“I don’t want to ruin it or anything, but you’ve got to have Superman,” Justice League and Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder said before introducing Superman actor Henry Cavill during the Justice League panel at San Diego Comic-Con. Superman is or will be alive, and he will be returning for Justice League.
Cavill joined the stage with the rest of the cast—Ben Affleck (Batman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ezra Miller (The Flash) and Ray Fisher (Cyborg). The revelation was made before the premiere of the first Justice League footage.
Superman appeared to die at the end of Batman v Superman, and Wonder Woman and Batman attended his funeral. As mentioned before we know Superman will make an appearance but how when we saw him die at the hands of Doomsday and watched two funerals, one for Superman in Metropolis and one for Clark Kent in Smallville. As many of you know Superman in the comics died at the hands of Doomsday also in the early 90’s in Superman #75, but he came back later because of a regeneration matrix in the Fortress of Solitude turned on by the Eradicator when he placed Superman’s body in it. The Eradicator used the ability of Superman’s cells to absorb sunlight to give him super human abilities and became the “Last Son of Krypton” in the Reign of the Supermen story arc.
At some point in this process Superman’s body was rejuvenated and he came back to the land of the living and opened the matrix to be Superman again. Knowing Zack Snyder used other great DC Comic stories from the past to create the current DC Cinematic Universe I would not put it past him to adopt some aspects of the story told by Dan Jurgens; Louise Simonson; and Roger Stern in 1992 and 1993 about his death and reanimation.
How would he accomplish this? We can speculate. The closest thing to his Fortress of Solitude in Batman v Superman is the Kryptonian scout space ship originally freed from the ice by Superman and later disabled with his heat vision when Zod took control over it and he was going to use it to cause damage to the bomber with Lois in it in the Man of Steel movie. It is the only Krytonian technology working on earth and it was used by Lex Luthor to create Doomsday by utilizing forbidden Kryptonian genetic engineering to combine General Zod’s corpse with his own DNA to create a forbidden ‘deformity’ in the ships Genesis Chamber.
This Genesis Chamber was used to create Kryptonian people from genetic material for reestablishing the Krypton race on other worlds. It might be possible it could be used as a regeneration matrix if a Kryptonian body is placed in there soon enough. Plus there is the fact that Jor-El (Superman’s birth father) after he realized that Krypton was doomed, stole the genetic codes sought by Zod to create a new Krypton and infused them into the DNA of his infant son, Kal-El – the first naturally born Kryptonian child in centuries. The unique nature of Kal-El’s physiology may be the reason he can be brought back safely and not become some deformity.
Therefore for this to happen someone would have to have or obtain this knowledge and place Superman’s body in the space ships’ Genesis Chamber and initiate the process to bring him back. Who could that be? Perhaps there is a version of the Eradicator in the Cinematic Universe of superheros created by DC Entertainment and he will initiate his return. Perhaps things go bad in the first altercation of the of the Justice League formed by Batman and Wonder Woman with the villain or villains that they fight and Bruce Wayne obtains the knowledge from the ship and uses it as a last ditch effort to bring Superman back. Or because Kal-El was not created in a Genesis Chamber his body will regenerate naturally in a yellow sun world and comeback as the moving of the dirt hints at in the grave site on top of the coffin in the last scene of BvS.
It is fun to speculate if he will come back after the regeneration with long hair and a beard and a black suit like he did in the comics. I think we can hope that he becomes the Superman of history that instills hope in those around him and smiles occasionally with confidence in his purpose as earth’s protector. It has been announced that a new Superman movie or Man of Steel 2 is coming in the future so we can see if Superman has learned from those circumstances in the past and becomes wiser in his actions. Warner Bros. will probably produce a Batman movie first because fans want to see a quality solo Dark Knight movie.
We will see what happens. Please tell me your thoughts on my conjecture of how Superman will live again and speak up on Comics Talk, your geek relief on the web. Stay tuned for more. 🙂 Walt
“Justice League” has a November 17, 2017 release directed by Zack Snyder starring Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Willem Dafoe the an Atlantean, Nuidis Vulko.
Synopis:
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Wow what a question– Superman is Kryptonian who was killed by a stab to the chest and exposure to Kryptonite that weakened him so his heart appeared to stop. It is possible he really did not die fully but his body functions just slowed to a crawl so everyone thought he was dead. They could not perform an autopsy because of his invulnerable skin, So given enough time his body will heal and revive.
However it happens it has to be something about his physical makeup as a Krytonian in a yellow star solar system that makes him different than Zod otherwise Zod would have come back without the Genesis Chamber by himself.