Even though this is exactly what I hoped/predicted Warner Brothers would do, it's hugely exciting news. Despite several attempts to create this movie, Batman and Superman have never before been seen on the big screen together. With all the speculation about a potential Justice League movie, and the success of Man of Steel, it was only a matter of time before Warner fed us something. As I understand it, all we got was a logo, a release date of 2015 and the tentative title of Superman VS Batman (which, truth be told, isn't hugely inspiring - just look at Freddie VS Jason and Alien VS Predator).
I'd originally planned to do a post explaining why a World's Finest (that's the name of the original comic-run in which Superman and Batman joined forces) movie was Warner's best option, but they've already taken my unspoken advice, so that blog post would unnecessary. What I will do is briefly say why I think this is a great idea, but also what I think Warner should try to avoid.
Why is World's Finest awesome?
Firstly, it's not as convoluted as Justice League. Warner's original plan was to do the reverse of Marvel's line-up, and have one movie that would introduce all the characters and spark off a series of individual movies. That would have been terrible - establishing such strong and complex characters and getting them all together and testing them to their limits against a Big Bad requires more than 2 hours. Start off small, don't bite off more than you can chew.
It goes without saying that Batman and Superman are two of the three most well-known superheroes in the world (the third being Spider-man), so it's natural for Warner to use that property to establish their DC Cinematic Universe. Plus, the success of Man of Steel and the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy has everyone wanting more of both. Now is the perfect time for them to team-up on the silver screen.
So start small, and then move onto bigger things. Get the two most important heroes right, and then you can bring in the other stars in future movies. In my opinion, the DCCU should go a little something like this:
- Man of Steel
- World's Finest
- Flash
- Wonder Woman or Aquaman (possibly - this stage isn't 100% necessary, but would be nice)
- Justice League
By the time you get to Justice League, you only have to introduce a couple of new superheroes, who are normally Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and sometimes Cyborg and/or Hawkgirl. Then, once the big film's out of the way, you can work on giving those other heroes their own movies.
What should Warner Brothers avoid?
Having the whole plot of the movie be Batman fighting Superman. That would be outright terrible. There's no way that a) they could find an interesting enough plot for it, and b) that it would be able to come anywhere near to matching the action in Man of Steel. After all, what's a human got on a Kryptonian? Even though Batman has a strong chance of winning (which he does many times in the comics), it wouldn't make a great movie.
That's not to say they shouldn't come into conflict at all. Just look at The Avengers: Joss Whedon effortlessly pitted Marvel's three biggest heroes - Iron Man, Captain America and Thor - against each other in what was portrayed as a really petty quarrel, and then Thor and Hulk fought each other later on. However, they worked out their differences for the finale and beat Loki and his army of aliens, and saved the day. That's really what World's Finest should do: have the two heroes at odds, but allow them to work their issues out before taking on the real enemy, whoever that may be.
To round off, here's a picture from the LEGO Justice League movie:
In one of my next posts, I'll talk about who I think would make the best villains in the movie. I hope this hasn't been too much of a geek rant - I just wanted to get my opinion out there. I'm really excited for this movie, but also worried that they might not get it right. Superman and Batman deserve to be done, er, justice. :)
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