Story: Batfleck: the caped crusader as tricked-out UFC champ

Naysayers point out that the guns on Affleck’s Batmobile undercut the character’s usual (though not constant) “No killing” rule. But otherwise this is a pretty decent take on Gotham’s dark knight.

Affleck wears the cape and cowl with an intimidating physical presence unmatched by any previous Batman. This is the caped crusader as tricked-out UFC fighter rather than the more graceful, KFM-influenced street-fighting dark knight essayed by Christian Bale. And his double act with Jeremy Irons’ equally jaded Alfred Pennyworth is highly enjoyable, with the butler moving into a remote-sidekick role that makes you wonder how Batfleck’s predecessors ever got by without such impressive tech-powered guidance.

And yet Affleck’s Bruce Wayne is an arrogant bully whose disturbing sexual comments towards Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman mark him out as a man with a problematic moral compass. And did you swallow the bit where his realisation of a human connection with Superman (their mothers both share the Christian name Martha) saw Batman instantly switch from readying himself to kill Kal-El to heading off to save his opponent’s mum from certain death? And can we forgive him for nearly offing the greatest superhero in comics in time for a double whammy of Snyder-directed Justice League movies in 2017 and 2018?
Jeremy Irons: ‘I have the natural tendency of a benign dictator’