Movies: Batman VS Superman and Civil War

[Omen]

Batman versus Superman?
Captain America versus Iron Man?

This is a classic, ‘WHAT THE HECK?!?’, moment! While both of these are epic battles, making this year the hero-v-hero era, one of these seems a bit more extreme than the other.

In one corner we have the Boy Scout soldier fighting the narcissistic billionaire of war tech.
In the other corner we have the billionaire goth, that refuses to take his depression pills, going up against a Boy Scout god!

I love Cap, but… DANGGIT, I can’t ignore the coconuts hanging from the Batman’s ‘tree’ when I see him speak to Clark as an equal and school the Man-of-Steel with his intellect. Supes stands on his car, rip the top off, and stares at the Bat as though he is reminding him that he is only human. Instead of scrounging, begging, apologizing, or even talking his way out of it…. The Bat is like… ‘BRING IT, ALIEN MENACE!!’

WTH?!?

When I turn over to Cap fighting the mirror-lover in armor, I’m watching him teamed up with his ‘buck-buddy’ fighting our vain-sweetness in tin can armor as a two-on-one in a sewer or something. I love Cap… but I definitely feel a difference when he and the Bat are compared in battle.

The Bat is CRAZY! He needs counseling… BAD!

Cap was just going through a break up with the mirror-lover in armor, in order to protect his buck-buddy. This is FAR more relatable than that psycho in black trying to chastise an indestructible Kryptonian with more parents than a foster child bounced from home-to-home (heck, all the Supes know is love and caring, whether its from an ancient hologram in a crystal cave of solitude or poor farmers selling beets and carrots on the roadside in a 60s era pickup truck).

On a side note, I’m hearing a TON of rumors and can’t seem to get a hard confirmation about Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern having cameos in the new Bats-v-Supes coming up. Does anyone know if this is true?

I also hear that Civil War (Cap-v-Vain Sweetness in the tin can) is supposed to have the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Ant Man showing their faces. Has anyone heard anything about this?

No matter what, I’m going to see both, but if you ask me to pick the one that I want to see most, I would have to say….

(that’s my secret! I’m not gonna tell!)

-Omen

[The Muse]

I thought I saw that Wonderwoman is in the B vs. S movie as well....

[John Reid]

Batman vs Superman and Captain America vs Iron Man is interesting to compare because in the former Batman is the one without powers and in Marvel Comics world Cap is the one without powers, but personality wise Batman and Iron Man are similar types while Superman and Captain America are similar types.

Both Supe and Caps are hero types to the core who always do what is right and never lower their principles and come across as perfect in every way.

Both Batman and Iron Man are billionaires but also flawed human beings. One thing they have in common is confidence which borders on over confidence at times.

Both Batman and Iron Man have demons to battle of their own. Both are capable of love but choose to isolate themselves for reasons of their own. With Iron Man alcoholism became a recurring demon occasionally that he must fight to keep at bay. He is also a genius living in a world of non geniuses and that too isolates him.

Batman's roots twisted his outlook of humanity in general early on. He sees humanity as generally evil and goodness is achieved by the few who overcome their baser instincts.

Superman as an outsider sees humanity as generally good and those who give in to their baser instincts as flawed.

Captain America likewise sees humanity as generally good and fights to protect the weak from the strong. He too being from a different era sees himself as an outsider in the modern world. He is not an alien but often feels like one in the modern world.

Just my 2 cents

[Omen]

One thing I appreciate about both of these movies being compared to each other is the clarity surrounding the true differences between the Bat and Cap. The Bat is clearly a loner who periodically acts with a team, as opposed to Cap, who is a team player who occasionally acts as a loner.

Supes is treated as a god revered by mankind. His loneliness is realized by his race and upbringing. In contrast, the tin can (Iron Man) is a man who enjoys acting like a god. His loneliness is established by shallow friendships, business deals, and fan-based envy which acts as the buffer between he and his true self.

I can’t say enough about looking forward to how both of these stories pan out. I also view them as great writing resources to learn from.

Note how, historically, the baseline stories from books and comics have been changed in order to make them into entertaining movies. This act of, ‘write-shifting’ became the foundation tool that so many loyalists HATE when, what is written in a book or comic strays into something else as a camera and movie tickets become a part of the equation.

I’ve always viewed this a reality for any written medium… until I saw, Frank Miller’s 300! Oops, sorry… I digressed. Excellence shouldn’t be spoken of so leisurely, forgive me. THIS IS SPARTA!!!

Moving on… the Bat-v-Supes is another Frank Miller tale brought to life and it should be dark! Civil War feels like it’s going to be ‘comic-booky’ with some flavors of darkness. I think both will serve a different emotion in us fans… as long as we don’t get stuck on trying to fit them in the same box for comparisons. Which of course will lead to endless fanboy/girl arguments over which is best.

Of course, that is the part of being a comic geek that is most fun!!

-Omen

[John Reid]

I think the Civil War film should have been put off until Marvel gets all of it's heroes under one company. The film would have been better looked forward to with Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, etc. Of course I really don't know if any or all of the above are in the film but think most likely not since they are owned by different companies.

I wish they would have saved the Batman VS Superman battle and just filmed "The Dark Knight Returns" as is. Since they are stealing from that, that means we will never see a filmed version of it.

Plus they added Wonder Woman, Aquaman and others just to compete with the popularity of the Avengers film and at the same time the Avengers rushed into Civil War just to compete with Batman vs Superman. I do wish both companies would stop competing with each other and just make the best films they can on their own merit.

[John Reid]

Speaking of Civil War, I was not a big fan of the original story simply because it seemed to me like they got it backwards. Captain America should have been the law and order hero and Iron Man the rebel.

Why would Captain America object to heroes working for Shield when he was the very first hero to do so. He's Shield's poster boy in fact. Why would Cap object to revealing his ID when he'd already done that years before as well.

Iron Man on the other hand has defied the law multiple times. He went on a crusade to get back all of his stolen tech for instance in defiance of the law.

So I suppose the movie will follow the same line of thinking as the comic, but I do have to wonder if they will kill Cap off at the end of it as they did in the book?