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https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comics/series/183561/harley-quinn-fartacular-silent-butt-deadly

Really, DC? You're going to publish this gross stupidity to the market? I thought the comics side of the business had some standards. Not even the most woke comic out there would stoop to this level.

Unbelievable.

Superhero films can encourage prosocial behavior, new study finds

A new study published in The Journal of Psychology suggests that superhero films, despite often depicting violence, can promote prosocial behavior — actions meant to benefit others, such as sharing or helping. By showing a specific scene from the 2016 film Batman v Superman, the researchers found that viewers who identified with Batman or believed his actions were morally justified were more likely to help others in a subsequent task.

While previous research has shown that prosocial media can encourage helpfulness and cooperation, violent media has typically been associated with increased aggression. Superhero films, a genre with widespread popularity, often mix these two elements. The researchers wanted to explore how these films might affect viewers, particularly in terms of empathy and moral reasoning, which could influence whether viewers engage in prosocial behavior despite the violence on screen.

The study involved two experiments, each with 200 Brazilian participants, who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group watched a 3-minute and 47-second clip from the movie Batman v Superman, in which Batman fights multiple armed villains to rescue Martha, a captured character. This scene was chosen for its combination of violent action and a clear prosocial motive—saving a life.

In contrast, the control group watched a neutral video that featured colorful shapes forming various patterns. This video, which had no violent or prosocial content, was meant to serve as a baseline for comparison.

After watching the videos, participants were asked to complete a prosocial behavior task. They were told they were helping with another study by distributing pieces of chocolate to future participants who liked the treat. The number of chocolate pieces each participant allocated served as a measure of their prosocial behavior.

The researchers also measured participants' levels of empathy after viewing the videos. To do this, they used a scale that assessed three different types of empathy: affective empathy (sharing another person's emotions), cognitive empathy (understanding another's perspective), and associative empathy (identifying with the character in the video).

In the second experiment, the researchers introduced an additional measure—moral justification. Participants were asked to evaluate whether the violent actions taken by Batman were justified. This was done using a series of statements such as "The main character's actions were necessary" or "It was impossible to deal with this situation in any other way."

In the first study, participants who watched the superhero scene reported higher levels of empathy than those in the control group. More specifically, viewers showed increased associative empathy — they identified more with Batman and his mission to save the hostage. This identification with the hero was the key factor that indirectly boosted prosocial behavior.

While participants in the superhero group didn't give significantly more chocolate than those in the control group overall, the effect of the movie on prosocial behavior was seen through the increase in empathy. This suggests that feeling connected to the hero and understanding their motives could encourage viewers to be more generous and helpful in their real-world actions.

The second study revealed that moral reasoning also played a role in prosocial behavior. Participants who watched the superhero scene were more likely to believe that Batman's violent actions were justified. This belief, in turn, was linked to higher prosocial behavior, as measured by the chocolate allocation task.

Essentially, when participants viewed the hero's actions as morally right, they were more inclined to engage in helpful behavior themselves. The researchers theorized that the portrayal of superheroes as protectors and defenders likely led viewers to accept their violent actions as necessary for the greater good, which then translated into a willingness to help others.

In short, simply watching the superhero scene did not directly cause participants to behave more prosocially. Instead, the participants who empathized with the characters or believed the violent actions were justified were more likely to act in a helpful way afterward.

While the study offers valuable insights into the effects of superhero films, it is not without limitations. One limitation is the use of an online experiment, which may reduce the level of control over participants' environments and behavior. For instance, distractions during the video could have affected participants' responses. Additionally, the study only used a single method of measuring prosocial behavior (the chocolate allocation task), which may not fully capture the complexity of prosocial actions in real-world situations.

Another limitation is the sample size and demographic characteristics. The participants were predominantly young adults from Brazil, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other age groups or cultural contexts. Future research could address this by replicating the study with different age groups and in various cultural settings.

