What’s Next After the Shocking ‘Batman v Superman’ Ending? Comic Books Offer Clues (Spoilers!)
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the final scenes of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
To borrow comic book writer Dan Jurgens’s immortal closing line from Superman No. 75 — the issue that concluded 1992’s legendary Death of Superman arc — this was the weekend that a Superman died. As millions of moviegoers now know, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ends with a birth and a death. While the wider DC Universe dawns in the wake of the Dark Knight’s rumble with the Man of Steel, Superman himself meets his end at the thorny fists of the monstrous creature Doomsday. For comics fans, of course, Superman’s death sentence was signed the moment that the movie’s trailers revealed that Doomsday would be part of Zack Snyder’s massive superhero melee. After all, where Doomsday goes, Superman’s doom is sure to follow.
Originally concocted as a way to stall a planned wedding between Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, and his ladylove, Lois Lane, The Death of Superman has since become one of the character’s defining storylines, thanks to record-setting sales. (It was such a big hit that Hollywood wanted to get in on the action with Superman Lives, a Tim Burton-directed franchise reboot that ultimately perished during the preproduction process.) Less well remembered, and almost more important for the future of DC’s cinematic universe, is how the Man of Steel came back. Dawn of Justice teases Superman’s resurrection in the final shot of the film, which depicts the dirt on Clark’s coffin starting to levitate.
That’s inscrutable enough to inspire a yearlong guessing game about how Henry Cavill will be back in his super-suit by the time Justice League: Part 1 debuts in November 2017. (Kryptonian tractor beam? Intergalactic spores? Mother Box?) Since Zack Snyder borrowed several elements from Superman’s comic book death for Batman v Superman, let’s page through back issues of the storylines that immediately followed The Death of Superman — Funeral for a Friend and Reign of the Supermen — and pick five key story points that may (or may not!) shed light on his cinematic rebirth. (By the way, if you want to follow along for yourself, pick up The Death and Return of Superman Omnibus, which collects the entire life-and-death saga.)
Who swiped Superman’s body?
In Dawn of Justice, Superman receives two funerals: a lavish public service with a black casket pulled through the streets (an image that’s taken directly out of the third issue of Funeral for a Friend, minus the legion of superhero pals who participate in the procession) and a quieter service near the Kent family homestead, where his actual body is laid to rest. That situation is reversed in the comic, where Superman is entombed in a grand Metropolis memorial, while his adopted parents, Jonathan and Martha, are forced to bury mementos of their son in order to maintain his secret identity. And if you guessed that Superman’s body wouldn’t rest in peace for long, you’d be right! Grave robbers nab the corpse in issue No. 4, setting off a mad scramble to get it back — with Lex Luthor, who hasn’t been publicly discredited and disgraced, leading the charge. (Technically, this is Luthor’s clone masquerading as his son, but let’s not get into that headache-inducing series of events.) Eventually, the body is returned, but doesn’t stay buried for long…
Will it be in the next movie?
For now, only Batman and Wonder Woman seem to know the location of Superman’s body, but one imagines that’s going to be a sought-after secret. If anyone finds out, a grave robbery seems like a given. Heck, Batman might even be the one holding the shovel if he’s successfully put his big brain toward finding a way to bring Supes back.
Clone wars
The brief glimpse we caught of half-robot, half-man Justice Leaguer Cyborg in Dawn of Justice also injected DC’s premiere research facility, STAR Labs, into the DC movie ’verse. But there’s another organization equally important to Superman lore that’s still waiting for its close-up: Project Cadmus, a DNA-tinkering cabal responsible for a sizable population of clones and genetically engineered critters. In Funeral for a Friend, it’s revealed that Cadmus is behind the Man of Steel’s grave robbery, with the intention of cloning Krypton’s last son. They fall short of creating another Superman, but they do give the world an all-new Superboy. (More on him later.)
Will it be in the next movie?
If Superman’s body is going to get nabbed, a cloning lab would be a likely destination. (That would also give Snyder an avenue for introducing Superman’s bizarre doppelg?nger, Bizarro.) But the Justice League probably has too much prep work to do for Darkseid’s impending arrival to bother with DNA splicing.
A heavenly visit
As Funeral for a Friend drew to a close, the tragedy of losing his son also claimed Jonathan Kent’s life. While doctors worked furiously to revive Papa Kent’s body, his spirit passed into the great beyond and ran right into Kal-El, who had shed his earthbound identity as Clark. The spirits guarding this heavenly world are eager to welcome Superman, but not his old man. Jonathan defies their orders and follows his child into the light anyway, searching for Clark amid hallucinatory fragments taken from his own past. (Jonathan also comes face-to-face with Kismet, the cosmic protector of the DC comic universe.) Eventually, father and son are reunited, and Superman realizes that the spectral beings guiding his heavenly procession are actually guiding him to a much more hellish afterlife. Their spirits flee back through a cosmic wormhole, and when Jonathan opens his eyes again, he’s back in a hospital bed. Meanwhile, Superman’s tomb is also empty, but that’s not because Clark is flying around again.
Will it be in the next movie?
Based on the grim, gritty tone of Dawn of Justice, there’s little room for spirituality in Snyder’s universe. (Although Superman does strike several Christ-like poses.) That makes it doubtful that the Man of Steel’s resurrection will involve an actual trip to the afterlife. On the other hand, Kevin Costner’s previously deceased Jonathan Kent does appear to Clark in a mountaintop vision, so maybe Bruce Wayne will also start seeing dead people.
Four Supermen and a resurrection
With Superman still MIA, four would-be heroes stepped up to protect Metropolis and the world. The five month Reign of the Supermen storyline juggled this quartet of imitators, comprising the virtuous, armor-encased warrior Steel; the egomaniacal, girl-obsessed Superboy; the shoot first, ask questions later Last Son of Krypton; and a mysterious cyborg version of Superman. While his replacements competed for public attention and approval, the for-real Superman recuperated inside an egg-shaped energy matrix back at his Fortress of Solitude, eventually emerging from that chamber with a nifty new all-black super suit and rocking a ’90s mullet.
Will it be in the next movie?
Not the four Superman stuff, but revival by energy matrix seems plausible. Maybe he’ll take a bath in the same Kryptonian soup that birthed Doomsday. And we double-dog dare Cavill to grow a mullet.
Aliens among us
If you thought the destruction of Metropolis was bad, Reign of the Supermen wipes an entire city off the map. With the help of Cyborg Superman — who is revealed to be former astronaut turned supervillain Hank Henshaw — extraterrestrial warlord Mongul reduces Coast City to ashes. This tragedy spurs the original Man of Steel to emerge from seclusion (even though he doesn’t have his powers back yet) and team up with the three remaining Supermen impersonators to prevent a similar fate from befalling the nation’s other major cities.
Will it be in the next movie?
We already know that an alien invasion is coming — led by Darkseid, not Mongul — and the Justice League is gonna need Superman back to full health pronto.
Watch “Batman v Superman” cast react to film’s shocking ending:
