10 Wildly Underdeveloped Subplots From Batman V Superman

6. Bruce Wayne: Alcoholic

Bruce Wayne has been through a whole lot of s**t by the time the audience is introduced to him in Batman vs. Superman. He has seen loved ones die, proteges killed and the world descend into madness around him. He is a shell of the proud young hero that fans were introduced to in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins or even the charismatic billionaire playboy portrayed by George Clooney in the god awful Batman & Robin. He is, to put it bluntly, a miserable bastard.

And justifiably so.

There are numerous scenes that suggest the demons of Wayne's past may be adversely affecting him, some of which we will get to in a bit. But there is one scene in particular that suggests the man behind the cowl is an alcoholic. After Bruce endures a night of sleep plagued by nightmares, Alfred enters his room to find an empty bottle. The accusation that the next generation of Waynes may not have a wine cellar to frequent smacks of sarcasm but also a harsh reality: this Wayne is far from perfect.

Never before had Wayne been presented as so flawed on film. Sure, Nolan's Bruce was an angry and rebellious young man initially, then went into seclusion following the death of his beloved Rachel, but that character still had a nobility about him. The Wayne in Snyder's film is bitter and chooses to befriend the bottle.

It is a fresh take on an old character and one that should have been followed up on far more than it was. Instead, it was but another subplot introduced, then dropped in the name of the bigger, the badder and the more explosive that would proceed it.