Optimising the World’s Finest for the DCEU

Though the DCEU may be at an end. It doesn’t mean that one can’t stop speculating about what might have been.

In particular, how the DCEU handled the superhero duo of Superman & Batman. Who have since been dubbed as the “World’s Finest”.

While one might say they were misused in the DCEU. It mostly feels like they were underutilized which of course was yet another major problem for the DCEU. No matter how much the DCEU chose to avoid the topic.

Since you can’t have a DC universe of any medium without its two major flagship characters headlining the medium.

Put simply, Superman and Batman are two of the most recognizable DC characters and as such, the creation of an all-encompassing DC universe. Especially one as ambitious as a cinematic universe means that the World’s Finest have to be heavily involved in it. But failure to remedy the conspicuous absence of the two characters left the DCEU with a lot less appeal.

Therefore, this writer believes the World’s Finest could have fared better in the DCEU had we gotten the following:

Man of Steel 2/sequel

This one’s a no brainer and should’ve been at the top of Warner’s list of projects for the DCEU in its earlier days. But as we all know, Warner had other plans.

Beyond the necessity for furthering the story of Kal El/Clark Kent. A sequel would have helped to clearly illuminate the character’s state of mind as he grapples with his morality. After his controversial action of taking a life in the 1st film.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice alluded to this, but at the end of the day, sketches never reveal the full picture.

As to when this should have been released in the DCEU timeline. A Man of Steel sequel should have been released before BvS.

By arriving before BvS, a lot of baggage BvS had to deal with would have been catered for. Thereby allowing the Studio to confidently progress the franchise as they sought to with BvS.

The difference now being, this version would have had more legroom.

Batfleck Solo Movie

Though Batfleck is arguably the best live action visualization of The Dark Knight. It’s a shame it was for show as no single Batman solo feature made its way out of the DCEU.

Instead, the character was relegated to a side attraction. Making camoes in other features either physically or otherwise. Save for BvS and Justice League films.

By doing this, the DCEU never really justified the existence of making Batman a part of the cinematic universe. Other than trying to keep up appearances.

However, here’s this writer’s two cents on how a solo feature would played out without altering much of the DCEU.

Set after the events of BvS, Batman is now overexposed and comes into confrontation with Deathstroke, as was the original plan for the solo movie.

Only this time, certain details like Bats being responsible for Slade’s villainous turn, since Ben Affleck was always intended to be a much older Batman. Who is probably on his last legs and has no patience for villainy.

Cleary making this a revenge-type story. Also an Arkham game-type duel between the two would have been a sight to see.

Of course, killing off Deathstroke in the feature would be ill-advised. Hence keeping the character intact to interact with Lex Luthor as they scheme to take down the Justice League. As seen in the theatrical cut of Justice League.

Moreover, Deathstroke is just too big of a character to eliminate after just a single feature.

Love or hate this remodeling, this writer’s bone of contention is that the DCEU would have been more appealing if the World’s Finest were treated better.