Justice League still has some big twists and reveals up its sleeve – and one of the biggest ones is when and how Henry Cavill’s Superman will be resurrected. It’s been confirmed that Superman will definitely be making his return in Justice League, but there’s mounting evidence that we could get a much darker and different Superman than we know (and in the DC Extended Universe, that’s really saying something).
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DC Comics has a long tradition of introducing evil versions of Superman; we suspect the DCEU could adapt one of the most famous ones, as a major subplot of Justice League.
Here’s how Justice League May Introduce Evil Bizarro Superman to the DCEU.
Dark Tunes
We just ran a story about how Justice League composer Danny Elfman was teasing his theme for Superman in Justice League; specifically, Elfman took a piece of John Williams iconic Superman theme song from the original Superman movie and twisted it: “I‘m using it in an actually very dark way, in a dark moment… It’s a moment where we’re really not sure whose side he’s on.“
That small quote actually says a big amount about Superman’s story arc in Justice League – and definitely fits into some speculative theories that fans have been floating:
Dark Warnings
Batman v Superman had the obvious foreshadow of the world getting an evil version of Superman, as seen in the infamous “Knightmare” sequence of the film. That sequences ended with Future Flash seemingly breaching the space/time continuim by coming back to warn Bruce Wayne/Batman about Superman going evil, and that Lois Lane was “the key” to stopping him.
Fans further speculate the very last shot of the film (dirt on Superman’s coffin mysteriously floating into the air) is indication of a Mother Box portal, which teleported the Kryptonian’s body to Apokolips, where DC Comics villain Darkseid could remake him into a twisted evil version of his former self (a Bizarro version, if you will…).
That combination of foreshadowing events seems to indicate that Superman will indeed return in Justice League an evil version of himself working for Darkseid and Apokolips, but that Lois could be the key of snapping him out of it, and helping The Man of Steel get back to being his heroic true self.
Return of the Superman
This theory is further evidenced in the epilogue to Justice League trailer #2, when Alfred is seen speaking to a mysterious figure, whom he hopes hasn’t arrived to late to save the day. Most fans are confident that the figure in question is Superman, but the question of why this moment would occur in the film was largely overlooked.
The way the moment plays out, Alfred seems somewhat unsure about the person he’s talking to, and his statement that “He said you’d come,” implies that Batman had already advised him to expect that mystery person to show up – and had already made contact with said figure.
Again all of these little hints point a scenario where Justice League sees the newly-formed League beaten up by a Bizarro version of Superman somewhere in the middle of the film, until some ties to the hero’s human side (Lois) bring him back to the light, just in time to aid his new super friend in defeating Steppenwolf and stopping Darkseid’s invasion – a least for the moment.
What do you think about this theory of the DCEU Bizarro Superman in Justice League? Let us know @ComicbookNOW
Justice League will be in theaters on November 17th.
