With 3 movies which revolve around a superpowered being, it’s not a surprise that the Superman trilogy directed by Zack Snyder deals with different forms of power. But have we talked enough about one of the most powerful?
From Superman’s superpower, to the political power of Senator June Finch, and even Luthor’s power; Snyder’s Superman trilogy and especially Batman V Superman revolves around the conflict between these powers, how they need each other but also how they “battle” each other. Yet there is one power lots of people forget about, the one that influence the powerful and the “weak”, the rich and the poor: and that power is the power of the media. It isn’t represented that well during the movies, if we forget Lois Lane, we can think of just a few scenes in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman that shows us TV shows discussing the events of the movies. There is also an entire sequence about “The Superman Question” in Batman V Superman and that’s basically it. This power is depicted with subtlety, it doesn’t need to be the center of the attention. But I do think we should talk more about it, it deserves to be the center of attention for just a moment. Because, in the end, it might be the most powerful power out of all the others.
Media, defined as “The main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively” by the Oxford dictionary, always had a real power in the world, in our world, almost anyone can have access to a television, a newspaper, or internet and is in a way influenced by it. Obviously, it’s the same in the DCEU, when you watch the movies, you can notice some people watching TV (the scene with Bruce and Diana in the museum in BvS) or listening to radio (the priest listening to radio in Man of Steel just before Clark comes in). We can consider that these media will forge the way the population look at the events of the movies, and what they think about it. If they say that Superman didn’t do anything to stop the capitol bombing, these people will think so, they weren’t there when it happened as we were and it’s the only way for them to know what happens in their world.
You’ll see it soon enough, but through this trilogy, the media have an important role, with various functions that serves different, and sometimes very specific, purposes. We are going to look at what Snyder intended to do with these, and we will see it movie after movie, from Man of Steel to Justice League.
When we think about Man of Steel, you probably remember the incredible battles between the Kryptonians in Smallville or downtown Metropolis, you might think about the whole father-son relationship between Clark and Jonathan, or you simply remember a great Superman movie. One thing you probably didn’t miss was Lois Lane, and her relationship with Clark throughout the movie, this cat and mouse relation between the unstoppable reporter and the forever hiding alien. As soon as Lois knew about Clark, about him being an extraterrestrial, she ran after him, not only to thank him for saving her life, but to discover the truth about him, that she wants to know more about what he is. Lois Lane in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman is fueled by her will to reveal the truth, she goes beyond what we might take as granted, she tries to understand what happens and not just accept the truth as it appears. As soon as she learns about Clark and find out he might be more special than he looks, she does whatever she can to find him and question him. Which in the end, lead her to Smallville and find out why Clark spend his time hiding from people like her.
Meanwhile, she indeed wrote an article about her first encounter with the Kryptonian, yet her editor, Perry White didn’t want to publish it, not only because of her lack of proof, but because he is afraid of Mankind’s reaction to such a discovery. That doesn’t stop her, she meets Woodburn, a blogger she despises but needs if she wants to share her article and by doing this, tell Clark she knows about him, and that she wants to meet him, which would avoid her investigation leading back to Smallville.
Just after Clark and Lois met, something else happens, which is one of the main thing we’re going to look at in Man of Steel when it comes to the use of media, and this is the scene depicting the first encounter between Mankind and General Zod and his crew.
