Fanboys Anonymous

Another week, another tantalizing bit of potential Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice news! I say "potential" because like most of this stuff, it isn't confirmed, and there's suspicion that some of this information comes from a fake script Warner Bros. purposefully leaked to keep people guessing about the story. Still, some of it sounds like it could really work, so let's get to it.


Several sites, ComicBookMovie among them, report on several characters rumored to be added to the film. The list: Victor Zsasz, Morgan Edge, David Cain, Amanda Waller, Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, and Carrie Kelley.

Whoof. There's a lot of fan service right there, and there's almost no way they can pack all of those characters meaningfully into one film. The first four were leaked just before the others, and I think they're more likely to be featured. Let's break 'em down.

Zsasz.

Victor Zsasz is a notable but arguably B-list Batman villain. Several writers have used him to good effect since his first appearance in 1992, but seldom as the main villain. He's a serial killer with a creepy habit of cutting a mark into his skin for every one of his victims, criss-crossing himself with scars denoting every life he's taken. He appeared briefly in 2005's Batman Begins, played by Tim Booth, as a Falcone goon that Jonathan Crane treats at Arkham. He's an eerie character and one that I think would make a good side villain for Batman in the film. Batman will have to be doing something besides fight Superman, and a hardcore serial killer whom the Dark Knight can brutalize without a second thought sounds exactly like what Zack Snyder's trying to do with his Batman. It's possible that Scoot McNairy, recently cast into the film in a mystery role, could play this character.

Morgan Edge, current and original.

Morgan Edge is a Superman character, president of the larger media conglomerate that owns The Daily Planet. Eventually he becomes a villain, head of the international crime syndicate Intergang, and in the New 52 is a media mogul and sponsor of a superteam, Challengers of the Unknown. El Mayimbe of Latino Review claims that in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Morgan Edge is basically Lex Luthor's PR guy, a friend Lex grew up with, grew into crime with, and subsequently took with him into the business world. I think it's likely a character like this, if not Edge himself, exists in the film as a sounding board and cohort for Lex. We know Tao Okamoto plays Lex's bodyguard Mercy, but it stands to reason he'd have a professional cohort. This is another role that Scoot McNairy could play—or it could belong to another actor with a mystery role, Callan Mulvey. (Or vice versa, with Zsasz.)

David Cain, contract killer.

David Cain is an assassin in the DC Universe, a hard middle-aged man who once helped train Bruce Wayne before he became Batman. He also helped frame Wayne for murder. They might keep him around for such a plotline later on, because Cain is also notable for fathering Cassandra Cain's Batgirl, who was around for much of the '90s. For this film, my money is on Cain being just another side-quest for the titular heroes. Whether he'll be tasked with assassinating Batman or Superman is an interesting question, especially given the potential fourth character, Amanda Waller.

Waller is a heavyweight in the DCU, the head of the Suicide Squad (where incarcerated villains can take time off their sentence by accepting black-ops missions for the United States), and occasionally an adviser or friend to Lex Luthor. We've seen her before, in 2011's Green Lantern, played by Angela Bassett, and on Arrow, played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. El Mayimbe again says that in the film, Waller is a hardline senator with no great love for Superman. She's a lynchpin character in the DCU, crossing over numerous different storylines and titles, and it makes sense she would appear sooner rather than later. It's rumored that DC has also been making attempts at getting a Suicide Squad movie into production, so her inclusion would be another step toward that.

Amanda Waller, pre- and post-New 52, respectively. Some cosmetic changes may have occurred.

The other names on the list—Jason Todd, Kyle Rayner, and Carrie Kelly—are exciting but less likely, and here's why: they're all legacy heroes. By that, I mean they inherited or took over the superhero identity of someone before them. Jason Todd is the second Robin, whom Bruce Wayne took in after the original, Dick Grayson, became Nightwing. He's infamous for being killed by the Joker and later revived to become a Batman villain (a good one, too). Kyle Rayner is another link in the ever-lengthening Green Lantern chain, the fourth in more modern GL mythology, and the fifth overall. It just seems unlikely that the filmmakers would include Todd or Rayner, given how much of their backstory relies upon characters of the same name who preceded them. It's possible they're just being mavericks and adapting established characters for their own uses, but to me this sounds like fan service just to stir up some buzz.

Here we have Kyle Rayner, on the left and Jason Todd as Red Hood on the right. Rayner was given the last Green Lantern ring after the original, Hal Jordan, went on a rampage and destroyed the Corps. For a time, Rayner was the only GL in the universe. Jason Todd was a young, homeless thief when Batman took him in to train and steer down a better path. His violence and aggression got the better of him, though, resulting in his death at the hands of the Joker. Years later, after his memory haunted Batman for years, he was resurrected and took the moniker of an early Batman villain, becoming the Red Hood.


Carrie Kelley was Robin in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which inspired much of this film's take on Batman, so it might actually be the most convincing of the bunch. Thinking about it, it's entirely conceivable and makes a weird sense that WB/DC would shuck the traditional Robins in favor of a female Robin. It would make their version stand out and help rectify the general lack of onscreen superheroines. The studio may still be wary about Robin, given the overall response to 1997's Batman Forever and 1999's Batman and Robin. Dick Grayson, the original Robin, appeared in both, played by Chris O'Donnell. Still, studios these days often stick with the generally established canon, and Dick Grayson is a good enough character that he deserves a second, better chance.

In the reports, there are also some mentions of Kord Industries—a reference to Ted Kord, the hero Blue Beetle—and to the planet Thanagar, where Hawkman and Hawkgirl are from. At a stage in the game where WB/DC seem to be taking the kitchen-sink approach to populating their next film, I suppose anything's possible. All three are, or have been in the past, major characters in the DCU, appearing not only in their own titles but across team books like Justice League as well. Hawkgirl was also featured as a main character in DC's animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series. I will say, however, it seems unlikely these characters would appear before a few of the A-list characters WB/DC have yet to debut.

Doomsday, introduced by Wonder Woman villain Dr. Psycho.

Most recently, it was reported that the Superman villain Doomsday would feature in the film, possibly as a last-minute cameo, a la Thanos at the end of Avengers. It would be best to introduce him that way, I think, as there just cannot be any more room for additional villains or characters in this movie anymore. Studios and filmmakers have been trying to put Doomsday onscreen ever since his 1992 debut storyline, "The Death of Superman," in which, well, yeah, he kills Superman (but only for a year). Doomsday, known also as "the Ultimate," was a monster born and genetically engineered on Krypton ages ago who eventually found his way off planet and killed his way across worlds until finally coming to Earth. Lex Luthor has attempted to clone or improve the being numerous times since then, and it's conceivable he'll have something to do with the creature's appearance in Dawn of Justice if, in fact, Doomsday does appear.

There you have it: latest news on the increasingly bloated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Think all of this is bunk, or does some of it ring true? Does it sound likely Warner would try to throw spoiler-sniffers off the scent with a fake script leak, or are all Fanboy dreams about to come true in this movie? Talk about it in the comments below!