Comic book and movie fan’s across the world were extremely excited about the first trailer for Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder’s Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice due out in March 2016. While there was a lot to be excited about from the trailer in the form of the Superman God dynamic. The version of Batman that Zack Snyder has planned for main stream audiences at least initially seems a bit disturbing, and it has nothing to do with Batfleck. Rather with the fact that it appear’s Snyder’s version of the Caped Crusader will be prone to using the any means necessary model to combat his enemies, and yes that does include fire arms (plural). Due to the death of his parents at the hands of a firearm Bruce Wayne has always been one to shy away from guns across all mediums. However as you can see in the multiple shots below Snyder’s vision of the character is more in line with Tim Burton’s than it is anything ever written at DC.
While it may be a bit of reaching above we have a picture of Batman carrying what looks like some type of heavy artillery cannon. Yes this could be some sort of technological weapon, but elements that unfold later in the trailer make that seem highly unlikely.
Above you have probably the most ominous shot in the trailer one Batman clearly equipped with a sniper rifle. Many perceived this to initially to be the top of the platform that Batman is standing on, but after further analysis of the shot you can clearly see the scope and long barrel of the that would indicate he is indeed holding a sniper rifle. Hardcore Batman fan’s can only hope those are just Kryptonite laced bullet’s in the barrel or its being used to shoot a grappling hook ala The Dark Knight Returns.
The most telling shot relating to this topic in the trailer comes when the Batwing unleashes loads of ammunition on what looks like a couple of henchmen. Yes, Christopher Nolan’s version of the Batwing in The Dark Knight Rises did use guns, but never to the point of blatant death as we see here. After having watched the trailer several times there is no way one could conclude logically that the henchmen seen here live.
Perhaps it would have been best for any true fan of the Batman mythos to give up any and all hope of this version of Batman when at the end of the trailer Batman ask’s Superman does he bleed? And then promises he will. These type of motivations of the character regardless of the interpretation are the complete anthesis of the Batman character. While I have no problem with a character using firearms, and respect the artistic freedom that Writers and or Directors have to exercise when breathing new life into established characters there still needs to be some level of respect paid to the character’s core beliefs. One of Batman’s happens to be that he is anti-gun in all major incarnations of the character. In the Nolan trilogy the character was written as clearly to utter the words” no guns, no killing”, and any reasonable comic writer at DC knows they would endanger the sales of their book if Batman even picked up a pistol.
The saddest part of all this, is the source material that Zack Snyder seems to be pulling the majority of his story from: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns has arguably the most famous Batman anti-gun panel of all time (Seen left). A panel that many Batman fan’s posted around the internet after the Aurora Colorado theater shooting at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, to remind the public the kind of integrity that the character stood for regrading firearms. I understand that Batman originally carried a gun in Detective Comics and came in guns a blazing to ACE chemicals in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, however the zeitgeist around character has changed so much that what Snyder appears to be doing is inexcusable.
While so many thing’s could change or be perceived completely different in context come March 25th 2016 when Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is released, it feels like at this point the biggest threat to Batman won’t be Superman, but rather the integrity of his character.
Be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you thought of Batman’s use of firearms in the trailer!
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