Over twenty years after his first appearance in Superman: The Man of Steel #17, waaaaay back in 1992, one of Superman’s greatest nemeses is finally making his way onto the big screen. Doomsday, the beast that killed Superman (except not really, or at least, only for a little while) has just been revealed by the new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
It sure as hell seems like Doomsday was supposed to be a surprise though. The new trailer for Batman v Superman shows us how Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) originally meet, accompanied by an unusually extroverted Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). It establishes their philosophical differences, it promises a war, and then just when they’re about to fight Doomsday shows up to fight them both, and apparently Wonder Woman, who apparently just sort of pops up out of nowhere, if Batman and Superman’s reactions are to be believed.
If this really is how Batman v Superman plays out (and it very likely is, at least in the broadest strokes), then at least it’s faithful to the old comic book formula. Superheroes frequently meet other superheroes for the first time, fight over a misunderstanding, and eventually set aside their differences and team up to fight a bad guy, together. It’s old fashioned, but it ain’t broke, so why fix it?
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The only real monkey wrench that we’re seeing here – aside from the implication that Lex Luthor creates Doomsday out of General Zod’s corpse (ew…) – is our share cultural awareness that Doomsday is only really famous for killing Superman. Given that there’s no Man of Steel sequel on the horizon, but solo movies announced for just about every other DC superhero at Warner Bros., this does raise the question of whether or not Superman will survive Batman v Superman. Maybe he’ll be martyred at the end, ushering a new dawn of… oh yeah, we see where this might be going…
Still, doesn’t it seem like this new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer gives away a whole lot of the movie? Not the details, obviously, but in an overview we really are getting a sense of the whole structure. Let’s hope there are still some surprises left for audiences, in terms of how the story actually plays out, as opposed to momentary teases of films to come.
Watch the new trailer, and get ready to see the whole film when it hits theaters on March 25, 2016!
Photo: Warner Bros.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