The study, "Superhero Films' Impacts on Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of State-Empathy and Violence Justification," was authored by Isabella Leandra Silva Santos and Carlos Eduardo Pimentel.

https://www.psypost.org/superhero-films-can-encourage-prosocial-behavior-new-study-finds/

So basically, those who identified with Batman's actions in the BvS warehouse scene as necessary under the circumstances tend to be more empathetic and likely to help others. Normally I wouldn't think you'd need to organise a psychological study to hypothesise this. If I'm being honest, you can use other superhero films with similar scenes to hypothesise such a theory. On the other hand, it does amuse me that the impression I get from this report - whether it was intended or not - is those who criticise the warehouse scene e.g. "Batman wouldn't do this or that" are likely coming from people who have zero empathy themselves. From what I've seen of the disgusting vitriol towards Snyder over the years, I would not at all be surprised.

I found this fan-made video uploaded less than a week ago by a B89 fan. A very nicely done animated piece that gets the atmosphere and mood of Burton's Gotham City right. I love the attention to detail, from the glimpses of the Joker to the doctor who helped in the tampering of the chemicals at Axis going missing. This pays tribute to the Burtonverse much better than any of the recent comics and films.

Check it out:

https://youtu.be/BScwUeHzvAQ

https://people.com/father-who-accused-ezra-miller-grooming-withdrew-court-filings-8701493

Even if these allegations were false all along, I still don't care for Ezra Miller. I'll never forget when those accusations were made he posted a Flash meme on Instagram. An outrageous, baffling reaction by somebody who is not in his right mind. Whether was guilty or innocent. Unsurprisingly, he closed his account soon after.

https://www.nme.com/news/tv/neil-gaimans-netflix-show-scrapped-following-abuse-allegations-3789903
https://www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/07/03/exclusive-neil-gaiman-accused-of-sexual-assault/

It's not looking good for Gaiman. The last time I remember a comic book writer who was accused of horrendous allegations was Warren Ellis.

I remember getting a bad feeling about Gaiman when he candidly responded "No problem. It was fun", to a disgruntled JL fan saying "Thanks for ruining Zack Snyder's Justice League" on Twitter. A bizarre reply because the tweet wasn't even directed to Gaiman, but it was response that was liked by Joss Whedon. You know what they say, birds of a feather...

I couldn't find any chatter about this on the forum even though this is from weeks ago. I didn't want to give any of the blog sites any more clicks than they deserved so I screengrabbed what Akiva Goldsman said.



Unfortunately I don't see the release happening any time soon, as long as WBD continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Putting aside their financial troubles at the moment, if the studio won't even release Coyote vs Acme - a nearly finished film that was co-written and co-produced by Gunn - then what chance does the Schumacher cut have?

Zack Snyder, to the surprise of many, is in talks to direct and produce a prequel show to the 300 film.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/300-tv-series-early-development-warner-bros-television-zack-snyder-1236017708/

If a deal goes through, my guess is this show will be licensed to Netflix as part of his ongoing relationship with them. Warners at the moment is licensing a lot of content off to other streaming services, as MAX doesn't produce that many shows anymore. Otherwise, I think it's way to risky for Snyder to get into a deal with a studio that has been pretty hostile to him on a professional level for the last seven years. But even if you put that history aside, it's not even a good time to work with them now they've earned a notorious reputation for constant cancellations and tax write-offs.

This is pretty surprising to read knowing DiCaprio swore he'd never even dare to star in these kind of movies. It's interesting that Snyder confessed that DiCaprio suggested the idea of Superman fighting the Justice League and how that influenced his decision to have him combat the team after his resurrection in ZSJL.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/zack-snyder-leonardo-dicaprio-lex-luthor-1235974867/

DiCaprio would've given BvS a greater level of gravitas. Too bad he turned the role down.

Keaton did a short career retrospective on GQ's YouTube channel, and spoke about his experience and approach to playing the titular character. It's the time I've heard of Keaton mentioning Frank Miller's name as an influence on the film. I guess he must've skimmed through Dark Knight Returns as an idea of what the tone that Burton and co should be aiming for.

https://youtu.be/j2h4lcXUCxw?t=17

[Suicide Squad 2016]

I know this is a long post, but I honestly don't care. It's good to look back and not forget what has happened.

