Over the weekend, the new Batman v Superman trailer debuted at San Diego Comic-Con and tied together the events of Man of Steel with the superhero face-off. While we saw footage of Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne witnessing the destructive force of Superman’s power, someone has gone one step further to connecting these two films. Watch a side-by-side comparison of the moments that directly connect Man of Steel to Batman v Superman.
Peter S. Hall of Movies.com shared the GIF rendering shown above. In the top frame, we see General Zod (Michael Shannon) attacking Superman with his heat vision. Unlike Supes, who’s had years of learning all his abilities, Zod had only absorbed the sun’s radiation that day, so his aim and control was a bit chaotic.
In the bottom frame, we see the same shot from a different perspective: Batman’s perspective. As we discovered in the Batman v Superman trailer, Wayne was on the ground during the massive battle in Metropolis. The GIF shows the Caped Crusader watching on as Zod blows a whole through a building, collapsing it on top of innocent civilians. For those criticizing Man of Steel for how much destruction was caused in Metropolis and how many civilian lives were lost thanks to Superman, Wayne shares those feelings. He rushed into the chaos to try and help as many people as he could, but there were still massive casualties, and Wayne blames Kal-El for it.
There are a couple more obvious links between Man of Steel and Batman v Superman in the new trailer that are not depicted in the side-by-side above. For one, Wayne looks over a newspaper clip that reads, "Wayne Manor Devastated," and the sub-headline reads, "Dozens Killed." Then there’s the fact that one of the biggest rumors got confirmed: Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is in possession of Zod’s deceased body. We see his cold, pale corpse emerge from a black body bag at Lex Corps., which is not a good sign for Supes. With Eisenberg also in possession of kryptonite, he no doubt has been performing experiments on the Kryptonian’s body in his spare time, learning the race’s strengths and weaknesses. Watch the trailer below for more clues.
Aside from the impending battle between Batman and Superman, the film also features Gal Gadot’s debut as Wonder Woman, aka Diana Prince. Zack Snyder teased that she has a very important role to play in all of this, and the trailer confirmed that we will be seeing her suiting up and throwing some punches. Then there’s Holly Hunter playing a senator, who, along with an entire committee, holds Superman responsible for the damage done in Metropolis.
We’ll be sure to learn even more tidbits on Batman v Superman as we approach its release date of March 25, 2016.
