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DC has confirmed that Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel and Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight share the same continuity.
Yes, we’ve seen Batman and Superman trade blows in recent years on the big screen inhabited by Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, respectively. But fans who had grown up with Keaton and Reeve’s take on the characters wondered if they shared the same reality. Through recent Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1, it had been revealed that both movie versions of the characters actually exist together in The Multiverse’s designated Earth-789. This reveal opens up the possibility of these two having a crossover, especially in light of the recent miniseries, Superman ’78 and Batman ’89respectively.
From Tim Burton’s release Batman in 1989, fans speculate whether or not this incarnation shares the same dimensional space as Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman: The Movie. In fact, the closest fans saw Michael Keaton and Christopher Reeve in the same shot together was in the 1994 romantic comedy. Speechless with Geena Davis. This would be one of Reeve’s last performances before his riding accident left him a quadriplegic until his death in 2004. Keaton, meanwhile, focused on projects as far removed from Batman as possible until he returned to comics as Marvel’s Vulture at Spider-Man: Homecoming and Bruce Wayne once again The lightning.
DC is confirming what fans have been speculating for years
The aforementioned miniseries deviates from the less popular sequels and focuses on original stories. Additionally, these stories used characters who had passed off as cinematic antagonists. For example, Superman faced Brainiac, a character who had been replaced Superman III by Richard Pryor’s computer genius Gus Gorman. It was also revealed that Jor-El and Lara were still alive in one of the many shrink cities on Brainiac’s ship. In Batman ’89, meanwhile, not only did we see Billy Dee Williams’ Harvey Dent, not Tommy Lee Jones becoming Two-Face, but what Marlon Wayans would look like as Robin. Burton never saw the sense of Robin existing in the world he had created and often struggled with studio pressure. He and the studio eventually parted ways as he wanted the next Batman film to be darker Batman returns, but still retained a Producer credit. These two books focused on the essence of what spawned these franchises, giving readers a taste of what might have happened if Donner and Burton had remained on hand to helm the films.
That’s where the world that gave birth to them comes in. These two books focused on the essence of what spawned these franchises, giving readers a glimpse of what might have happened if Donner and Burton had stayed on to helm the films. Now that these series are canon and part of the same universe, the possibilities are endless. The only question is, when will we see The Batmobile zoom past The Daily Planet or Superman fly over Gotham City and the Bat-Signal? Or maybe a rivalry between Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane and Kim Bassinger’s Vicki Vale?
Time will hopefully tell.
Official Source – Batman ’89 and Superman ’78 Take Place in Same Universe, DC Confirms (screenrant.com)