Zack Snyder Thinks Batman is Irrelevant if he Doesn’t Kill

Movies

Zack Snyder appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and talked about, among other things, his DC films. The segment that’s setting off alarm bells in superhero fans is when he talks about Batman and his rule against killing. In Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snyder’s version of Batman – played by Ben Affleck – kills often, from random criminals in a car chase to thugs in a warehouse to the big battle where he almost executes Superman (until he finds out their moms have the same name). He also uses a Batarang to brand the criminals who survive their encounters with him, and these guys are targeted for murder in prison; in other words, Batman also kills by proxy. Here’s the clip of Snyder discussing the merits of this approach:

The idea that Batman is irrelevant if he doesn’t kill is stupid. Not everyone has to be an ultraviolent antihero, even in this edgy era where people think the quality of entertainment is directly proportional to how dark and depressing it is. In fact, he admits his own limitations when he references  the graphic novels “Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight Returns” (the latter of which is my favorite comic book story of all time, and I didn’t appreciate how he stripped it for parts in his awful movie) and says he “couldn’t go back” after he read them. Well, then, why are you adapting Superman? Why do you want to base an entire DC Comics franchise on two standalone stories that take place in, respectively, an alternate universe/timeline and a possible future? I know he mostly means tone, but that’s the point; the tone of those books is purposely different from those of the mainline DC stories. In a piece I wrote ages ago, before Geeks + Gamers existed, I said that I didn’t think Zack Snyder believed in heroes, which is what made him perfect for Watchmen and completely wrong for Superman, Batman, et al. This interview reinforces my opinion.

However, Snyder does say one thing I agree with: you can make a good story out of pushing those boundaries. For example, Tim Burton’s Batman kills. As Snyder says, he kills out of necessity in “The Dark Knight Returns.” Superman kills at the end of “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” The difference is that these stories did what Snyder didn’t in his films: they explored the circumstances surrounding and ramifications of these acts. Burton’s Batman is portrayed as a psychopath; when he calls the Joker “psychotic” and Vicki Vale tells him that some people say the same about him, he’s contempleting the idea for a moment, with only one eye visible while the rest of him is shrouded in darkness, and we can tell that a part of him knows this is true. In Batman Returns, he’s the only one who can see through the Penguin’s altruistic façade because he’s a crazy person who wears a figurative mask, too, and he recognizes that in his enemy. In “The Dark Knight Returns,” Batman has grown more jaded and violent in his old age, and everyone around him comments on it. Yet there are parts of him that haven’t changed, and when the Joker returns, there are signs that Batman will finally take his life, with his killing of the thug threatening the baby an indicator that he’s ready. But when he’s finally got the Joker in his grasp, he stops short, refusing to commit murder, even with his newfound love of violence, even when faced with a maniac who will not stop killing. (“How many more?”) And in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Superman is confronted with the Anti-Monitor, a being so powerful that he could destroy the entire multiverse. He realizes that the only way to stop the Anti-Monitor is to kill him, and Superman has to be the one to do it (albeit with some help), and he contemplates how it will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Do Snyder’s films do anything nearly as interesting, thoughtful, or character-building as that? Nope. When Superman kills Zod in Man of Steel, he screams, “NOOOOOO!” and then, he’s fine. It’s never mentioned again, as if it never happened, and in Batman v. Superman, he’s back to treating human life as cavalierly as he did in Man of Steel. And the explanation for Batman’s sudden turn to ruthlessness, as explained by Alfred, is that he was scared and intimidated by Superman’s power. Again, he never contemplates whether there’s something wrong with this, even after he stops himself from killing Superman, realizing that he almost murdered a hero (as much as anyone is in Zack Snyder’s world). He goes right back to dealing out death in the warehouse, and is even about to give Lex Luthor one of his Batarang brands so the other prisoners will murder him. Snyder talks a good game with Joe Rogan, but his DCEU movies aren’t nearly as interesting as he makes them sound.

I loved his Watchmen, though.