Because when Clark went inside the Scout ship, discovered his origin and his powers, the scout ship also sent a signal through space, an emergency beacon to whoever would receive it, so that they could send help. And the signal ended up in General Zod’s spaceship. Zod who survived Krypton’s destruction with his entire crew, was wandering through all the former Kryptonian outpost, trying to find any signs of life. As soon as they got the signal, they went to Earth and afterward decided to stay in orbit for a while. And then, soon after the army found them orbiting around the Moon, it started: All the lights went out, the screens went on, and broadcasted the same exact thing, to the entire world, at the same time, in every language. After a few second, we can start to read “You are not alone” on the screens, we see images from all around the world, we look at people’s reactions, or more precisely their lack of reaction, everyone seems hypnotized by the screens. Soon after, Zod starts to speak, he introduces himself, then immediately starts to talk about what he is here for: Kal-El. He tells the World that they sheltered an alien for decades, and ultimately threatens them of eradicating mankind if they don’t cooperate and denounce him. At the very end of his message, Zod directly talks to Kal, inviting him to surrender or that he’ll see Earth suffer the consequences. Finally, the message ends, the screens go black, the lights come back, and we’ve just watched one of the best first contact scenes ever made, it’s very original for a first contact scene, it’s innovative and we’ve never seen anything like this before even though there have been countless alien invasions movie. And because in just a few seconds, Zod went from a forgettable villain to an incredible one, this scene, beyond the terrifying aspect of it being the first contact with an alien civilization that turns out to be a threat, is an incredible display of power from an aspiring space dictator, that completely understood, in a few hours, the power of the media and communication, even if it’s a concept that might not be universal. Zod knew that by doing this, he would be feared, he showed how powerful he is just by talking to us, because he talked to everyone, induced fear, hypnotized the entire world for a few minutes. This situation reminds me of the new strategy during Coup d’états: to take control of the media. In these situations, taking control of press or media can lead to two possibilities, either cut down all communications, or use it for your own profit; by doing so you stop the state power from organizing itself and fight back, for example, (think about the Turkish 2016 Coup, the putschists didn’t take control of most of the media, Erdogan, on CNN Turk, basically asked people, to “fight back”, which they did and ended the coup). Having control over media is an incredible power, and Zod had control over most of the media (electronic ones at least) on the planet. We’re far from the typical alien invasion movie, with the extraterrestrials landing somewhere in America, with our media covering the events and then us watching it on TV. Here, Zod took the power, he decided to do it himself and hacked every electronic device, so that he could be everywhere: he was in the office of the Daily Planet, in the middle of the desert, in Smallville. He also took that power beyond everything we’ve ever seen, because as much as we think about it, I don’t remember a moment in History when every screen in the world were broadcasting the exact same thing at the same time; indeed some events were covered throughout the world, such as the 9/11 attacks or the first steps on the Moon, but in this case, multiple media were talking about it, in Man of Steel, there was only Zod.
Finally, I think it’s also a good way for Zack Snyder to expand the universe around the events, we went from an “intimate” story, following a dozen people that lived the events, to the story of Mankind witnessing the events that will in the end influence them in every way. By showing reactions from all around the world to Zod’s message, it makes Mankind matter, they are threatened, they are involved, they are important. During the attack of Metropolis, we know that Metropolis is under attack, but we know that once Metropolis will be destroyed, the rest of the world will be destroyed, that all the people we “met” throughout the World during Zod’s message will eventually die. We started this movie with a group of people dealing with their own problem and ended up with an entire world under threat of an alien destruction. I don’t want to get in a Marvel vs DC fight, but I just want to take a little example, in Avengers, we only follow the characters, we go where they go, we see what they see, when the battle starts, I feel like we should only care about them and only New York is impacted, yet Loki wants to take control of the entire world and Mankind is involved, it’s a fact, but it’s not shown at all. Ultimately, it’s not a problem not to do the same thing, but it creates more stakes which is always important in a story like this one. We’ve seen countless movies depicting extraterrestrial invasion, but beyond huge destruction, these invasions are superficial, they all look the same and feel the same.
I could also talk about one of the scenes after Zod’s message where we see Clark getting to a priest seeking for some advice. And we meet the priest listening to a show on radio, talking about the message delivered by Zod and how we should understand it, we can hear Woodburn basically saying that the situation isn’t that bad, that the Kryptonians might not be dangerous even though they clearly stated Earth would suffer the consequences of Kal-El’s actions. It isn’t very clear what he means, if Woodburn is depicted as delusional, thinking these threats are nothing, or is it a way to tell us to be careful about what we hear from the media, that we don’t have to believe everything they say.
