The Dark Knight's ability to beat just about anyone or anything in a fight borders on Internet meme right now; there's a reason, if you Google 'Batman/Superman' that the majority of images it returns depicts Batman slapping the spit out of the Man of Steel. There's a possibility, then, that the resolution of Dawn Of Justice will see Superman suffering his first defeat. At the hands of a mere human, no less. A super-rich, cheating human, granted. Snyder's established cinematic DC Universe hasn't introduced the idea Kryptonite yet (heck, it barely introduced the name "Superman"), so it'll be interesting to see how Batfleck manages to even the odds. Will it be Batman who discovers Superman's weakness to small lumps of his own homeworld? Will we see him concoct his own version? Or does this Batman have some other tricks up his sleeve beside repeatedly whacking the alien about the face with small crystallized bits of Krypton? Although Batman and Superman had been fighting on-and-off for years beforehand, it was Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns which popularised (and arguably exaggerated) Batman's ability to wipe the floor with Superman, should the need arise. And it's from here where Snyder's film will reportedly draw its inspiration. We've already seen glimpses of Batman's battle suit, which looks as though it could have been pulled straight from the pages of the comic. The pair have fought many (many) times since, but the whole thing reached its nadir in Miller's sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again, in which half of the Justice League join forces to humiliate poor Superman, who turns up at the end to dole out yet another - this time more definitive - beatdown. One man's superheroics is another man's bullying.
A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.
