https://youtu.be/nWZAbGJS_ls

My main squeeze and I saw Batman v Superman [not shown] last night. I wasn’t mortally offended by it. Suffice it to say, the Affleck-affected flick wasn’t quite as silly as the Batman comic lovingly deconstructed above. I wouldn’t recommend it. But I wouldn’t not recommend it either. SPOILER ALERT. The Caped Crusader uses plenty o’ guns, although only one of the Dark Knight’s guns is his own. Still, it’s a bit jarring to sit the Bat wielding a .45. In a good way. Yes?

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36 COMMENTS

  1. It has always bothered me that Batman carries around all this shit, but no Bat Rifle, or Bat Pistol. Glad to hear he finally figured out how to use a firearm.

  2. Hell yeah. If that’s the case maybe Ben Affleck being batman isn’t so bad after all.

  3. Nice. Batman decided to stop carrying guns because “he was more likely to get shot.” Really? I suppose his evil super-villain adversaries noticed his lack of ballistic hardware and so decided to be fair and leave their own gats at home? Only in the DC universe. This is just another version of the Hollywood style crap where it is more important to “bring the criminal to justice” than to rid the world of his evil presence. Think Phantom Zone rather than execution for mass murder. How has that worked out for them over the years?

    I’ll take Wolverine any day. You need killing? Okay MF, you got it.

  4. Saw the latest Bat/Super iteration. Ben was the best part. I loved the gun-toting Caped Crusader. Wonderfully violent. Other than that MEH. A solid C…oh yeah Lynda Carter rules.

    • Ben really did do a good job of playing an older Bruce/Batman – I was pleasantly surprised on that front. More cynical, but still cares. Strong, but not as flexible as when he was young (I know that feeling).

    • My boys and I loved the movie and can’t understand how it ranks a 29% on RT when Superman Returns gets 78%. I was expecting a plodding, pretentious sermon (>coughSpectre<) and got a rousing, briskly-paced epic. I was very surprised by its return to certain traditions, not the least of which is Supe as an American hero.

      Lynda Carter always has an emeritus chair in the Hall of Justice, but I liked what little I saw of Gal Gadot, right down to her swirly Israeli accent.

  6. The conflict between Batman and Superman has always been one of pragmatism versus idealism. Unfortunately, in the current DC film canon, Superman has already shown himself willing to murder someone who he considers too dangerous to be allowed to live — which is further than even Batman is usually portrayed as willing to go. So having the two actually come into conflict over their choice of methods is a bad joke. The argument’s already over, and Batman won it before they ever met.

    • That’s not what the conflict is about. The movie has a lot of weaknesses, but Batman’s beef with Supes was one of the good bits.

  7. Showing my age here, but it seems they took a great comic book and turned it into a piece of shit for the younger generation.

    Let the flames begin… : )

  8. I know that Batman initially used firearms, and so this isn’t anything new – just revived.

    However, I don’t like him carrying or using them. One of the major keys to the developed character has been his refusal to take life. It is a line that he will not cross, even at risk to himself. Call it what you will, but that’s a choice he has made and using a firearm undermines that commitment. Yes, he has and uses other devices and gadgets that may result in death, but it’s his line.

    Frankly, I just see it as more evidence that Snyder just isn’t sure how to handle the characters.

    • Is he not responsible for all the lives that are taken every time one of the villains escapes (particularly the Joker) because he chose to “lock them up” rather than taking care of business in order to prevent more death at some point in the future? I love me some Batman (in a totally non-sexual way, of course) but his reasoning for sparing a villain’s life is pretty weak sauce. Then again, if he off’ed all the bad guys we would have run out of comics to read a long time ago so, in this instance, it is legitimately FOR THE CHILDREN… and those of us who never really grew up!

      • Carrying out justice isn’t his job.

        In the right context, it makes sense.

        It’s up to Gotham’s and America’s justice systems to make sure the criminals he catches stay caught or are dealt with permanently. It’s not Batman’s fault if they fail to do so.

    • Batman wears moral fig leaves. In his modern incarnation this just applies to having a gun in your hands.

      He has some BA firearms mounted on his vehicles that shoot and kill people. In the recent trilogy, Bruce Wayne heads a company that manufacturers weapons. Robin carries a gun as a cop in the last movie of the trilogy.

      Not to mention the fact that even after the early days of batman with a 1911 – he still killed people. You are probably familiar with the incident where batman hangs a guy w/ a rope from the batwing and flies off with him dangling in the air. If that is not some morbid Achilles style *%^# I do not know what is. The are other instances as well and that is not even getting into the numerous (pretty much his whole carrier as a vigilante) where batman kills people indirectly by the situations he is an active participant in.

      My only issue w/ batman using a gun is he can’t do it too often (too easy and practical) and his gun has to be way better than some standard G17. It better be some hi tech military prototype piece he is packing. Batman uses all kind of gear that has equivalencies to things that actually exist; its just that his stuff is way better:

      “Where does he get those wonderful toys”

      And batman riding a pterosaur is way cool but then again anyone riding a pterosaur is way cool 🙂

  10. Who needs Batman or Superman? The Phantom (Mr. Walker, for “the ghost who walks”) always had his sidearms.

  11. Much of this on-screen abortion is horribly lifted from Frank Miller’s epic masterpiece, The Dark Night Returns. In it, an older Batman kills a thug with an M60, and kills plenty.

  12. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BatmanGrabsAGun

    The time(s?) Batman has used firearms are historically memorable events because they represent epic and extremely unimaginable events that shift paradigms and morality. This is so antithetical to what makes Batman Bruce Wayne (I consider Bruce Wayne to be Batman’s secret identity, not the other way around) that this just annoys the crap out of me. This is before one thinks about the fact that hes being played by Ben Affleck, so I’m not going to race to the theaters….if I still went to theaters…bleah.

  13. I keep reading the fanboy outrage over Batman using firearms in this movie, and you all (yes, even you, Robert) have it all wrong. As far as I saw, Batman never used a traditional firearm except during a melee where he did the whole Equilibrium thing (simultaneously disarming one man while forcing him to shoot another attacker). The other “guns” I counted as his fired grappling hooks and specialized grenades, which is par for the Bat-course.

    And Batman never had anything against guns. His vehicles are bristling with armaments an A-10 would be jealous of.

    • I didn’t say he carried a gun. Anyway, in that melee he took possession of a .45 — in his own Bat hand — and shot a bad guy with it. Just sayin’.

      • And I didn’t say you said he carried a gun. Yes, there were a couple of disarm-then-shoot moves. If it defies the Batman-no-firearms doctrine, I’ll side with those here who shrug and say “so what?” Right move for the moment.

      • You know, I’m pretty sure he had a thigh-drop holster on during the “nightmare” scene, so you might have been right the first time, Robert.

  16. The Flashpoint: Paradox series had the Thomas Wayne version dual wield pistols. Short version; Bruce got killed instead of his father and Martha went nuts, going on to become that realities Joker. Go find the youtube clip.

    …And Almost Esq beats me to it :p

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