In the end, the way media and journalist are depicted in Man of Steel are like the movie itself, it’s self-sustainable but it’s also an introduction, because it’s in Batman V Superman that this will take its importance and really have a considerable weight on the story.
And to begin with Batman v Superman, I’ll start by talking about the trailers, they tell a lot about the movie obviously, but I do think it’s interesting to remember that the very first thing we heard from Batman V Superman was a sentence pronounced during the “Superman Question” scene, the very first thing we got from the movie isn’t Batman, nor Superman, it’s a TV show trying to understand the very principle of the Superman character.
“Is it really surprising, that the most powerful man in the world, should be a figure, of controversy?”
We are watching a movie that is set just 18 months after everything changed in that universe (Superman’s arrival is described as a “paradigm shift”), Humans now know that they are not alone, but most of all, they know that their first encounter went really bad, considering this might have been the worst attack they’ve ever suffered from. In the end, the remaining alien, Kal El is the most powerful being in the world and is a force they must deal with. They don’t know what his intents are, and even if he helped Mankind during the attacks, we never heard about any proper interview with him, most of the world know nothing about this man. Some hate him, some love him, some are inspired, some are afraid, and in the end, they are trying to understand the situation, and we end up getting these tv shows. So, the fact that the very first thing we got to see from this movie being a tv show reveals a lot about how important this part of the movie is. Snyder even stated that we should consider the media as a character of its own in this movie. But before talking about media as a character, let’s talk about the character using the media, and we’ll start with Lois Lane
From the very first teaser, we also knew this movie would be about power as I said earlier, Superman’s, Finch’s, Swanwick’s, and then, the media’s power with Lois Lane and the Daily Planet. In Batman v Superman, forget about the science fiction, here, you’re watching a political thriller set in a Superhero world, and the media have a dominant power through the movie even though they are not that represented. As usual, it’s an implicit power, no need to show it all the time, the only scenes where we see a tv show or a newspaper are enough, it tells everything we need to know, show everything we must understand.
Let’s start talking about the movie itself with the scene taking place in the country of Nairomi. We first meet Jimmy Olsen, a photographer sent to accompany Lois during her interview with General Amajagh, local warlord involved in his country’s civil war. Yet, we quickly find out, that he is not a photographer at all, he is a C.I.A agent sent to locate the general, so that he could either propose an agreement or kill him. By doing so, we discover that this agency, and probably the U.S government basically used Lois as a tool. Thanks to her, they’ve been able to locate their target so that they could terminate him, and they didn’t even try to save her once their cover blew , they were ready to kill her as well and afterward blame her for the fiasco (Swanwick will later accuse her of trying to get her halo back while she investigates on the Lexcorp bullet). In my opinion, it’s the best way to introduce the role of the media, we can see that it tries to get to the truth, but it can also be used for other purposes as we can see with Jimmy Olsen. In BvS, media is a character that act as both influencers and influenced.
In this scene, we can also see the first appearance of Lois Lane obviously, she is, as soon as she appears, represented as this determined reporter, that got information even the government doesn’t have (she gets to have an interview, even though the general “has never given an interview”). When she meets the general, he tells her how surprised he is about being interviewed by a woman (“They did not tell me the interview was with the lady”), to which she answers “I’m not a lady, I’m a journalist”; In this movie, Lois Lane is not defined by her gender, by her relation with Clark or Superman, but by her role, she is a reporter first (notice how the movie talks about “The Superman”, “The Batman”, they are not characters, they are symbol and it’s the exact same thing for Lois), she is the real super hero, and even if she’s Lois lane, a character which in a way helped to create the concept of the “damsel in distress” with the Donner movies, she transcends her former role to become something even better than Batman for example, she doesn’t stumble. Once she understands something wasn’t right about what happened in Nairomi, she investigates during the entire movie until she gets to the truth. She finds the bullet, that helps her understand it is something bigger than just a simple gunfight between mercenaries, then she contacts General Swanwick which helps her figure out the bullet was made by Lexcorp, and then understand that the capitol bombing was not a lone wolf attack but a more complex attack lead by Luthor. And with all these elements, she gives the evidence that incriminate Luthor. And at the end of the movie, she is the one who stops Luthor, because she was the person he never thought about and because she never stopped. While they were fighting each other, she’s the one that remained herself, she is not fueled by hate, fear, but by the truth and this is what ultimately wins. At the end of the movie, all the characters finally see the truth about themselves and about their vision of the world, Mankind finds out that Superman wasn’t a threat, Batman discover that his fear and hate lead him to become the very thing he swore to destroy, Diana see that Mankind is not as bad as she thought after the Great War. In the end, Lois Lane is the hero of the movie, even more than the super heroes because she represents the very thing everyone needed.
