Mar 21, 2021

Correcting the Snyderverse: a rant.

 Recently, I've offended a bunch of people for saying that the Snyder Cut vindicated Joss Whedon. According to the cult, the Theatrical release is absolute garbage and 100% irredeemable, despite 80% of it BEING in the Snyder Cut. You see what I'm getting at: if 80% of the theatrical release is similar to scenes that were in the Snyder Cut, that would mean that NEARLY HALF OF THE SNYDERCUT IS ABSOLUTE CRAP! So, once again I was challenged to explain how I would've done it better... so, I'm going to do that, but I will go an extra mile...

Man of Steel:
-Krypton:
A bit more scenes of thr planet. Putting emphasis on the disappearance of the City of Kandor and Jor-El's suspicions about the end of Krypton not being Natural causes. The idea is to hint the coming of Brainiac.
-Smallville:
Pa Kent, while worried about his son, WOULD DEFINITELY NOT ASK HIS SON TO LET PEOPLE DIE!! He would commend him for his heroic act, but at the same time ask him to conceal himself, because people fear what they don't understand.
Pa Kent WOULD NOT COMMIT SUICIDE BY TORNADO. He would die of Natural Causes because it teaches Clark that even with his great power he can't save everyone.

-Ending:
Superman has no choice but to kill Zod. He mourns the dead at the Battle of Metropolis by saving as many people as possible. Perhaps a scene of him carrying a cruise ship full of passengers back to port after The hull breached. Or landing a plane.

Reasons for these changes:
I want a Pa Kent that is not cold towards people. He and Jor-El are supposed to be the base of Clark's moral strength. A Pa Kent who is morally dubious harms Superman. Superman is supposed to be the big blue boy scout. The ultimate goody two shoes. He's seen the fragility of human life and their potential. He should want to protect that at all costs.

The reason for dropping hints for Braniac is because Brainiac is my intended replacement for Zombie Zod. Also, a Lex/Brainiac team up sounds cool as hell.

BvS DoJ:
-Batman:
So much will change here that I don't know where to start:
Dick is alive. He left Bruce after Barbara was shot by Joker. After Bruce got a new Robin, Grayson began operating as Nightwing in Blüdhaven. Jason Todd wasn't tempering Bruce's violence as Batman. After a botched assassination attempt on the Joker by Todd, he ends up kidnapped by the Clown Prince of Crime. Tortured by Joker Todd reveals EVERYTHING to the Joker, who uses the revelation to taunt Batman. Todd Kills Joker and fakes his own death. Batman eventually finds the dead Joker and the dead "Jason" beaten to death with a crowbar. Batman buries "Jason" and Snyder's "Murder boner Batman" transformation begins. Through a series of crimes with the same MO as the Joker, Batman discovers the truth. Jason has become the New Joker and replaced his predecessor. 

Now with this series of failures, Batman is consumed with rage, which he dishes out on Gotham City's criminals. Then the Battle of Metropolis happened. He begrudgingly joins forces with Lex Jr. After the young man proposes an Alien defense unit, Bruce joins, since this would speed up the research on ways to stop Superman.

-Lex Luthor:
He will be playing the eccentric billionaire who's hiding a Sinister side. He is using the Kryptonian AI (Brainiac) to learn about Kryptonians and their advanced technology. He's gathering information on Meta-humans for his own reasons. He's trying to seduce Herr Fledermaus into his side by working with Bruce Wayne. He's also working in secret on an Anti-Superman weapon to be wielded bby Luthor himself. After the short-lived Wayne-Luthor alliance breaks, Luthor attempts to pit Batman against Superman.

-The Fight:
 Batman is too enraged to listen to Superman's plea. Clark keeps insisting on not fighting Bruce, because Luthor had Martha Kent Kidnapped. Eventually Bruce gets the advantage and is interrupted when Dick hijacks Bruce's radio frequency with Alfred. Dick reveals that he's been tailing some thugs who kidnapped a lady from a diner, one Martha Kent. When Clark hears the name Martha, he says that's his mother and why he has been trying to get Batman's help. Clark even tells Batman that he can kill him once Martha is safe.  Batman heads to Nightwing and the old Dynamic Duo kick some ass! Once Martha is safe, Nightwing stays with her as backup, while Batman returns to Superman.

-Doomsday weapon:
Is not "Doomsday". It's Lex Luthor on a Kryptonite Armor. This of course weakens Superman and Batman can't put a dent on it... Enter Diana. Super strong and zero Kryptonite weakness. Even then, she can't put a dent on Luthor's armor... until Brainiac begins to merge with Luthor via the armor's thought controlled interface. This gives Luthor a glimpse of Brainiac's plan, which terrorizes him and Diana is able to damage  armor enough to be able to pull Luthor out. With the Lasso of Hestia, Luthor reveals Braniac's plan to use Zod's body as the ultimate vessel. The reason he needed Luthor's mind was to learn the password of the physical locks separating Braniac from Zod. (If you want to know, the password is 40 cakes)

The Luthor fight would be a rather fast one, since he's just a set-up for the Brainiac fight. 
Brainiac emerges on his new Kryptonian body and fights the heroes. He'll grab the Son of Jor-El and lament the end of the House of El, unless Clark bows down to his master. (Yes, it's a reference) Eventually Zod's body is destroyed when Batman gives Diana his Kryptonite tipped spear and the Kryptonite from Luthor's armor. Braniac explodes thanks to Diana and her bracelets. Shards of Kryptonite embed in Clark's body  him in a comatose state. Killing Brainiac was the key to activate the Mother Box currently on Earth.

