Josh-da-man

Deathstroke is primarily a Titans villain, though, isn't he? I haven't read many DC books since the early 90s when they were trying to mold him into their version of The Punisher. Latest thing I read with Deathstroke was Identity Crisis, where he was actually sort of a cool villain, and could work against Batman well enough, but again, with just three movies likely in the DCEU, it seems like a waste to have him as the main villain in a Batman flick.

ETA: I also feel like Marvel is wasting a Spider-Man movie with the Vulture. Another big character with an extensive rogue's gallery going up against another second-stringer.

bluetoast

I remember in the early 2000s one writer gave an interview and said that Deathstroke could run as fast as The Flash for "the first few steps" of a race, playing up his enhanced abilities. Shit like that. There was one instance from the 90's where he treated Batman like no more than a nuisance, brushing him aside while he was trying to shoot someone else, mostly likely to build up his character.

Mike86

Not necessarily because I don't think most of Batman's villains as iconic as a lot of them are would be worthy adversaries for taking on the entire Justice League. Plus we know Steppenwolf is first up and Darkseid will be in a film at some point. Plus even if they went with a Batman villain as one of the main villains in a bigger film his Rogues Gallery is so rich with great characters that pretty much any of them not used in a Justice League film or whatever would be good choices for a solo film.

DaveyJoe

Okay, I guess I'm not really understanding why Deathstroke is a bad choice for a villain in The Batman. It all seems to boil down to "I'd rather see (insert other villain)."

Mike86

At least with The Vulture he is a Spidey villain and plus I think there's a good chance Holland will play the part for a while given how young he is. Vulture to me feels like a good villain for a more rookie Spider-Man to take on and plus it sounds like other villains will be in the film too as well as Osborn.

Solid Snake

I'm not against Deathstroke but it is odd. He's not the best for it probably cuz the whole nature of character doesn't make sense for him to actively go out to take the Bat down on his own time and dime. Typically what a lead villain does. He's a guy that takes the job to take down the Bats. But not because he wants to as a primary personal objective for him.

He's a mercenary.

EDIT: I think Vulture is a solid villain to get into in Spidey's early rounds w/ his baddie gallery.

Mike86

I've answered this before. I don't dislike the character but he's not primarily a Batman villain and yeah when you have a Rogues Gallery of great villains to choose from and Deathstroke is your choice it's questionable. It's just my opinion obviously and I think Affleck will deliver a good film but given that we've gotten three misses out of the three films from DC thus far I think being skeptical at this point is warranted.

DaveyJoe

What makes you think this isn't the case?


Right, it boils down to wanting a different villain.

Solid Snake

From Ben Affleck, the director?

I'm pretty fucking sure WB doesn't want to fuck up their relation w/ Affleck. WB has more on the line w/ how they treat him and his project than WB has had w/ MoS or BvS. I don't think WB will fuck over Affleck. He could fuck up though... it happens to the best of directors too. I'm confident in him though and hope he transitions well into territory that is wildly different from his others projects.

Mike86

Right but again mainly because the villain they're going with isn't really a Batman villain and Batman has so many great villains to choose from. If he was a secondary villain along with someone else it would be better in my opinion.

DaveyJoe

Wasn't Deathstroke one of the leading villains in a recent Arkham game? Those games are very popular, so I wouldn't be surprised if that went into the decision-making process. A lot of comic book villains are interchangeable in who they menace, especially since this is a shared universe in the movies now. They aren't going to save a cool character for a Flash, or whatever, film when they have an upcoming Batman movie to get made.

Mike86

He's one of eight bosses sent to assassinate Batman in Arkham Origins but he's not the main villain.

Solid Snake

Again... it all depends on how that character fits towards the hero. Deathstroke works for Bats. He wouldn't work for say... Green Lantern or Superman.

DaveyJoe

Gotcha. I remember him being featured pretty prominently during the marketing for that game. Anyway, I'm glad they're using characters that haven't been featured in the movies before. Nolan's Batman films were a much more drastic reboot of the 90s films, completely different in tone, it makes sense to see characters like The Joker, Two Face, and Catwoman in a more grounded, serious take on Batman.