Besides Lois’ role as a reporter, I can’t forget about Clark, because we indeed follow him as he investigates on Batman. Clark is skeptical about his actions, thinking he only attack poor people with brutal methods. Clark’s investigation is a reflect of their differences, as vigilantes/heroes, they are fueled by the same will, but their story leads them to very different path, the first one that wants to set an example for the others, and the other one that uses fear as a weapon. At first, Clark just want people to denounce Batman, he sees that the police are on his side and don’t understand how they can just blindly follow this ”one-man reign of terror” (Not in the movie but in the trailers). He tries to convince Perry that this is important, that people need to open their eyes, but gets completely ignored, his vision of Justice (willing to help everyone, the ones that “matter”) is not selling enough paper, unless it’s about Superman. Clark’s position on the Batman, mixed with Luthor’s influence (sending newspaper related to Batman’s brutal methods and the death of the people he arrested) lead him to be more extreme on his position, which ends up with Superman threatening Batman after the Batmobile chase. In the end, we see that as convicted to his cause he is, Luthor’s influence drove him out of that way, when he just wanted to denounce the Bat’s methods, he ended up threatening him which later lead to their fight.
And how do you talk about the media in Batman V Superman without talking about Luthor and the way he uses the media. For him, media is a tool, a weapon to get what he wants. But don’t get me wrong, he is not paying them, he is using them, he basically tricks them by using actors, so that they will relay what we could consider to be fake news which will turn the opinion against Superman. Luthor knows he can’t physically beat Superman, but he has enough power to turn people against him so that he can still win. By doing so, it will also make it easier for the media to turn against Superman, one of the things that explains why everyone is accusing him of being involved in the Capitol attack, even though his only crime is that he didn’t do anything because he didn’t know anything. Luthor, with the help of media, creates this “anti-Superman” climate. And as a final blow, by abducting Martha and asking for the head of the bat, Lex wants to show how bad he supposedly has turned, in front of everyone:
“Now the cameras are waiting at your ship. For the world to see the holes in the holy. Yes, the all mighty comes clean about how dirty he is when it counts.”
He leaves Superman with only two options, either he doesn’t kill Batman, but will probably die because Batman will do whatever he can to kill him (Lex managed to push Batman, made him an “extremist” and used his hatred). Or he kills Batman, brings his head at the scout ship where Luthor managed to bring journalist, so that they would record him and expose him as a killer, in a world that is already doubting about his will to help. Unfortunately for Luthor, it doesn’t work. He never considered that Batman would get on Superman’s side, and never thought that Lois Lane would know about his plot, which lead to his defeat. In the end, he lost because of the flaws in his plan, because he thought he could just play with the media, Batman and Superman and never looked at the real threat: Lois Lane. He only cared about one part of the media. He wanted to control and use the mainstream media, such as television, to have an important impact on everyone, but he never cared about using or taking Lois down even though she represents these media, but the ones that are not blinded and carefully look for the truth.
Something I also noticed very recently (and I invite you to rewatch this sequence), is how, just after the “Martha” scene, when Batman throw away the Kryptonite spear, the scene cuts and we get back to Metropolis with a shot of a cameraman heading to the Scout Ship. The reporters Luthor brought around the scout ship are his Kryptonite Spear, his ultimate weapon to beat Superman.
