10 @ a Time - Batman v Superman, Part 8

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Part Eight: Do You Bleed?

Welcome to the eighth installment of “10 @ a Time: Batman v Superman.” Last week we talked about the Knightmare and touched on Alfred’s efforts to keep Batman human. Today, stuff blows up, and two titans meet again for the first time.

[For those playing the home game, we’re looking at the “Ultimate Edition” home video release; for today’s 10@T installment, we’re looking from 1:14:10 to 1:24:53.]

The bulk of this installment is taken up by an action sequence, which is a fabulous eyeball kick. It’s interesting that, at seventy-five minutes into the movie, this is (barring the Knightmare sequence) really only the second Batman sequence of the film. We’ve had Batman as creature of the night in his horror show debut, and now it’s Batman the stop-at-nothing action hero.

Achievement Unlocked: Creature of the Night +10xp

Here and elsewhere (particularly the warehouse fight scene that tees up the film’s climax), I’m struck by the apparent influence of one of the more significant Batman stories of the last ten years – the Batman: Arkham video games. If you haven’t played them, or at least checked them out on YouTube, you’re missing out on some of the finest Batman storytelling of my age – no surprise, given that Paul Dini served as scribe for the first two games, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. This sequence begins with a panning shot of Batman atop a crane at the docks, and it’s the sort of dramatic silhouette that one strikes often in the Arkham games. (At least, I always try to strike one or two when I play.) There’s a fluidity to the sequences of physical combat (“freeflow combat” in the games), and the car chase mechanics feel inherited from Arkham Knight, right down to the nonlethal rubber bullets, which carry that token “Batman doesn’t kill” gesture which Snyder coyly skirts. It’s probable that Batman kills a few people in this sequence, and if he does it’s another symptom that this Batman has fallen quite far from his original ideals. If not, stranger mental gymnastics have been undertaken to preserve the sanctity of that rule.

Finally, at seventy-nine minutes, Batman and Superman meet. They’d met earlier, recall, at Lex’s party, but neither knew the stakes of that first encounter, and so this is the first time that the two giants have met in their full costumed regalia. Zack Snyder stages this scene with all the flair and punch that such a meeting demands. In the midst of Batman’s raucous ride through the streets of Metropolis, Superman has actively sought out “The Bat.” Up to now, we’ve seen Clark Kent’s investigation developed in the Ultimate Edition, and so Superman’s ultimatum makes more sense; we’ve been by Clark’s side as he’s uncovered the effect Batman’s fall has had on Gotham, and now that he’s crossed the bay and come to Superman’s town, the fight is personal.

There’s a pleasant little gag where Batman rams into Superman, who’s completely nonplussed even while the Batmobile practically combusts from the force of the impact. The two titans quite literally collide, but it leads to a very striking image where Batman, unbowed by the display of strength and the physical presence which literally towers over him, rises from the ruin and the flames to meet Superman, to stand eye-to-eye with him and growl a threat to match the one Superman delivers. “The Bat is dead. Bury it,” is met with Batman’s now-iconic remark, “Tell me, do you bleed? You will.” We have this hellish imagery of a demon rising to confront an angel, and yet there’s something just a little bit inspiring (if misguided) about a man who knows he’s hopelessly outgunned looking in the face of a god and metaphorically spitting.

"The bat is dead. Bury it."

“Do you bleed?” It’s an existential question, and it’s key to Batman’s understanding of Superman as something other than human. Notice he doesn’t ask, “Where do you come from?” or “Do you have a mother?” (something he really should have researched). He asks a question about weakness, about human vulnerability. “Are you like me?” he’s asking, and this is the difference between Batman and Lex. Lex would have asked, “Why don’t you bleed? Why aren’t you like me?” It’s a subtle distinction, I grant you, but it’s in a sense pivotal; Batman seeks to understand, on some small level, how this godlike being fits into his worldview, where Lex refuses to acknowledge the possibility of humanity in Superman. Yet for all the detective’s curiosity about the man in the sky, Batman pounds that down with a grimace and a threat - “You will.”

But as much as Batman puts on this face of nonchalance, it’s evident that he’s shaken and perhaps even a little awestruck by having met Superman. Just before the moment of impact, there’s a moving shot of Batman’s jaw dropping as a choral note indicates the moment when man meets god, and a hero who strikes terror in the hearts of his enemies feels fear. Batman is taken back to the dream about the bat-creature in his mother’s mausoleum and knows that Superman could tear him apart just as easily as the beast did. And as the Batmobile limps back to the Batcave and Batman removes his cowl to reveal the man inhabiting the costume, I have to wonder how much of Batman’s worldview is challenged in this moment. He must be asking himself, “Why didn’t he just kill me?” He’s tracked the Kryptonite to Lex Luthor, but pivotally he doesn’t pursue it until after the explosion at the Capitol; would Batman have come around had Luthor not orchestrated the next stop of his plot against Superman? (Sidebar: can we take a moment to acknowledge that Ben Affleck looks frankly definitive in the Batsuit without the cowl? It’s always a potent image to see the man behind the mask, and Affleck has the presence to make it work.)