The current Batman films aren't much of a departure from the last three. I still maintain that WB is/was toying with a way to retain the Nolan trilogy in the current DCCU's canon. It explains the older, TDKR-influenced Batman in BvS, and it's why I think WB will want to avoid villains like Two Face and Ras Al Ghul, that were killed in Nolan's films.

And depending on what Affleck has in mind for The Batman, a mercenary character might be just what the movie needs.

Josh-da-man

The Nolan trilogy doesn't really work in the DCEU; namely, at the end of DKR, Bruce Wayne fakes his death and turned Wayne Manor into an orphanage.

If you close your eyes and squint, you can pretty much fit BvS:DoJ after TDK, with Batman operating underground and Bruce Wayne still alive and running Wayne Enterprises. And maybe Wayne Manor was trashed because Bruce never finished rebuilding it for some reason (death of Robin?). Though characters like Alfred and The Joker are radically different and don't really fit with what we saw from Leto and Irons.

Mike86

Yeah the Nolan trilogy really stands on its own. About the only thing that really carried over to the new films is the tone. Batman is older and more established but there are just too many things that don't translate to the new films. Personally I kind of felt like if they really wanted to tie the Nolan films to an extended universe they could have had Blake carry on the mantle of Batman for a while and had Bale's Wayne as kind of the money man behind the Justice League. Maybe eventually Bruce could have come back as Batman and revealed that he had faked his death. I know a lot of people didn't like the idea of Bruce not being Batman and while it wouldn't have been ideal it could have worked for a while in my opinion. Especially if Bruce eventually came back at some point as Batman.

Giantrobo

He's not. I for one can appreciate DC /Warner "Diggin' deep". We've seen plenty Jokers, Catwomen, Banes, etc since the late 80's.

Giantrobo

fumanstan

Deathstroke being featured in a couple of the Arkham games came to my mind too, and with his appearance in Arrow he's certainly got more visibility lately. As much as I'd like to also see new takes on characters like Riddler (who I still really would have loved to see from Nolan), I think Deathstroke fits well here too.

I can see why long time Batman and comic fans would want to see someone else though.

Maxflier

The only problem I would have with Deathstroke is that he seems a bit redundant with Deadshot.

Toddarino

I like that they went with a different villain than what we have seen on film so far. I'm still going to hold out hope that he was hired by someone to be revealed at the end. Black Mask? Maybe even Lex in order to tie into Dawn Of Justice/ Justice League.

fumanstan

Black Mask would be great

Solid Snake

I also hope Black Mask to be involved. He's such a great mob level sick fuck.

Neat way they gave us that character in Arkham Origins.

DaveyJoe

I know Nolan intended his trilogy to stand on its own, but I bet if you ask Nolan and WB about the relationship between the Dark Knight films and the DCEU, they'd both have very different answers.

Batman's crime-fighting and eventual murder of Harvey Dent inspires more costumed freaks like the Suicide Squad. I would say BvS takes place about 15 years after TDKR. At some point, the Joker kills John Blake in an attempt to coax Batman back into action. It works, Bruce returns to Gotham and the murder of his friend causes him to fight crime in a more angry and violent fashion, leading to stuff like the branding. He knocks the Joker's teeth out and eventually the stuff in Metropolis goes down.

I'm not saying that's a theory that I want, personally I love the Nolan films, hate the shared universe stuff, and wish we'd just continue getting quality solo Batman films without silly characters like Superman. But with the success of the Nolan trilogy, I think WB wants the average viewer to assume the films are all connected. That's WB has been vague about the new franchise and not come out and said Batman is a reboot from the Nolan films. That's why we got an older, TDKR-inspired Batman. I mean, with all of the issues you guys seem to have with MoS and BvS, do you think WB is going to let a couple of minor continuity issues between the franchises bother them?

Mike86

The thing is though you don't have to really dig deep to find a good Batman villain. Just off the top of my head decent villains not used I'd like to see: Black Mask, Clayface, Hugo Strange, Hush, Mad Hatter, Man-Bat, Red Hood. Plus that's not even taking into account previous villains used that weren't done well such as Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and The Riddler.