Zack Snyder’s Justice League gave rise to an epic romance that broke every rule of the long-established universe of DC heroes.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League might be the only superhero film to be embroiled in endless controversy despite being one of the best cinematic expressions of creativity. The DC Extended Universe movie not only had drive but enough passion to deliver a gut punch through its complex retelling of familiar superheroes with their oversaturated origin stories.

Henry Cavill as Superman in Zack Snyder’s Justice League [Credit: Warner Bros.]

The filmmaker dared to turn the genre on its head and delve into an alternate universe where the lines of good and evil are a bit more blurry and morality is a bit more questionable.

More so, Snyder showed his audience the grimdark reality of what happens when truth, justice, and the American way just don’t work against corruption anymore. Heroes need to bend their honor and stoic laws of ethics and fight fire with fire to take the villains down.

Romance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Saga

Zack Snyder’s Justice League – Amy Adams as Lois Lane [Credit: Warner Bros.]

Zack Snyder’s Superman did not die a graceful death. Instead, it was messy, brutal, and unworthy of such a valorous hero. In the aftermath of his passing, Bruce Wayne was brought back from his dark and vengeful path by Lois Lane and a romance blossomed between the two.

The foreshadowing of Lois’ pregnancy in Justice League was the result of her relationship with Bruce. Ridden by guilt and the alien threat of Darkseid, Bruce traversed the highs and lows and far corners of the world to unite the heroes of the Justice League and resurrect Superman, leaving Lois, and never uttering a word about their time together.

In the battle that followed in the unmade Justice League films, Batman failed to protect Lois, making Superman fall under Darkseid’s influence, and giving rise to the Knightmare timeline. To prevent such a fate, Flash travels back in time and warns Bruce about Lois being the key to winning the war. In the reoriented reality, Bruce dies to protect the woman he had come to love.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Snyder revealed the storyline so shocking that even the studio swerved their heads and collectively said no:

The intention was that Bruce fell in love with Lois and then realized that the only way to save the world was to bring Superman back to life. So he had this insane conflict, because Lois, of course, was still in love with Superman. We had this beautiful speech where [Bruce] said to Alfred: ‘I never had a life outside the cave. I never imagined a world for me beyond this. But this woman makes me think that if I can get this group of gods together, then my job is done. I can quit. I can stop.’ And of course that doesn’t work out for him.

20 years later, Clark and Lois bring Bruce Kent to Gotham, introducing him to the world that Batman left behind, as he takes in the mantle of the Dark Knight in a city that had gone on too long without its silent protector.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: An incomplete saga

Knightmare timeline in Zack Snyder’s Justice League [Credit: Warner Bros.]

Through his Justice League trilogy, Zack Snyder has achieved stratospheric levels of infamy and is either completely idolized or utterly hated by the fans and followers of DC. The filmmaker’s vision for the DC universe had the potential to rival even Grant Morrison’s works through its subtle mix of tragedy, battle-hardened heroes, and agenda-influenced corrupt realism.

Yet, the DCEU Justice League has minimal ties pertaining to its baser roots — i.e., truth and justice. The group of superheroes has endured the passing throes of time and responded to the ever-shifting changes not on the merit of its goodness but by how divisive Snyder’s cut of the movie actually was.

In the end, Zack Snyder’s Justice League remains a classic of the modern era for questioning the accepted norms of superhero cinema and changing it radically — for better or worse. The film not only gave the fans an unfiltered and unsaturated view of the world but also its heroes colored by the corrupt perceptions of the broken reality around them.

For that, Snyder’s Justice League will always hold a special place in the fandom’s collective memory.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is streaming on Max.