But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that people will blindly believe everything said on TV, these people remain individuals, media are an influence, and while we see people being influenced by them, some people stay on their position, for example: Wallace Keefe, the man that lost his daughter and his legs during the Black Zero event. In a short sequence, we see him facing a wall filled with newspaper clippings describing Superman’s action, that are mostly good ones, with Superman saving children from bus accident or even preventing an earthquake. Yet he still blames Superman for his loss, he hates him so much that his mind is already made up and nothing can change it. We can also think about the scene after the Capitol Bombing. The news is showing images of people burning a Superman effigy, we see this boy that doesn’t understand what’s happening, Superman is his hero, and he doesn’t get why people would think he is a terrorist.
Finally, we get to see the media as themselves, and I think the “Superman Question” scene is the best example to show how important they are in this movie. More than just a Super Hero movie, BvS is a comic book movie that question the Superhero figure. With countless comic book movies, those who tried to understand the figure and not just accept it can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you want to create a realistic universe with super heroes, some things are unmissable, and the fact that people will discuss about these beings, try to understand them, be suspicious about their intentions is just normal. Snyder and Terrio completely incorporated that in the movie with that sequence. Instead of just seeing Superman as a savior, as it was done in the previous movie, we are introduced to these specialists, these experts talking about how Superman influenced their own field (science, religion, politic), we listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson exploring the way Superman revolutionized our perception of the universe and our place among the stars. Vikram Gandhi tells us that Superman arrived as a Messi for believers all around the world, and it is not possible to apply our rules and laws to this being. We also have the comeback of Woodburn and how he thinks Superman could be one these powerful person that have lead humans on a horrible path as we saw it countless time in History (a nod to the Knightmare sequence), there is an interview of Senator June Finch, clarifying her position on that character, showing us how he changed geopolitics and how they need him to, in a way, bend to their will. More than just breaking the barrier between our universe and the DCEU (all these experts are real life experts, they are playing their own role), this scene and others throughout the movie help us apprehend the entire spectrum of reaction to Superman’s presence and existence. Not everyone is in awe, not everyone praises him, people might be afraid, people might doubt him, and people will question him, his role. The interventions we just talked about are necessary, and if we ever meet extraterrestrial, it would be the exact same thing, it would change everything, and considering Superman has super powers, it brings even more question on the table. As I said before, it makes this universe alive, people think beyond the movie. We, as spectators are aware of Luthor’s plan, we know that deep down, these heroes have been tricked and they are good, but the person in this universe don’t, they have their own opinion on the situation, they see the events with a completely different perspective. There is an entire world beyond the movie, that witness these events and people make their mind based on what they see thanks to media. We can consider that media in Batman V Superman are representative of the opinions of Mankind on the Superman, but they are also the one that forges these opinions, based on the way they talk about the events, they are part of a cycle.
When a journalist says: “If Superman was not involved, if he got nothing to hide, then why hasn’t he been seen since the day of this tragedy?”. Someone that doesn’t know much about what happened, and in this situation, most of the people, will start to be suspicious. Even though they saw him helping the victims after the attack, he indeed left the scene with no explanations. We see these people that probably looked at Superman with respect and confidence, but now learn that he might be a terrorist because that’s the only theory they hear about: that he helped people, but most of all that, despite his powers, he did nothing.
The treatment of media in Batman V Superman is mostly inspired by The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, in which media are seen throughout the graphic novel and there is this whole debate about Batman’s return: is it a good, or a bad thing? They question his methods, his necessity after all the time (Bruce Wayne stopped being Batman for 20 years in that universe). In the novel, we can look at multiple tv show, from news show depicting the event with a different point of view than ours, or debating about everything happening, from Batman’s return to the nuclear bombing of Corto Maltese. During one of the many debate occurring, one of the guests consider Batman to be a criminal, not better than the people he fights, and is afraid of his influence on children.
