HBO Max Promotes Batman v Superman as Mother's Day Viewing "For All the Marthas Out There"

By Nicole Drum

Mother's Day is just over a week away and while there is no shortage of ideas and suggestions for how to celebrate mom on her big day, HBO Max has a rather unique one. The streaming platform is promoting a viewing of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for Mother's Day this year — specifically for "all the Marthas out there". On Twitter, one DC fan shared a screenshot they took from the HBO Max app on their phone showing the promotion that reminds fans that "Moms are our real-life super heroes" and promotes the Zack Snyder film as "this one's for all the Marthas out there this Mother's Day." You can check it out for yourself below.

While the dedication to "all the Marthas out there" is pokes a little bit of fun at one of the film's most mocked moments, it's actually pretty clever and a reminder that while Batman v Superman's "Martha" scene is a bit odd, it also speaks to the connection between Batman and Superman in the film — and on a larger scale between people in general as the connection people have to their mothers or maternal figures is a universal experience. Snyder himself spoke previously about how the "Martha" connection in the film humanizes Superman, which in turn changes Batman's perspective on him.

"It's funny, because we, [screenwriter] Chris Terrio and I, we did reach that point in the movie, in our discussions... we knew how to get them to fight, right? But how do you get them to stop fighting?" Snyder said back in 2019. "That's a tough one. And we sort of were just throwing down on their humanity and Batman realizes Superman has humanity, he's not just a creature, he's a man — he's an alien, but he is as human as, in a lot of ways, he's more human than him, right? He's sort of embraced all the good parts of the human race, and so Batman's able to sort of see, in a lot of ways, a thing that he is not. And I think that that was how we started to talk about it."

Snyder has also spoken out about how the Martha" moment is one that is central to the film, going so far in an interview with I MINUTEMEN to discuss how the moment holds the entire movie together.

"Clearly I am a fan of, and am very interested in how 'Martha,' that concept is central to the film. I mean, it's 100% the lynchpin that holds the entire movie together. I think it's indicative of the way that Batman v Superman was received that its central tenant was sort of belittled and made fun of," he began. "I personally think it is like this beautiful and incredibly symmetrical idea that it completely finishes it as a concept. It all is 100% with intent and intention to be all the images that you see, as far as their inspiration and stuff like that."

Snyder continued, "I'm certain there's a lot of cinematic references that we have, as well as classical, and Citizen Kane certainly would be among the things that we would and do look at as iconographic benchmarks that people would be able to link into as a way to help with a secondary storyline. That is to say that the images exist here, but the images they evoke are deeper. It's like every image that you see – and we endeavored carefully – that each image you could take a dive on and find, whether it be a cinematic reference or whether it be mythological or historical, we really try and support the movies in that way as much as possible."

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is now streaming on HBO Max.

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