Normally I don't use the term DCEU because I felt that the idea of a DC shared universe ceased to exist as soon as Josstice League came out, and everything else that came out since had tenuous continuity, at best. And I'm being generous by saying that. But I'll use the term for the sake of getting the message across.

It's amazing how badly managed the vast majority of DC films became over the years. Little did we know the studio meddling that happened during the Snyder and Ayer era was only the beginning.

The Snyder cut saga was the most infamous, but Suicide Squad 2016 was when all hell began to break loose. Initially, David Ayer denied that his film was reshot and the studio cut was exactly what he intended until he started giving hints that Geoff Johns was responsible for doing a lot of damage behind the scenes in 2019. When ZSJL was announced a year later, that's when he became very outspoken about his cut.

I want to make it clear by saying I don't blame Ayer for going along with the narrative back in 2016. His film was still financially successful despite the negative reviews, and if he had told the truth the studio would've done everything to damage his career permanently. I can sympathise why he went along with the narrative back then. But as time went by and WB continued to burn bridges with not only fans but with the talent they hired, his support for the studio and trying to take a diplomatic approach became rather obnoxious, even going so far liking tweets by trolls who attacked the Ayer cut fans. Whether he meant it or not, it's just a bad look, and sadly to say, I didn't have much sympathy when he realised at the beginning of this year that WBD have no intention of ever releasing his cut. If a harsh lesson is to be learned here, you can't be diplomatic with a rotten studio like Warners.

Justice League...need I say more? Anyone who still blames Zack Snyder for this ordeal is an idiot who suffers from Snyder Derangement Syndrome. Even if you couldn't stand Snyder's direction, I don't know how anyone couldn't have blamed the studio for this PR debacle. It got even worse when Joss Whedon was exposed for bullying behind the scenes, on top of sabotaging the original vision for a vastly inferior Avengers knockoff.

Five years later, Batgirl with Michael Keaton co-starring as Batman in a post-Flash timeline where he replaces Batfleck was produced, then shelved, because of the excuse that it would've damaged the DC brand. I know I was never at all enthusiastic about this film to begin with, but from an objective point of view, its cancellation remains a massive PR black eye for WBD. The fact that WBD didn't have the guts to notify the filmmakers and producers - these people had to find the news out for themselves - is unprofessional beyond belief. Sometimes I think Batgirl might've gained greater support online if it was set in the Burtonverse. But then again now that we know James Gunn hates Burton's Batman, any support for a Burtonverse Batgirl would've been just as futile.

Batgirl is the first out of three films that got shelved by WBD, following Scoob! Holiday Haunt and Coyote vs Acme. Although according to one of the screenwriters, the Looney Tunes movie still has a chance to come out. I doubt it because if the egotistical dickheads at Warners are taking the chance to say they regret releasing ZSJL, there's no way they want to hurt their egos even further by releasing ANOTHER film they tried to hide from the public. Anwyay, moving on...

Then there's The Flash. Initially, this was supposed to reboot the DC universe with Keaton replacing Affleck and Sasha Calle's Supergirl replacing Henry Cavill's Superman, hence Batgirl was originally made to follow the new timeline. When Batgirl was scrapped, reshoots were filmed to keep Keaton and Calle, but this time they'd be united with Cavill and Gal Gadot, and Batfleck had appeared in a post-credit scene, allegedly calling Barry out for help in a similar fashion when Flash called out to Bruce in BvS. As soon as Gunn took over as co-CEO of DC Studios, all of these reshot scenes were scrapped. After pulling the rug off of Cavill's announced return as Superman by announcing a reboot, Cavill - along with  Keaton, Calle, Affleck and Gadot - got kicked out of The Flash's ending, and reshoots for the third time had all of those people replaced by George Clooney's Bruce Wayne meeting Barry, for a cheap laugh. The reported Batfleck post-credit scene was scrapped in favour of Barry and a drunken Arthur Curry walking out of a bar, for another cheap laugh.

