So what pieces did Man of Steel place on the board for the future DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU)? Several actually and with a whole lot of wiggle room. The following will contain spoilers for Man of Steel (MoS).
Two Easter Eggs with large implication were hidden in the film. Both of these I expect to be mined further in the sequel and the team-up which follows. First is the existence of LutherCorp and, by proxy, Lex Luthor who, presumably, is already established as a man of wealth and power. We see the LutherCorp building and a LutherCorp tanker in it’s-right-there-did-you-see-it-no-I-missed-it-dammit moments.
I like that Luthor was saved for later and here’s why: I think he’ll be a departure from the Luthors we’ve been given on film and, more importantly, I think he’ll become a more rounded and interesting character.
Let’s have some perspective…put yourself in Metropolis. It’s Tuesday, just another day for a citizen of Metropolis, doobie doobie dooooo…holy f#$* what was that? Few hours later there’s no Metropolis because a race of super-powered beings you didn’t know existed 24 hours ago just destroyed it! Lex Luthor, most powerful and wealthiest man in Metropolis, what do you do? Well for a man with the ego and lust for power he has it’s simple: you become the hero of Metropolis. You rebuild it…it becomes your city. And this alien that hung around after destroying Metropolis, what do we do about him. If you’re Lex you certainly plant some seeds of doubt and you certainly give some attention and devote some resources to finding ANYTHING you can about Superman. Interesting to think about.
In this light I think we get a departure from the Lex Luthors of Hackman and Spacey and given what we saw of the characterization in MoS I don’t think that’s a surprise. He’s not going to be the buffoon…I certainly think over time he’s going to develop into the threat we expect him to be, however, in the sequel, I think we may not see Lex as a villain…an antagonist for sure, but not a villain just yet.
The other BIG egg was the Wayne Enterprises satellite that Zod and Superman bumped into briefly. So yes, Bruce Wayne is here and he did see this happen.
We know it’s a new Batman, what we don’t know is where in his journey is he. That will be fun to discover. We also know that Bruce is going to want to investigate, World’s Greatest Detective and such, and that is something we’ve not seen enough of in Nolanverse Batman.
Over the years Superman and Batman have had different relationships dependent on who was writing. Sometimes friends, sometimes reluctant allies, sometimes foes...we know this will end with a team-up but we do not know how they get there. I’m wondering, if at first, we can’t quite tell the difference between Bruce Wayne’s interests in Superman and Lex Luthor’s. And if that mistrust is there I’d just be so happy to see the seeds of Tower of Babel dropped in the fertile DCCU soil.
So what else? Well where did that missing Kryptonian from that empty pod go? What has Kara Zor-El been up to on Earth and for how long? S.T.A.R. labs…I hear they make a decent Cyborg. Was that a Ferris aircraft I saw, and was that really Carol Ferris who thought Superman was hot?
Clearly they’ve left the door wide open as to what comes next and I have faith that with Snyder behind the camera and Goyer writing scripts they are going to finally put things right and bring legendary characters onto the screen in a way that represents them faithfully to the pages of the comics. I’m certainly thrilled to see what comes next.