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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the second entry in the DC Extended Universe and there is only one Superman based film existing in this universe and still Batman's name is placed before Superman's in the film title. Is there any reason for this placement of the title like this? Is there any official confirmation on it?

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  • interesting questions, will be answered only after watching the movie. my guess is that its batman's actions that provoke superman to get into a "tiff/fight" etc with him. Also possible that man of steel movie got some negative with regards to final fight scene, so maybe its just damage control to show batman is right and so is first. But still its my guess, I can judge only after watching the movie
    – sankoobaba
    Mar 23, 2016 at 12:19
  • Lexicographically B<S.
    – ABcDexter
    Mar 23, 2016 at 15:41
  • Behaghel's Law of Increasing Terms? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaghel%27s_laws Mar 23, 2016 at 16:47
  • After having watched the movie today, should I answer this question?
    – ABcDexter
    Mar 25, 2016 at 12:58
  • 1
    @ABcDexter Why not, but it will be preferable to use spoiler block if you are using big spoilers
    – Ankit Sharma
    Mar 25, 2016 at 13:14

4 Answers 4

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The film summary for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from the sidebar of Googling "Batman v Superman" makes it clear that the plot is Batman/Bruce deciding that Superman is "a bad guy", a criminal.

It's been nearly two years since Superman's (Henry Cavill) colossal battle with Zod (Michael Shannon) devastated the city of Metropolis. The loss of life and collateral damage left many feeling angry and helpless, including crime-fighting billionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck). Convinced that Superman is now a threat to humanity, Batman embarks on a personal vendetta to end his reign on Earth, while the conniving Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) launches his own crusade against the Man of Steel.

The film title appears to be following the precedent of legal cases, which are always listed as "Plaintiff v Defendant". The entity filing charges is first, the entity being charged with the offense is listed second.

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  • 5
    You put that into a quote block, so is it copied from some external source? If yes, then you should include an attribution of that source (preferrably with a link if possible).
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Mar 23, 2016 at 12:51
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    I do buy your explanation but your answer seems like using a copied content, kindly mention the source of the information.
    – Ankit Sharma
    Mar 23, 2016 at 13:34
  • @AnkitSharma The source is mentioned - search "Batman v Superman" in Google, and it's in the Google-generated sidebar. I couldn't tell you where Google originally sourced it from. If you turn around and search for the first line of the return, you get hits on dozens of theater's websites.
    – T.J.L.
    Mar 23, 2016 at 15:10
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    I tried searching for a source - there's a lot of websites using the exact same quote, so it might be difficult to pinpoint the original one. Where does Google gets the quote from?
    – Luciano
    Apr 6, 2016 at 12:06
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Possible Explanation

Batman has generated a strong interest post Nolan's trilogy that grossed a staggering total of $2.460 b in its Box Office run which means an average of $820 m. While Man of Steel even with one of the strongest buzz of the year it released, it made $668 m which is relatively less in terms of what DC characters are used to. The film barely made more than Thor: The Dark World, which was considered a glorified “time out” entry in the Marvel Phase 2 narrative. A lot of that could be attributed to the disappointing story structure and under developed characters.

Now if this is to be carried ahead in a sequel, marketing with the same name adding just the suffix of "part whatever", would mean carrying the ill-will forward to which audience wouldn't be so excited. So a smart marketing move would be to use the already popular Batman tag to it, and capitalize on the interests of the public to draw more eye balls. Now if the Batman tag is added after Superman, it would clearly mean its a Man of Steel sequel considering it happens after the events of Man of Steel, but having it in the front would mean a whole new different stand alone film serving up as an introduction for a number of characters for the long line-up of films that awaits, especially, The Justice League. In fact they have even used the "Dawn of Justice" subtitle to make it crystal clear about the leading up to Justice League thing, instead of seeing it as the sequel, hence removing every bit of the disappointment formed in the previous one from Snyder.

Why is the movie 'Batman v Superman' not called 'Superman vs. Batman'?

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3

It is because

Batman strikes first!

Yes, almost in every I noted down 54 different scenes in the movie and the whole movie can be divided into these 4 parts.

  1. The buildup.

    It mainly shows Bruce when Superman was fighting with Zod. So, the movie begins with Bruce, the gunshot at his parents and his perception of Superman's uncontrolled power. At Lex Luthor's party, Bruce Wayne is also shown interacting with Diana Prince(Wonder Woman).

  2. The rivalry.

    It builds up a bit slow, and is mainly a filler. Lex was shown to be behind this. He keeps sending hurting letters to Bruce Wayne. He defames Superman by ordering his men to kill people where Superman was supposed to arrive. Also he blasts up the court/senate where Superman was present, to show some kind of involvement of Superman in the crime.

  3. The Demon.

    The main demon i.e. the Joker+Riddler mixed up Lex Luthor messes up with everything, he's shown to be behind everything. His main motive is to defeat Superman but Batman gets more of his attention when Batman steal Kryptonite from his lab. ( It is somewhat apparent that he knew Batman was going to steal it, and he let him do that. So, he knew about the secret identity of both of them. Mastermind!)

  4. The real Batman vs Superman

    In this part, Batman wins handsomely over Superman and was about to kill him when Lois interrupted ( though Superman could have killed Batman when he had the chance. ) But it was not about their fight, rather it was figuring out the real enemy. (it was too dramatic I believe, could have done better)

  5. The final fight

    The crux of the movie is that scene in which Batman spares(had to use this word) Superman when the latter one utters the word 'Martha'. When Batman fails to kill Superman, the doomsday is produced by Lex( by using some Kryptonian regeneration technology) and is beaten by the DC trinity.

  6. Towards the Justice League

    Cameo/Bonus: Justice League in Making. The seed of this is planted when Batman talks with Wonder Woman after something very tragic happens. Two clips of other meta-humans( The Flash and the Aquaman) were also shown.

Thus, the main plot revolves around Batman affecting the life of Superman and thus beginning to make a superhero team with at least 7 members in it i.e. The Justice League.

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Because batman won. The winner always gets his name first, like in Monsters vs Aliens.

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