Because in the end, media do convey the news, but one of their goal is to not accept truth as it is, to challenge it, in The Dark knight Returns, it’s shown with the multiplicity of guests in these tv debate, and in BvS, it’s shown with Lois Lane. Because Luthor purposely staged the events, media tend to exaggerate everything about Superman and end up considering him as a threat because he appears as one. In Batman V Superman, as I explained before, not all media are blind and under Luthor’s influence, Lois Lane is looking for the truth, she is on the “good” side, meanwhile at the Daily Planet, even though Perry White knows denouncing Batman for his methods and actions would be legitimate, he also states that “No one cares about Clark Kent taking on the Batman”, he knows it doesn’t bring money, and need to focus on more popular subjects.
In my opinion, this is one of the most overlooked part of the movie, yet it is one of the most interesting. I obviously didn’t talk about every newspaper we see on screen, or every interview we get to watch, but every time we see them, they have the same message, they convey the same speech, they are the people, because they represent their opinions, but they also influence the people (final nod to Luthor sending very specific newspaper to both Clark and Bruce, in very specific moment, so that they fall in his trap). This is a vicious circle, the more people will “hate” Superman, the more media will point at him (TV shows influence each other), etc…
Because even if Superman has nearly infinite powers, he cannot change people and their opinions. Even if he is superior on a physical level, if people doubt him, he loses, and that’s how Luthor beat him in the first place.
Since I said I would talk about the media in the Superman trilogy, I won’t forget Justice League, and I wish I could to be honest. There is not so much to talk about when it comes to media in Justice League, if I had to describe it, I’d need just one word: caricature. As the movie, it’s just a shadow of what it could have been. Nevertheless, I’ll try my best to analyze what we got, but on this part, it will be about what we missed instead of what we have.
Because despite their presence in the trailers, with various interventions depicting the events that occurred between Batman V Superman and Justice League, we got nothing in the theatrical cut. Like most of the footage we saw in the trailers, it was either altered or directly cut out of it. Yet this is the movie where it could have been the most important, Justice League is about a world that lost his greatest hero, and by doing so, they lost hope. It’s a world where the government is recruiting villains to replace Superman, a world that did not live up to Superman’s legacy. It’s a world that has something to tell us, there are so many things we could explore thanks to media in that movie, how did the world react to his death? What happened since? And during, the movie, how will the world react to Superman’s resurrection? To this new alien invasion? This League? What about Luthor’s escape from prison? The use of media could have been at least as interesting as it is in BvS and there were plenty of things to talk about.
I’m not going to lie, we indeed get to see a few newspaper and news reports on TVs, but it’s just bad. Because instead of being a testimony of a world about the events of the movie, they are turned into jokes. There is this interview of this old lady, stating that her husband was abducted by aliens so that they can probe him, we also have the “Did they return to their planets?” newspaper which makes absolutely no sense and is just a way to pay homage to Prince or David Bowie. And finally, the heresy itself, Lois Lane described as the thirstiest woman Clark ever met. And even though the opening scene with Superman being interviewed by kid is not that good, it had an interesting potential, with the possibility of exploring social networks in the movie, but as the rest, it’s superficial, and just ends up being useless. Superman’s absence, the core of the movie is completely over flowed by the events of that movie. When Superman comes back, nothing changed for this world and we will probably have to wait for the SHAZAM movie to witness the consequences of his resurrection.
By talking about his death, but also the things that happened between Batman V Superman and Justice League, and finally, his resurrection, the media would have served their purpose as they did in the previous movies, to depict the story of a World, not the story of some characters. When people discovered Superman, they talked about him, they wanted to know if he was a good or a bad guy, they showed how this character changed their world and their conception of being Human. We were waiting for the same thing about how his death affected them. Some would say the last 20 minutes of Batman V Superman did this exactly, indeed, but it was just a few days after his death, what happened after? What are the long-term consequences? When the trailers tell us that “violence, acts of war and terrorism are all on the rise”, it didn’t happen just a few days after his death, these acts are the consequences of a profound loss, a profound unease that started when he died, which Justice League could have explored. The trailer even teased the apparition of international media, at some point in the comic con trailer, we can hear a Spanish journalist talking about Luthor’s escape from prison. And while the media in BvS were American ones, Justice League would have been the perfect way to bring media from all around the world, to witness reactions everywhere on Earth of an event that have a planetary impact: Superman’s return.
