There was a seismic rumble in the movie world over the weekend as Man of Steel director Zack Snyder announced that Warner Bros’ next Superman movie would feature the studio’s other flagship superhero Batman. Screenwriter David S Goyer subsequently hinted that the blockbuster would carry a “versus” tag in its title, meaning that in 2015 comic book fans may get the answer to one of the medium’s ultimate questions: who would win in a fight – Batman or Superman?
The crucial question, though, is can this crossover actually work? Whereas Marvel has organically built towards an Avengers movie with solo outings for marquee heroes Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, Warner Bros has only just relaunched Superman (albeit with commercial success on Man of Steel).
The cinematic future of Batman is also somewhat murky after Christopher Nolan closed the doors on Christian Bale’s incarnation of the Caped Crusader. Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt ready to take the mantle or does it have to be Bruce Wayne? Previously, Hollywood has used the “versus” concept in a bid to revitalise flagging brands with Alien vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason, but these both tanked with critics and fans – one last desperate throw of the dice as opposed to cunning series reboots.
Batman and Superman arrive with a little more fan goodwill, and their pairings in comic books (notably Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns) and cartoon stories stretching back to the 1940s have always meant that the possibility of a live-action crossover has been a tantalising possibility for superhero geeks. Snyder and Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel took a tonal shift towards the dark, brooding feel of Nolan’s Bat trilogy, and the presence of a Wayne Enterprises logo in that movie certainly points towards the theory that this film may have been in the works for some time.