To be honest, judging from what I saw of The Flash, I don't think the second reshoot ending would've saved the film from getting bombed. The film itself had a lot against going for it, poor special effects, Ezra Miller's notoriety, negative fan reaction online ever since the plot was leaked, recreating the likeness of dead actors for cheap nostalgiabait. In a way, everybody else who was removed from the ending was spared from further embarrassment, and Gunn and Zaslav rightly had eggs on their face after calling the Flash "one of the best superhero films of all time".

Finally, there's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. This was another film that was planned to follow the original post-Flash timeline, and Keaton would reprise his role in a cameo. When Batgirl got scrapped, his cameo in Aquaman 2 got scrapped, and was replaced by Affleck. Momoa excitedly posted on social media celebrating Affleck's return...only for Affleck's appearance was confirmed to have been scrapped a few months later once Gunn stupidly announced his own DCU soft-reboot agenda. Ultimately, Affleck AND Keaton got screwed over by the studio.

There is a good argument that BvS was the first DCEU film that got screwed up when they chopped half an hour of the film in theaters, but at least the Ultimate Edition came out months later. There was even a rumour that Affleck recorded a voice cameo for Blue Beetle before Gunn took over, which Gunn denies. Again, with his track record of lying, who knows?

It's easy to say the DCEU, or whatever the hell one prefers to call it, is a missed opportunity. But I don't see DC on film getting any better in  the future. 2023 was a disastrous year for the brand cinematically, but they're still wasting more money to produce even more crap. If they want to lose more money and allow Gunn to have his ego trip to hijack the brand, so be it. We'll see how much of this announced DCU stuff actually gets released. Whatever happens, I'm having no part in their nonsense. I'm only thankful that ZSJL got released, because it would've been impossible if we were still waiting for it right now.

The news came out a week ago.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/final-days-coyote-vs-acme-140000578.html

Assuming they haven't destroyed the film already, Coyote vs Acme will be the third film shelved for tax write-offs by WBD, after Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt. This is yet another terrible look for the studio and gives suspicion they were acting out of bad faith.

The most baffling thing out of all this is James Gunn co-wrote AND co-produced Coyote vs Acme.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1756855/fullcredits

Despite this, Gunn has NOT said anything publicly about the situation. This leads me to believe in two possibilities:

1) This whole ordeal is a cynical PR marketing campaign to hype up a supposedly great film, and an announcement to sell the film to another studio will be announced by the next earnings call in a week from now;

2) Gunn doesn't care if the Looney Tunes project he contributed is in danger of getting erased, because he's too busy hijacking the DC brand to line up his own pockets.

If this film is truly doomed and not even someone like Gunn's current standing in the industry can save it, then who is to say this DCU won't be dead on arrival? If I were Gunn, I'd do everything I could and call the studio out for destroying a film I worked on, instead of spin-doctoring every time there's bad PR affecting his DCU agenda.

Whatever the case is, this is yet another black mark on WBD's already tainted reputation. Directors, writers, actors and consumers need to start taking a stance against this shoddy corporate misconduct, because other studios are beginning to copy. Netflix shelved a sci-fi film starring Halle Berry a few weeks ago. This can't go on.

I'm surprised to read what Elfman had to say about his experience.

When B89 was in production, an idea was floated around that Prince should collaborate on writing the music with Elfman, but Elfman refused to do so because he knew he'd be playing second fiddle to Prince's ego. He even left the project, until he was brought back after the producers agreed to give him full control of the score. I never knew that. It seems there was a clash between writing an original score to make it distinct from the Superman theme by John Williams and an agenda to write pop music by Prince. Thankfully, they agreed to fit both into the final product.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/danny-elfman-batman-prince

I was looking up some info about the Organ Grinder, and in these two trading cards, it revealed that he was supposed to rob an ATM.