Speaking of Lex, there’s a wonderful beat in this segment where Senator Finch is giving one of her big speeches about power, and she asks of Superman, “Does he act by our will or his own?” But the line is laid over an image of Lex Luthor ogling his newfound Kryptonite, a reminder that as much as Lex pretends to be a lover of humanity, he’s still manipulating even Senator Finch’s quest for truth. And while we’re on the subject of Senator Finch, the Ultimate Edition reveals that Kahina Ziri, the witness from Nairomi, was working for Lex Luthor. This addition frankly makes Senator Finch look like less of a dolt as she begins to piece together that Lex has been pulling a very significant number of strings; consequently, in a film that we’ve seen gives a surprising degree of agency to its female characters (particularly in comparison to the men in the movie), Senator Finch gets that same degree of narrative respect.

A boy's best friend is his mother.

Finally, while we’re talking about the ladies of Batman v Superman, let’s take a moment to think about the woman who will become, unwittingly and unintentionally, the focal point for both the film’s climactic turning point and the two syllables that stoked more ire than any other in 2016 - Martha Kent. While Bruce Wayne remains haunted by the death of his parents and becomes the man he is by their absence, Clark Kent is very much a product of his upbringing in Kansas, and he’s able to have conversations with both his adopted parents (and, back in Man of Steel, with his birth father). This has always been one of my favorite parts about the Superman mythos, the notion that he can pop back to Kansas any time to visit his folks. (It’s a great loss, incidentally, for the ongoing comics that they killed off the Kents back during DC’s 2011 relaunch “The New 52.”) Echoing the lesson of the “Must there be a Superman?” montage, Martha advises her son, “They see what you do, and they know who you are.” Soldier on, she tells him; be yourself and let the rest of the planet catch up with you. One could almost make the argument that she’s talking directly to Zack Snyder, who’s received a level of critical scorn roughly comparable to George Lucas during the ill-advised Star Wars prequels. (Though honestly, in what world is it just that BvS holds at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes but Attack of the Clones is a comparatively staggering 65%?)

And in keeping with what I’m tracking as an ongoing feminist thread in the film, Martha tells Clark what he needs to hear when her ultimate advice is, “Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their monument, be anything they need you to be... or be none of it. You don’t owe this world a thing.” It’s just dawned on me that Senator Finch was the only woman speaking in that “Must there be” montage, and even she didn’t know what to make of Superman. While Lois Lane continues to fight to vindicate Superman, to clear his name, Martha’s fighting to help her son understand his new place in the world. This is the same non-judgmental Martha who unflappably remarked upon seeing Kal in his Kryptonian suit/birthright, “Nice suit, son.” Where Jonathan Kent had been worried about whether the world would make a place for his son, Martha wants to make sure that her son leaves a place for himself when he lets the world in. Isn’t that what mothers are for?

Next time, it all goes to hell, and Bruce falls into a trap.

Observations and Annotations

• At the docks, there’s a building labeled “Nicholson Terminal,” which simply must be a nod to Jack Nicholson, who played The Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), opposite Michael Keaton.
• When Batman flips the car into the storage container, there’s a Wilhelm scream. I can’t believe I’d never caught that until this viewing.
• I want to acknowledge the fact that in Batman v Superman, despite his protestations that he would leave the composing to Junkie XL, Hans Zimmer has outdone himself by coming up with his second Batman theme, distinct from his first; indeed, he double-outdoes himself because it’s also quite distinct from Danny Elfman’s Bat-theme, too. Despite being markedly different from what came before, it is nonetheless clearly and perfectly Batman-esque. (I do, however, hear small similarities with the Batman Forever theme developed by Elliot Goldenthal.)
• Gail Simone, who’s written comics starring Batgirl, the Birds of Prey, and Deadpool (among so many great other titles like Secret Six), dubbed Batman v Superman, “Dark Bulgy vs. Dark Shiny: Batman Hates Boats So Goddamn Much.” And I have to say, I can’t watch this chase sequence and its gratuitous destruction of watercraft without a quiet hat-tip to Gail Simone.
• During the Batmobile chase, there’s a shot of the Batmobile driving through the flames. That shot always reminds me of the moment in Batman ’89 when the Batmobile emerges from the fires of Axis Chemicals, but I can’t be sure if it’s deliberate or if I’m so deep into these movies that they’re tattooed on the inside of my eyelids.
• Lex’s aide, Mercy Graves, doesn’t get a lot to do in the movie. But the look of pure glee on her face when Lex opens the Kryptonite is a wonderful spot of characterization. She’s genuinely thrilled that her boss’s plan is working to perfection; she’s excited about possessing the silver bullet that can kill Superman. She’s rooting for Lex. It’s only too bad that he won’t show her the same courtesy later in the film.
• Kahina Ziri boards a bus to Kane Avenue. Bob Kane was, of course, the contested co-creator who was for many years contractually acknowledged as the sole contributor. Recently, and including within the credits to this very film, DC Comics has redressed that omission and begun to credit Bill Finger alongside Bob Kane.
• It bears repeating that Zack Snyder showcases his particular touch of comic book movie direction when Lois flashes back to the rescue in Nairomi, recontextualizing images we recognize and imbuing them with new meaning. It’s hardly a new cinematic technique, but it’s definitely one that here roots itself in the comic book medium.