Among the worst kept secrets of film history was the return of Superman in the Justice League. Although Henry Cavill’s presence in the movie was quite obvious, the film’s marketing kept him under wraps, and the trailers, as well as posters, only hinted at his absence and the guy was seen only in a dream sequence, however, it was Snyder’s original idea of a scene which eventually turned out differently in the final cut.
Since Superman was rendered powerless by kryptonite at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then his chest is pierced by a gigantic bone spike which protruded from Doomsday’s arm. We could see that he didn’t faint or collapse, but, he was shown to have well and truly died, although doubts were cast about it when we saw dirt rising off his coffin before the end credits rolled.
In the comics, Superman is resurrected after being placed in a Kryptonian Regeneration Matrix, and he comes back in a black suit which left fans to wonder whether Justice League would follow the same approach since the crashed Kryptonian Scout Ship was shown to have everything necessary to do it. Though, all that is not discarded, but, the film takes it a little differently.
The revival of a Kryptonian has already been displayed in the DCEU with Zod, and we know it didn’t succeed as he became Doomsday, the reason why Superman is dead. The Justice League won’t want another Doomsday replacing Superman and Aquamanand Wonder Woman are afraid of that possibility when Bruce talked about reviving Superman. Aquaman said that despite being revived, he might lose his soul. In a variation of his “even if there’s only a 1 percent chance [that Superman is our enemy], we have to take it as an absolute certainty” theory in Batman v Superman, Bruce is now keen to risk it all for even the smallest percentage of chances for Superman’s revival. He also had a backup plan ready.
When Diana said that the Mother Boxes don’t keep power, but, they “are power,” Bruce decides that it was possible to revive the cells in Superman’s body. The Mother Box is capable of restructuring a planet. However, Superman might be tougher, and his cells don’t decay. He suggested to place him in amniotic fluid inside the genesis chamber of the Kryptonian Scout Ship so that the mother box’s power would do the rest. Cyborg steals the body from Clark’s grave and puts it as planned. Upon plugging in, Cyborg finds that Doomsday’s creation depleted the energy supply of the ship and the Mother Box can’t be triggered. That’s where Flash steps in to generate required energy by using Speed Force.
He uses the ship’s length to work up the speed and runs to create electricity and precisely transfers the energy to the Mother Box. The Man of Steel is revived, but, he is devoid of certain memories or experiencing post-resurrection rage. He tore into the league on the steps of the Superman monument, especially focusing on Batman. Batman says that “the world needs Superman” and Superman retorts “but does it need you? Tell me, do you bleed?”
Noticing that Superman is outraged, Batman calls for the back-up and Alfred brings Lois on. Lois is Superman’s world and his controller. She calms him down, and then they take off for the Kent farm where he spends time recovering for the ultimate battle against Steppenwolf.
Zack Snyder showed a more one-sided version of Superman in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; Justice League now uses the resurrection theory to direct toward a version that the audiences love, and the Superman that we see afterward is much lighter and happier than in either Man of Steel or Batman v Superman. They even make him say “I like truth, but I’m also a big fan of justice” as a direct gesture to the version that the DCEU haters had been talking about.
Rumors aside, the Man of Steel 2 is not on the radar (not even a script) therefore, we don’t know what this implies for Superman’s DCEU future, however, it can be said that it all would rely upon how the audiences and box office react to it. If the new Superman gets going and the film makes money, then we might see Man of Steel 2 being sped up. We know that Warner Bros. is waiting for the outcome of Justice League before taking the next step with various under development projects such as Flashpoint, or else, it might be a stream of solo and new characters movies’ in the future of DC.
