Burrough’s John Carter was canonically capable of great feats of strength and agility on Mars due to the gravity issue. Nobody at the time seemed to be aware of the issue of lose of bone/muscle mass and tone just from prolonged life in lower gravity. In his earlier representations John Carter was portrayed as fit but not a muscleman… and as for Superman, Dave Barry once described the 1950s George Reeves Supermanas “a guy who you could tell had spent some time around the onion dip”.
It’s the same magic that gives Kryptonians their powers. One of the three major LLs chicks once commented (while he was watching her work out) that the sculpted physique that came effortlessly to him was something mortals had to kill themselves for.
I’m looking forward to suicide squad more.
Why? Because our “heroes” are (1) deeply flawed and (2) they can bleed
The problem with superman as a character is he isn’t interesting. He’s never in any real personal risk, and he is perfect. He doesn’t act like a human would with that kind of power.
Suicide squad, they can bleed, have to use firearms, several of them will probably die during the movie, they are the bad guys and have to not get stopped by batman, and so on. It just looks a lot more interesting. Also, the director did End of Watch and Fury - almost no way he can not do awesome.
What the fuck does that have to do with the thread question?
Nitpick, but the high gravity explanation for Superman’s powers didn’t make it out of the Golden Age. He was solar powered by the time the Silver Age rolled around.
Nitpicking your nitpick, but as late as 1980, Supey’s powers came from BOTH the gravity differential and the yellow sun. Brute strength, speed, flight, snd endurance came from the former, invulnerability and everything else from the latter. Twas Byrne who said, “Ah, screw it, that’s too complicated, just say he’s a solar battery and everything else derives from that.”
True. I cooda put that better. Another Golden Age explanation was that Kryptonians had been around longer, and were therefore more evolved; in one oldie, Jor-El is in a hurry, and rather than use the front door, simply leaps into a second floor balcony. In that same comic, another Kryptonian remarks, “Why, [Earthlings] do not even possess X-ray vision!”
If there is ANY truth to natural selection, it makes sense that Kryptonian babes would rather breed with guys who looked like bodybuilders than couch potatoes. Therefore, Kryptonian guys would ALL tend to look pretty ripped, regardless…
Not a comic book fan at all, but I enjoyed both the Nolan Batmans and Man of Steel. They finally got a modern take on superheroes right (the Marvel films are just too silly for me). Something that bothers me about Snyder’s statement is I always assumed that Wayne had to have come up with some kind of kryptonite-based armor, otherwise, yeah know, this*!*
Probably the same way other animals do it. We only need exercise because we are genetically programmed that way. We evolved to minimize caloric intake to handle low-food situations. We only get muscle if we’re active, meaning there must be more food available.
Kryptonians may automatically get muscles, or they may have evolved to just consider how much energy the body has–which Superman gets from our yellow sun.
That requires thinking they are in an all out brawl, which is unlikely in this setup. Heck, they’re going to team up and fight some bigger bad, almost certainly.
