8 Classic Problems With Batman And Superman Movies Warner Bros. Are Repeating With The DCEU

The Death Of Superman was published in 1992 designed to be a mega-event to drive comic sales – on top of being a focal story that would get covered in the mainstream press, it came at the time when speculation was high, and such an event had high perceived collector value – but wasn’t the best received by comic fans; the method of death (punched to death by Doomsday, a newly created character), complete importance of the act and fumbling of the return (there were four Superman candidates, only one of whom really captured the imagination) were all widely criticised, and nowadays it's treated as classic "90s comics" (not a compliment). But that reaction did nothing to halt Warner Bros. desperation to adapt it to the big screen.

They've been pushing for it since it was first published; the death and resurrection was the crux of Tim Burton’s ill-fated Superman Lives and was leaned on heavily in subsequent failed scripts (and was even incorporated into Superman Returns), and, despite it now being almost twenty-five years old and little flat – the best it can be is a thin Jesus parallel – the studio finally got what they wanted in Batman V Superman, where Kal-El sacrifices himself in a fight against Doomsday.

Totally unsurprisingly given how all previous efforts had fallen apart, the end product isn't all that effective, neither fitting his arc in the movie or leaving much question over his eventual fate, but you can imagine the studio execs wanted to finally pat themselves on the back for just doing the arc regardless.

Although the fact they’re so obsessed with it speaks of bigger problems with the understanding of the hero...