Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:27 — 54.6MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
A rubric of four factors for engaging fictional choices, looking at the March issue of Empire magazine, the five chapters of the Dr. Pepper promotional comic, two Zack Snyder interviews, and more.
Answers, insights, and commentary on:
- Exchange, Stakes, Context, and Preference (ESCaPe)
- Who came first: Darkseid or Thanos?
- Batman as the Bad Guy
- Naughty Wonder Woman?
- Are promo comics canonical?
- Batman’s relationship to Gotham PD
- Superman’s impact on geopolitics
…and more.
March 2016 Batman v. Superman Exclusive | Empire
“From the World of Batman v. Superman” promo comic | Dr. Pepper
The Hall of Justice Podcast #28 Zack Snyder | Seth Everett
Zack Snyder on 02/04/2016 | Opie with Jim Norton
$5 Fandago Credit with proofs of purchase | Dr. Pepper
Batman v. Superman Collectible Cans | Dr. Pepper
Justice League Unlimited | Warner Home Video
Justice League: Doom | Warner Home Video
All Star Superman | Warner Home Video
Wonder Woman | Warner Home Video
Sid Meier on Interesting Decisions | Gamasutra
Comic Book Artist magazine | Wikipedia
Batman v Superman To Get Day-And-Date China Release | Variety
History of Ideas – Failure | School of Life
Season 5 Episode 14: The Ring | Last Man Standing
Web: ManOfSteelAnswers.com
Twitter: @mosanswers
Subscribe: iTunes / RSS / Stitcher / YouTube 
Proud member of the Superman Podcast Network!
Software Generated Transcript
Happy Lunar New Year! – Version 2.0
I know what you said about taking time off from constantly looking for new content, but since this is about the world of BvS, I figure it’s relevant:
http://www.tkairlines.com/gotham
http://www.tkairlines.com/metropolis
Some pretty neat marketing on both cities.
Thanks, the episode has been recorded but haven’t had anytime to edit it or add in clips. It’s getting preempted by the trailer drop, but I might just put in the recorded parts without the clips.
Thanks you so much for this. There is new trailer coming on 15th Feb. As the release date is coming closer, online negativity and hatred towards this movie is going over board, its making me so sad 🙁
Hopefully a little more positivity after that last trailer.
If not, try to worry less about others and just enjoy it for yourself.
Thanks for another episode Doctor.
Talking about expectations, Scott Mendelson from Forbes has made two different predictions for the Box Offive of “Batman v Superman”. Have you checked them? What do you think about them and their accuracy? You think one or the other could happen?
Sadly there’s no absolute formula to film. If our predictions were better than crystal balls (which by my reckoning don’t work- no offense if you genuinely believe they do) on movies then we’d be making a killing predicting other things.
The final trailer is up online. WB’s official YouTube account didn’t post it yet but it is up other places.
Hoping to record tonight. Then get out either a short episode tomorrow (just trailer) or a longer one soon after (add in Turkish Airlines material already recorded).
I know you glossed over it in this episode, but I was very heartened by Zack’s comment about how he didn’t change Superman. I had just made the argument a few weeks ago in response to someone saying they “didn’t recognize” Superman in Man of Steel, that Superman really isn’t different, it’s just that everything around him is. Superman in Man of Steel thoughtful, restrained, noble, caring, helpful, humble, loyal… everything we think of when we think of Superman. But Lois, Jor-El, Zod, The Kents, even Perry White, they’re the ones who are “unrecognizable,” or at least, dramatically updated. I mean, now that I think of it, Snyder et al billed this as “what if Superman showed up in our world,” and that’s really exactly what it is.
So it’s not that Superman is different or even acts differently, it’s that he REacts differently. Faced with a father who is almost paranoid in his sheltering of his son, Superman follows his wishes and lets him die so as not to expose his secret. Faced with a Lois that has figured out who he is Superman chooses to trust her, faced with a Zod who vows to annihilate the entire human race Superman chooses to kill him.
I mean, this is an extreme example, but it almost reminds me of Jeff Daniels’ character in Purple Rose of Cairo, where he steps from a movie into the real world and is confused that things don’t play out here according to the rules of fiction.
This Superman would likely make the same choices when faced with the same situations as Siegel’s, Swan’s, Byrne’s, Johns’, or Donner’s. He’s just not faced with the same situations. It’s almost as though the audience has been dragged from the movie world to the real one, where they expect the rules of fiction to be followed and are shocked when they are not.
It’s one of the things I love about this movie. It plays against expectations and challenges the viewer, and to do that with such an iconic and beloved character as Superman may seem heretical, but it’s exactly that idolatry that makes it necessary. One more movie playing into the expectations of Superman fans would have mollified them and bored everyone. This may have upset a few people, but it certainly wasn’t boring. And that’s the highest goal of art, to have the viewer see something they can’t see on their own, to see a perpective that they hadn’t considered before.
I can relate to you friend, I really do.
“One more movie playing into the expectations of Superman fans would have mollified them and bored everyone.”
That’s exactly what Superman Returns was, a love letter to the original films with Reeve that tried to appeal to a modern audience. The fact that it became a near-flop at the Box Office despite ’some’ acclaim from nostalgic critics proved that the campy Superman was outdated. Superman needed Man of Steel to (as Snyder said) keep Superman relevant, and it did!
The highest grossing Superman movie (and third of DC) of all history speaks for itself. And the same can be said about The New 52 Superman, DC revamped his “appearance only”, but his soul remained the same, that is the run that made me love the comics!
It is really insulting when people claims that the Superman fanbase is a superficial, close-minded and nitpicky bunch. And is even more insulting when some fans prove them right.
Great comments. I side-stepped it mostly because “true canon” is a tricky term to unravel. I think if you don’t nitpick and take the intention of his comments he’s solid, but you dive in and the defense has to become meticulous (like me spending three episodes on just three minutes of the tornado scene!) and I think Zack’s best defense, ultimately, is the end product… so I glossed over it that episode but it’s definitely highly defensible as you and Heart of Steel address.