Now that we have a new Superman and the DC Extended Universe has come to an end, after a decade of capes, masks and superpowers (culminating with the release of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’), it’s very tempting to look back and review the ups and downs of a project that started with a declaration of intent. This was none other than ‘Man of Steel’ by Zack Snyderwhich in 2013 put on the table a tonal bet that had nothing to do with that of direct competition.

It is clear that the defenestrated film project of the Distinguished Competition had come to take its risks, and a clear example was to kick things off with one of the most controversial decisions that an established IP has made in recent times: make Superman cross a line he’s never crossed before and kill another character.

The neck of yore

During an interview with empirethe screenwriter of ‘Man of Steel’, David S. Goyer He explained his position on the delicate decision.

“You have to respect the canon, but constantly question the canon. If you don’t reinvent these characters… they stagnate and stop being relevant. We felt, and I think a lot of people felt, that Superman was no longer relevant.”

Director Zack Snyder also gave your point of view about it.

“The ‘why’ for me was that, if it really was an origin story, his aversion to killing was not explained… I wanted to create a scenario where Superman either sees (the citizens of Metropolis) cut in half, or he has to do what he has to do.”

As Goyer noted, Christopher Nolanproducer and co-author of the story that gave rise to the script for ‘Man of Steel’, He was fiercely opposed to staining Superman’s hands with blood.partly due to his experience with ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy, but the screenwriter managed to convince him after giving him the written scene.

“(Chris) originally said: ‘There is no way you can do this‘. “I wrote the scene, gave it to Chris, and he said, ‘Well, you’ve convinced me.'”

Grant Morrison would not have made this decision: “People ask for things like that”

For his part, during a conversation with USA Todaythe prestigious comic book writer Grant Morrison, author of that marvel titled ‘All-Star Superman’, gave his two cents on the subject. and made a pitch about what he would have done to resolve the feud between Kal-El and Zod. In his opinion, Superman wouldn’t have to kill anyone if he had thought before acting.

“I don’t know about you, but the last moral decision I made had nothing to do with killing people. People ask for things like that, but I still wonder why It is insisted that this is what we would all do if we were in Superman’s place and had to make the difficult decision to kill Zod. Would we do it? Very few of us have ever killed something.

(In my version) Superman would have taken Zod and taken him to the moon to beat him there. Superman thinks, ‘Zod is getting his powers from the sun, but he’s only been here a few weeks, he won’t be as powerful.’ So it’s basically my power against his.’ That’s what happens in my scene. Then he knocks it all the way to Mars. Then he knocks it all the way to Pluto. They both fight in the barren, black landscape of Pluto.”

Different visions. As far as I’m concerned, I will never forget the feeling of seeing Superman snap General Zod’s neck in a movie theaternor the muffled scream that was heard in the stalls, partly due to the stupefaction that the scene generated in an audience accustomed to seeing a very, very different Clark. We’ll see what James Gunn’s Superman is like…

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