Why these changes?
Destroy the Martha scene... it was a stupid reason to stop the fight... or at least the way it was executed by Snyder. I'm using Dick instead of Lois, because Dick IS part of Bruce's humanity. Hearing Dick after years of being drifted away, gives Bruce a moment of clarity. When he hears Clark begging for Martha like a child, something clicks on Bruce. Seeing this God-like being crying for his mother just as he was when Joe Chill murdered his parents, puts Batman back on the path.

Make Lex a real threat and not just the Behind the scenes guy. By having him work with Braniac,  I'm giving Lex a lot of forbidden information to become the ultimate villain for Superman and others. With Luthor's armor and Brainzod, I'm planting seeds for Metallo as a smaller scale villain in a stand-alone Superman movie.

Making Zodsday something that is Not Doomsday, because Killing Superman on his second film is stupid.

 The addition of the Bat family:
I chose to add Dick, and to an extent Barbara and Jason in order to intensify Bruce's pain and how The Mission keeps bringing pain and loss to Bruce. Also, Dick is doing detective work on his own as Nightwing and Det. Grayson on Meta-humans, especially Superman ever since Bruce made his alliance with Lexcorp public. Tries to contact Lois, sneaks (or hacks, dependong on budget) into the Planet to find Clark Kent's info. Just as he was about to contact Martha Kent, she is kidnapped.

Brainiac:
As one of Jor-El's AIs who had secretly gone rogue (disappearing Kandor, causing the destruction of Krypton) he would have a weird fixation on Jor-El, just as Luthor has it for Kal-El. The reason is so Lex can have a "kindred spirit" and not be the smartest person in the room. Also, having Brainiac would help on future movies as an enemy for Cyborg.

Justice League:
To recap:
Bruce Wayne ends up taking the research from the Wayne-Lexcorp merger, since Lex Luthor was proven to be Criminally insane. Among this research he finds Luthors notes on Meta-humans. Which he uses to compare notes with Dick and his own database. Diana suggests an alliance of heroes as it was done in ancient times. With Superman temporarily out of the equation and the looming threat, they need to hurry.
Luthor, Dick, and Bruce's databases contain various Easter Eggs:
Plastic Man, Swamp Thing, Beast Boy, Flash, Aquaman, Black Canary, Solomon Grundy, Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy,  Cyborg, among others. 

Recruiting for the League:
This would play similar to the movie (minus Icelandic women choirs getting wet for Aquaman) Dick would call Bruce and tell him that Canary was a dead end, because she came in a package deal with her boyfriend Green Arrow. Maybe dropping a line on how stupid it is to be the normal guy with Bow and Arrows fighting superpowered Aliens. (Not a jab against Hawkeye) 

Reviving Superman:
Not even the top scientists of STARLABS can help Superman to wake from his coma. Bruce heads to the hidden city of Nanda Parbat to request an audience with Ra's al Ghul. He asks the leader of the League of Assassins permission to use a Lazarus Pit on Superman. There Bruce has to explain to Ra's what's coming and why Superman is needed. Ra's agrees in exchange for the Detective's DNA. Bruce begrudgingly agrees.
(Setting up Damian for a sequel and I wanted you to picture Batffleck playing with himself) Ra's will contact the Detective once a Pit is ready.

Cyborg:
Ever since Braniac activated the Box, he's been getting random visions of Steppenwolf's desires once he gets the Box. This has put him on the run from Parademons. When he detects that the League is tracking him, he answers and events would happen similarly to what we saw. 

Superman returns:
Ra's contacts Batman and sends him to a Lazarus Pit conveniently Near Metropolis. 
Nyssa and Talia take Superman from Batman in order to prepare him for the ritual. 
They dress him up  in a Black ceremonial version of Superman's suit. (Think the Comic Book Black Suit with Nanda Parbat elements.) 
The ceremony is a success as Superman awakens from his slumber, but as it happens with Lazarus Pits, he comes back enraged and attacks everyone on sight (similar to how it happens on the original). Durong the fracas, Cyborg misplaces the box and Steppenwolf takes it to his base in Russia. 

 It's the final countdown:
The League is stumped by how to locate Steppenwolf. Barry asks Bruce if he could go to the Library for a minute or two. Barry comes back after speed reading many advanced science books and correctly deduces that Cyborg, as a being created by the mother box, he must project a similar radiation to The Box,  hence the Parademons chasing him. If there was a way to use that and "sniff out the Box". Cyborg wpuld connect to Wayne Industries satellites to scan the Earth. That's how they find Russia.

The only change I would have for the final battle is that Steppenwolf is not being killed by the League. Darkseid what are use his Omega beams to kill Steppenwolf instead.

Why the changes?
The Motherbox + water revival screamed Cheap Lazarus Pit knock-off. Let's use the real deal. It also brings in to the fold material in case Affleck would quit. With Dick showing up in both movies he's set up as the potential successor to Batman. I also, set up a potential Titans spin-off especially with both Dick and Vic.

The reason I had the League NOT kill Steppenwolf is simple: Superheroes shouldn't be killing left and right. Especially those who have "1 rule"... one nitpick I've had with past versions of the Bat as well. Having Darkseid kill Steppenwolf  shows how ruthless Darkseid is. 

The basic idea was to change story elements that I disagreed with, while trying to stay as close as possible to Snyder's vision. 
Otherwise, I would've scrapped everything and started from zero.

As much as I dislike Snyder's bastardizations of the DC Universe, the man has a burning passion for his work. Visually, he has a keen eye and can make a scene look badass. As a storyteller, he is not good. If he had someone who could keep him in check and work his story pacing issues, he could kick so much ass. If it kinda sounds like I'm praising Snyder, I am. Now I can't ignore the WB elephant in the room...
WB needs to get a clue with their properties.
Like I've said multiple times: If WB got their heads out of their asses and properly work for it, DC comics movirs would've been kicking Marvel's ass for years.

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