The trailers are also talking about events that completely contradict the end of Batman v Superman (it’s planned, it’s not a problem), with a Bruce Wayne stating that “men are still good”, thinking about how Superman’s sacrifice should have inspired Mankind, that even though people tend to be bad, they just needed an example to be better. But they are talking about events throughout the world such as war, terrorism, it’s something we see every day on TV, and in this world, it’s because Superman isn’t there to stop the bad guys anymore, no one is powerful enough to intimidate terrorists and warlords and they can attack the innocents. Covering these events would make Superman’s return way more important, not only to stop Steppenwolf and his army, but to help people all around the world.
It’s something the movies should have talked about, and the media were already there, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman perfectly introduced them and their purpose. It would not have been a surprise to see them again, and right now, it’s just surprising that we don’t see them even though they could have been very interesting to look at. This would have made Superman the core of the movie, more than he is supposed to be. Because if Batman/Bruce Wayne decides to create a League, it’s not because he wants to hang out with other people, it’s because he knows that a threat is coming and that only Superman could have stopped it. He needs to find a team to equal Superman’s power, have a chance to fight back and possibly win. If Justice League happens, it’s because Superman died, yet, in the movie, his absence is forgotten, the opening sequence shows us some homage, we see a few newspaper, but by talking about it, during the movie, we would have felt his absence, we would have understood how his death had an impact, and how it changed people. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to just point at Justice League and ask for the Snyder Cut (even though I still want to #ReleasetheSnyderCut), it’s just that instead of cutting all the scenes with any form of media in it, they decided to go against everything they “stood” for in the previous movie, and I think it would have been better to just cut them out rather than turn them into jokes. In the end, the movie could have brought a whole new way for the media to be incorporated; without any influence from rich evil mastermind, but only being the testimony of a hopeless world that need heroes more than ever. The testimony of a world that even though they were filled with hope at the end of BvS still lost it and slowly lost everything they learn from Superman’s sacrifice.
So, in the end, as Snyder said, media is a character, they have their story, they have a power but also are as weak as every other character. They can be influenced, and they can influence. They make this universe deeper, it makes it real and relatable, they bring an entirely different point of view on these events, a human sized one. If a Superman appeared in our world, the media would cover it exactly like in these movies. Unfortunately, the role and importance of media ended on a bad note in Justice League, but I think it’s necessary to look at this as well, it shows how important they are, the lack of media in Justice League make us realize how important they were in BvS and how their absence is an issue. Nevertheless, the depiction of these media in both MoS and BvS is incredible and brings something very new to the superhero genre. And yes, in my opinion, the media is one powerful character in these movies, and as I said it before Lois Lane might be the most powerful hero in these movies.
Now I just wanted to talk a little bit about the possible future of media in the DCEU, because yes, Snyder incorporated them in his “trilogy”, but as we’ll see it in SHAZAM, they might come back. For the moment we only saw a few props for the movie, with newspaper depicting once again the Metropolis attack. But considering Freddy is a huge fan of these super heroes, he probably collected more of these newspapers which could bring a whole new point of view on the events of MoS, BvS, and maybe Justice League, Aquaman or Wonder Woman. And obviously, if we ever get a Man of Steel sequel, Lois Lane will be back and will still be that fearless reporter looking for the truth, and they’ll probably find a way to bring back Clark Kent, and as long as he’ll live, he’ll fight for justice as Superman, but most of all, as the reporter he has always been. Because not all fights can be won with fists, because sometimes, words are more powerful.
