This much-publicized pic of Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel may be at the center of why Christopher Nolan’s version of theDC universe is so unsettling…and unsatisfying
Simply put: he’s scary. And he’s no supposed to be.
In the Silver Age — yes, before most of you were born — everything in the DC Universe was sunny, even the shadow-folk like Batman. From the Seventies til the end of the century, with the influence of the amazing Frank Miller, Alan Moore and their ilk on one side and the sunny delights of folks like John Byrne and George Perez on the other, the DCU settled in a comfortable and workable world of contrasts, Superman was light and hopeful, Batman was dark and powerful. But then the ‘core’ the characters — here and at Marvel — moved from comics to the films based on them, and — at least as far as DC’s characters were concerned — along came Christopher Nolan.
And folks, face it: Christopher Nolan is dark. His three-part vision of a psychotic in a bat-suit established a grim standard, and while Superman should have been the polar opposite, taking its inspiration from the half-dozen film and TV interpretations of the last quarter-century, instead the Nolan-influenced Man of Steel was just more of the same: dark, dark, dark. Sure, he talked about ‘hope,’ but come on: the whole movie looks like it was shot under a heavy overcast; everyone from Pa Kent upward warned Clark about how suspicious and untrustworthy humans could be — that’s why he needed a secret identity, ’cause Earthians were no damn good! — and ultimately he showed is clay feet anyway, showing a remrkably Hamletian lack of commitment and sheer lack of creativity when he couldn’t think of any other way to deal with Zod than, well, murder him. And now this:
Look at him. Is Kal depressed or angry? Either way, he looks downright dangerous. He inhabits a dark and stormy night.His costume is so dark it’s almost colorless. At gase: he’s scary. Just as scary as Batman. It’s a further indication that the dark/light, hope/power contrast of (most of) the last thirty years is not part of the cinematic DCU. Nolan and his follows don’t like this people. They don’t trust them. They don’t like them, no matter the antecedents.
Yeah, we’re watch the Batman v. Superman movie like everyone else. But we won’t forget the years and years of World’s Finest, where Batman and Superman automatically, inevitably worked together desptie their differences. And we won’t forget how all that partnership and good humor has disappeared from the Nolanverse.
