BATMAN/SUPERMAN - THE TEAM-UP FILM WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR?

MOVIE-TORIAL:

BATMAN TO APPEAR IN “MAN OF STEEL 2”

The geek community rejoices

By:

G.P. Manalo

In the “mecca of geek culture” known as Comic-Con, besides the fact that both Andrew Garfield and Tom Hiddleston “cosplaying” as their own characters, Director of “Man of Steel” and “300” Zack Snyder came in the Warner Bros. Panel to make the biggest announcement in Comic-Con history. Zack Snyder announced that the key-character in the sequel of this year’s “Man of Steel” will be The Dark Knight himself, Batman (also known as Bruce Wayne) he teased it with the quote from Frank Miller’s run of The Dark Knight Returns being read by Harry Lenix (the general from Man of Steel) “I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.” (during that voiceover they revealed the official logo through footage) which is basically teasing the fact that Batman could likely go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel himself in the sequel that is going to be released in the summer of 2015. 

Honestly, as I skim through headlines of news from this year’s San Diego at first I thought that the article regarding this was just a joke, but as I continue to come back to see more headlines like this (with the word “OFFICIAL” on it) I couldn’t believe that I just read that headline. The amount of surprise and joy I had is somewhere in the level of me discovering that Disney acquires Lucasfilms with a new Star Wars trilogy coming in the same year this film comes out. This is pretty much the headline geeks like me are waiting for since the concept of both Superman and Batman (and Robin) are together in a comic. 

Film-wise, I’ve always thought pitting two of Warner Bros. Productions’ box-office titans (or DC’s more known superheroes in the casual movie-goers’ eyes) in one film is a way to go to introduce a universe full of superheroes, I prefer to have the project be done at a snail pace for them to do it right than it being easy cash to carbon copy Marvel's success of their big team-up film. Man of Steel was basically a device or maybe even a starting point for DC's Cinematic Universe, especially when they hint a few characters like Supergirl (possibly the one who escapes from the sleep-pod at the “fortress of solitude”), Booster Gold (Blaze Comics: A store where you can get your Booster Gold stories), Aquaman (possibly the guy who destroyed the oil rig and saved Superman with the help of two dolphins) and Bruce Wayne/Batman (A Wayne Enterprises logo can be seen in the satellite Zod and Superman crashed in their aerial battle). 

(At first) I never thought adding Batman would be a good idea to be in Man of Steel 2 and it would be better if they would team up in the “World’s Finest” film. Man of Steel needs room to correct or address all (or maybe most of) the flaws of the first film and let the Superman stand alone in his own film. But as I reflect on the fact that Batman/Bruce Wayne existing in the Man of Steel film(s), Hours later there were numerous columnists addressing the issue of how Bruce Wayne can exist through the Man of Steel sequel. Hearing his theory, it does make sense that Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne would be working together at first and be enemies in the end (whilst going toe-to-toe with Superman at some point due to Superman’s suspicion over Lex Luthor). I was on-board thinking of that, but the only question is, will they (the studios, David S. Goyer or Zack Snyder) go through that? Then again Lex Luthor was pretty much teased twice in the film and they have talked about him being in the sequel as they go through the process of writing the sequel. That being said, I’ve always dreamed of having two of my favorite superheroes in one movie, it’s somewhere in the level of having two awesome gifts under a Christmas tree. Seeing Batman and Superman and possibly a fraction of the Justice League in one movie would be cool to see in cinematic form.

The only thing left floating around my mind is that who could wear the cowl? Christian Bale is no longer interested in wearing the mantle again, though this is a different version of Batman/Bruce Wayne that they are going to do after all. If I would have a really short list of actors to play Bruce Wayne/Batman it would either be Armie Hammer (I believe that he is a good actor if you give him the right material), John Hamm (If they’re aiming for a slightly older Batman, assuming that they did use the bat-logo of “The Dark Knight Returns” for the footage), Michael C. Hall (I'm pretty much in Dexter mode right now since Season 8 just started), and maybe even Karl Urban (Be honest with yourself, you could've sworn that “Dredd” is his rejected Batman audition tape).

2015, seems to be a promising year for films since you got Star Wars Episode VII, Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (that’ll be for another article), Jurassic Park 4, Bond 24, The Fantastic Four reboot, Assassin’s Creed, Independence Day 2, The last chapter of the Hunger Games trilogy, and now we have Man of Steel 2. Every fanboys’ (and girls, I will never forget the ladies) mind around the world are exploding as we speak with films like these and that year is two years from now.