This idea was illustrated in the children's story book, The Penguin's Plot.



If this scene was photographed then the film footage was shot. I wonder why we never saw the footage to this day? I assume this would've been the original idea to introduce the Organ Grinder on screen until it was scrapped in favour of him firing his machine guns at bystanders.

The promotional character poster, as well as the election campaign poster within the film, shows the Penguin wearing his monocle and holding a cigarette holder in his mouth. In the film, however, the only time he is seen wearing the monocle is when he's researching at the Gotham Hall of Records and the only time we see him with a cigarette holder is when Josh gives it to him to reclaim his birthright before Penguin spits it out of his mouth in annoyance.

Along with the rest of the portrayal, I can imagine the most die-hard comic book purists at the time would've hated how these details were underutlised, but it makes sense in the film. It's a little unreasonable to expect him to keep these aristocratic details when he was abandoned by his own family and left to float alone in the sewers as an infant. Obviously, if he had not been born with these birth defects, Penguin may have adopted these accessories much more often.

Has anybody encountered anyone else having some gripes about the lack of these accessories worn by the Penguin?

I found this on Game Rant, but because I don't want to give any Screen Rant-affiliated sites the clicks, I'll just copy and paste what I found below.

Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman might not have been credited for her work on the Marvel Studios film if James Gunn had his way.

• Allegations of bullying and attempts to undermine screenwriter Nicole Perlman's credit on Guardians of the Galaxy are further exposed in the tell-all book "The Reign of Marvel Studios."
• Perlman's friend and co-writer, Zack Stentz, reveals that Gunn tried to push Perlman out of the Marvel circle and leaked information to undermine her credit.
• Perlman, despite the controversies, credits everyone in the movie, including James Gunn, for making it beautiful; Gunn has not responded to Stentz's comments.

A close friend and fellow screenwriter steps in for Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman, adding fuel to the circulating allegations of what transpired between Perlman and James Gunn during the production of the Marvel Studios film.

Gunn had already been on a controversial path to becoming the new DC Studios CEO. His rise to DC started when Disney fired Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for past reprehensible thoughts on Twitter and a pedophile-themed party that included a convicted pedophile. However, while this may be where Gunn's character was judged in the eyes of the public, it is not where those controversies began, as further allegations are now coming to light regarding alleged bullying tactics used by Gunn in an attempt to be seen as the sole writer on Guardians of the Galaxy against Perlman.

Joanna Robinson's book The Reign of Marvel Studios describes Perlman as having written the original story and screenplay for Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, which included many iconic aspects seen in the movie, such as Star Lord's backstory and passion for retro music. Gunn ended up rewriting the screenplay, and despite Perlman still needing to be acknowledged as co-writer according to WGA guidelines, Zack Stentz, Perlman's friend and co-writer of the Thor screenplay, detailed the behind-the-scenes Perlman endured to receive credit. "Nicole had to knife-fight for her credit on Guardians of the Galaxy. But she is probably the preeminent female action tent pole writer now because she was the first woman to have her name on not just a Marvel movie, but on a Marvel movie that people really love."



Stentz goes further, detailing Perlman's thoughts and the lengths Gunn went to to push Perlman out of the Marvel circle. "She threw a party when the movie came out literally called the 'f*** James Gunn' party because she had won that very bruising credit arbitration. The thing that I'm still angry about, and I say this as a fan of James Gunn as a director, was that he very clearly was selectively leaking stuff to his friends and the fanboy media circles to undermine her credit," Stentz said. "When Matthew Vaughnn decided to have a temper tantrum over the fact that we got screen credit [on X-Men: First Class], at least he did it under his own name." In the book, Perlman stated that she "credits everybody in the movie, including James, for making it so beautiful." Gunn has not responded to Stentz's comments at this time.

While some entities like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery would assume that Gunn has grown from his mistakes, others would argue otherwise with examples pointing to many of the tactics previously used on Perlman, prevalent in the media by statements that contradict the word of Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Zack Snyder, and Henry Cavill. While fans are eager to move forward with DC, an air of uncertainty looms over the DCU, with Universal rumored to be in the running to acquire WBD.

