So yeah I finally watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which given the title formatting, had less legal proceedings and court scenes than I expected.

Too infrequently, I am a member of the Part-Time Fanboy podcast run by my friend Kristian Horn. He thought it would be a good idea to get a bunch of us together at his house to watch the big DC Comics tentpole movie of the year. It turns out none of us saw it in theaters when it originally came out in March. Having just been released on DVD, Bluray, digital download, streaming, and physic projections, it seemed like a good opportunity. So all four of us gathered at his house, had some pizza, and sat down to see Ben Affleck’s debut as Bruce Wayne.

I think it’s only fair to come right out with biases. The DC Comics superheroes were probably my first exposure to superheroes. I loved the various incarnations of Super Friends (especially the Legion of Doom era), the iconic Superman: The Movie with Christopher Reeve, and the classic Wonder Woman TV series starring Lynda Carter. I had every one of the first wave of Super Powers action figures and the collector’s case. Tim Burton’s Batman was also a landmark. But I also watched Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and the X-Men pilot (every week for months on end, I would check back in to see if they were ever going to air the next episode). While I enjoyed watching DC’s heroes, Marvel’s heroes were the ones I followed over into the actual comic books. By 1991, I was a certified Marvel zombie.

Several times, I tried to get into DC’s superhero comics when there seemed to be a good jumping-on point. Maybe I had a bad picker, but it seemed every time I tried to jump on to a title, it was underwhelming. So there’s a bit of frustration around DC for me, but I want them to do well because their characters are so engrained in American culture.

Marvel has had much-covered success in turning their characters into movies ever since they took the creative reigns with the first Iron Man. Their unprecedented mega-franchise is trying to be replicated by a number of studios, and DC seems to be trying to play catch-up instead of letting their movies build on their own. Back in 2013, I wrote this post at Robot 6 about Man of Steel. I definitely had problems with it. Promotion for Batman v Superman seemed like more of the same stuff that kind of turned me off, so I just never prioritized seeing it in theaters. Reviews were particularly vicious, and it seemed like some were taking more pleasure in the hyperbole than actually writing a reasonable critique. With sufficient time having passed, it seemed like a good chance to see it.

I wanted it to be good. But… well, you can listen to our podcast review/discussion here. I definitely had fun hanging out with these guys and discussing the movie.