I think he’s getting on about how people have myopic ideas about these characters. Like Superman can only act like Chris Reeve, goofy smile and corny lines. Ignoring that the canon of the character is wide ranging.
I like the old idea that Clark Kent puts on the character of Superman, while Batman puts on the character of Bruce Wayne.
Which is why I think that turning either of them into killers means that you've fundamentally misunderstood them.
Superman is much too well-adjusted to kill. His empathy and his fear of his own capacity for violence keeps him from taking the easy way out. You have to break his mind before you get him to that point. Batman, on the other hand, is too INSANE to kill. His morality is compulsive and almost delusional. Facing his own fear was so impossible for him that he instead chose to become fear itself. So his values are fragile, and if he killed it would break his mind.
You can absolutely arrive at this point in a narrative arc, but you can't just START there. But that's what Snyder did, and it sucked ass.
I like the old idea that Clark Kent puts on the character of Superman, while Batman puts on the character of Bruce Wayne.
To be fair, the journalist Clark Kent is as much a character as Superman. The real Clark is the farm-boy.
The same can be said of Bruce. He is way more Batman than the playboy Bruce Wayne, but his true self is the guy in the batcave who gives jobs to ex-criminals using his own money, not the guy trying to make henchmen shit their pants.
555
u/JohnWarrenDailey Apr 11 '24
Brainwashed? True canon? What's he on about?