Perlman's interest in writing screenplays initially began with her passion for science fiction, and she has been involved with the Science and Entertainment Exchange to keep what audiences see in movies as real as possible. She received her writing credit on Guardians of the Galaxy for her original screenplay, which she said wasn't "based on any particular comic book." However, she went on to work on other movies while Gunn completed the screenplay for the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel.

I remember reading about how Nicole Perlman was really GOTG's baby, and James Gunn tried to steal credit, but this is the first time Gunn is condemned for his alleged behaviour.

I was skeptical about the first GOTG when it was being made, but I did end up enjoying it. It was a simple, entertaining popcorn movie, with a good balance of light-heartedness, adventure, and emotion. Having said that, I thought the hype for it was overblown, but it was still better than that awful second film, and now I know why. Aside from the moment when Drax calls a Gamora "a green whore", the first one's comedic tone was far less crass and repetitive compared to Vol. 2. Knowing the creepy suspicions surrounding Gunn's personal life, the themes of child abduction in both GOTG become even more unsettling.

Evidently, Gunn is a man who has support from the higher-ups and cast to get away with such questionable behaviour. I have to wonder, does somebody need to get physically hurt before he faces some accountability?

In other news, that article mentioning how WBD is rumoured to be bought by Universal was reported a week or so ago, with a sale estimated to be announced around late next year. Hopefully, that will scupper all plans for the DCU. After the disastrous year this year's slate has had, only crazy people would be willing to invest any more money on DC Comics productions.

The editing for the Axis Chemicals scene is pure gold. 

https://youtu.be/O7yT55tO29M

I intend this thread to focus on 1978, but if you want to mention a fave scene from the Donner cut I guess you can do that too. No matter if it's finished or not, Donner's Superman was meant to be a two-part saga after all.

My favourite scene, in terms of emotion, would have to be Superman turning back time. The older I get, the more I've become critical of this scene because of the plot holes, but it's Reeve's performance that sells it as a spectacular scene. From the despair he feels over Lois dying to using that grief as a determination to undo her death and the damage the earthquake caused around California is still exhilarating.

But in terms of story, I believe the whole Krypton sequence is perhaps the film's strongest. Setting up the stage of Jor-El sentencing General Zod and co to the Phantom Zone, the restrained silence as the Kryptonian council dooms the whole planet and Jor-El and Lara saying their goodbyes to their infant son before narrowly making his narrow escape. Out of all the nostalgic things people heap praise for this movie, I hardly see anybody talk about how terrifying Krypton's destruction was. That, together with the destruction of LA in Cameron's Terminator films, used to scare me sh*tless as a kid. But moving on...

Baby Kal-El listening to Jor-El's recorded voice teaching him some of Earth's history before arriving in Smallville, and the cinematography throughout the whole sequence up to the first-person view of crashing on the farm, was exceptional for its time. Geoffrey Unsworth had a unique touch that was sorely missed once he had passed away.

Feel free to share your favourite scene/s in S78 if you wish.

From what I can see, this was taken eleven years ago, presumably from Facebook. It seems legitimate. Gunn has a notorious habit of running off his mouth on social media, and making highly questionable comments online, to say the least.







I wouldn't take it personally. The fact this POS scumbag "joked" about abusing women and children discredits any opinion he has.

Besides, he has absolutely no right to dismiss other directors' filmograpjy when he makes garbage like GOTG Vol. 2 and The Suicide Squad.

https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1327332-arleen-sorkin-dead-harley-quinn

Rest in peace to the original Harley Quinn. Still the best voice of the character to date, in my opinion.

For me, it would have to be that moment when he sacrificed himself to get kidnapped by the Penguin to spare his son, Chip. Just a little reminder that the man still had a bit of humanity to protect his own son, despite being a corrupt businessman.

What are your favourite scenes?