Why Batman Is (Still) Obsessed With Superman In Justice League

The Batman has always been obsessional ; it ’s a fundamental small-arm of Bruce Wayne ’s psychological composition . Throughout his seven decades and counting feed as one of the mainstay of DC Comics and in his myriad adaptation across all form of media - especially in his mega - successful feature film franchises helm by Tim Burton , Joel Schumacher , Christopher Nolan , and Zack Snyder - Batman ’s compulsion has been his primary driving force . What makes the forthcoming and hotly anticipatedJustice Leaguedifferent from every other cinematic interlingual rendition of the Dark Knight is the source of his fixation . We all know Batman ’s root by heart , andBatman V Superman : Dawn of Justicejust last year repeat the parentage again for anyone still somehow missing the crucial details of who Batman is and how he come to be : a young Bruce Wayne and his parents were vanish upon a criminal after seeing a movie . The shooter shot and killed Thomas and Martha Wayne , leaving Bruce an orphan irrevocably traumatized by his powerlessness to save his parents . Batman V Supermanflashes out front 35 years to render an older , weary Bruce Wayne ( Ben Affleck ) , who has been at war with the criminal of Gotham for two decades . It has be him dearly ; his kinsperson ’s hereditary mansion house lies in ruin , his youthful partner Robin off by the Joker ( Jared Leto ) and Harley Quinn ( Margot Robbie ) , and he is now older than his father ever was . InBatman V Superman , Batman was also more panic-struck than ever before . His whole grownup life was spend amassing the training and weapon he need to be the Batman and engage war against criminal , all to prevent what happened to his parent and to the young boy he was from happening to anyone else . He has had achiever and failure , but like every other Batman before him , Ben Affleck ’s Batman was all about keeping the vow he made to his parents . Then Superman happened . The devastation of Metropolis at the conclusion ofMan of Steelwas retconned inBvS : we hear that Gotham and Metropolis are sister cities divide by a bay , and that Bruce Wayne was in fact in Metropolis on the day Superman ( Henry Cavill ) fight General Zod ( Michael Shannon ) to the death . Bruce Wayne is habitual to witnessing horrors , but the daylight that became known as the Black Zero Event break Batman in a steel Modern manner . The rearing , apocalyptical death , include of the Wayne building in Metropolis , and the expiry of many of his employees and ally , was a new form of horror Bruce Wayne was not quick for . The chaotic world he struggle to create Holy Order in now had all - herculean , god - like foreigner living in it . Superman was n’t a hero or a Redeemer to the Batman , no matter how many heroic rescues he performed around the humanity . Metropolis build a statue in Superman ’s honor , the Daily Planet pen puff pieces about their new hero sandwich , but Batman never conceive it all . All Batman saw was an foe -theenemy - and a war that only he knew how to defend . As Batman ramp to his faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth ( Jeremy Irons):“He has the power to pass over out the entire human race , and if we consider there ’s even a one percent chance that he is our foeman we have to take it as an absolute certainty … and we have to put down him . “Batman V Supermanchanged the focussing of Batman ’s obsession from his parent to Superman . It was no longer about saving Gotham , and by prolongation saving his parent . For Batman , it became all about Superman , and BatmanhatedSuperman . In the two years that overstep between the Black Zero Event and his affaire d’honneur with Superman , Batman ’s driving focus was to economise the world from the threat the Man of Steel could become - and in Batman ’s eyes already was . Zack Snyder ’s depiction of Batman was controversial ( to say the least ) because this Batman was an unrepentant orca , and he spend two years plot to kill one Kryptonian in finical . His architectural plan was even to stab Superman in in the essence with a Kryptonite fishgig . Everything Batman did inBatman V Supermanwas working towards one goal : to kill Superman . The name " Martha " essentially rebooted Batman ’s mind . It ’s always been a weird concurrence in the comics that Batman ’s mother had the same first name as Superman ’s adopted human mother . As much as it ’s been mocked since , the pivotal plot point of Batman discovering Superman ’s mother is also name Martha jolted Batman and instantaneously change him . Suddenly , Superman was no longer an foreign monster pretending to be a hero . He was a soul who has a mother , the same name as his mother . In this one ( admittedly silly ) way , Batman realized he and Superman were the same . Batman ’s instantaneous reboot turned Superman from an opposition to a champion , but he was still obsess with Superman . He agreed to save Superman ’s mother from demise , and it meant the world to him to be able to save someone else ’s mother named Martha the direction he never could his own .

Superman ’s demise by give himself to kill Doomsday only seared Batman ’s obsession about the Man of Steel into his mind even further . By the conclusion ofBvS , Bruce Wayne was stand with Wonder Woman ( Gal Gadot ) at Clark Kent ’s funeral in Smallville , Kansas - a funeral Wayne paid for . Remember , just day prior , Bruce spent two years and untold sum of money of his billions trying to himself kill the man being buried in the ground . Now , Bruce Wayne spoke of vow and promise he made Superman,“to honor him . " " I fail him in life,“he tells Wonder Woman . “I wo n’t fail him in decease . “When he saved Martha Kent , Bruce Wayne seemingly put to rest his unsuccessful person to redeem his parents and made his peace of mind with that trauma of his past times . In its berth was a brand novel trauma to drive Batman : how he failed Superman .

Which contribute us toJustice League , which only continues Batman ’s compulsion with Superman . Now , Batman is more terrified than ever . Even more than he was of Superman ’s potentiality to be Earth ’s destroyer , he ’s panicky of the cominginvasion by the effect of the planet Apokolips , which was augur to Batman by a time travel Flash ( Ezra Miller ) and in a dream chronological sequence ( where Superman was the despotic killer he was afraid he was ) . Batman needs to mold a team to stop the aliens coming to invade . He knows , having faced Doomsday and realized his own limits against such power , that despite his weapons and technology , he is not enough . He needs metahuman warrior . As we see in theJustice Leaguetrailers , even with Wonder Woman by his side , Batman does n’t seem slaked by retrieve the Flash , Aquaman ( Jason Momoa ) and Cyborg ( Ray Fisher ) . Despite all of their combined power , Batman chance his new League lacking . Because they do n’t have Superman .

The Justice League isBatman ’s respectable effortand Hail Mary to not just honor Superman - whom he now allege was"a beacon of hope to the world”- but to have a grand force out herculean enough to supplant him and guard the Earth . If Superman had live , Batman may not even sense the need to have a League . And yet , even pose Wonder Woman , Aquaman , Flash , and Cyborg together , Batman still feel the new team is unequal . “Divided , we are not enough,“Batman tell in the new trailer . “The humankind needs Superman . “Batman is just trying to obligate the world together as he desperately undertake to subsist up to the case Superman prepare , while yearning for the deciding factor that Superman would be - if he were alive .

Luckily for Batman , all of the evidence inJustice League ’s promotional material - includingthe raw concluding trailer- suggestsSuperman will return . HowSuperman proceeds is the big question forJustice Leagueto result . Will the Man of Steel be rise just in time to be the deviation between the League being able to salve the world or face ultimate defeat ? Or will Superman somehow yield transfer and evil ? How will either affect Batman , who has now lurch his motor obsession to living up to the example set by the Man of Steel whom he flush it in life ? For Batman inJustice League , everything is about saving the world - the way Superman would have - and may yet again .