It's a long story so here goes....
After the success of the comic book Superhero Superman, artist Bob Kane tried to come up with his own hero "The Bat-Man", the character Kane created wore a red suit with a domino mask, blonde hair and a pair of bat wings. Kane then asked for writer Bill Finger's assistance on the project. Finger rejected several of Kane's initial ideas about the character and suggested several changes in design and characterization. His changes included changing his hair colour, a black colour scheme for the costume, adding a cape and cowl, the idea that he shouldn't have any superpowers, his civilian identity of Bruce Wayne (which Finger named after Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland and general Anthony "Mad Anthony" Wayne), the origin story about his parents being shot in an alley and the idea that he should also be a detective.
Kane marketed the "Batman" character to National Comics, and Batman's first story was published in "Detective Comics" #27 (May 1939). The script was written by an uncredited Finger, making him the first of many ghost writers to work on comics officially credited to Bob Kane. When Kane negotiated a contract about selling the rights to the "Batman" character, he claimed he was the sole creator and demanded a sole mandatory byline acknowledging him as such on all comics and adaptations. Out of fairness, Kane agreed to pay Finger his share with money out of his earnings. Unfortunately, the agreement was never put into writing, and Finger never saw a cent.
Finger would go on to ghost write Batman stories up into the mid 1960's, either with Kane or for DC Comics directly. During his writing tenure, Finger was responsible for the unaccredited creation of many key players and pieces in the Batman universe. These included the Batmobile, the Batcave, Gotham City, and Batman's nickname "The Dark Knight. He also came up with several secondary Batman characters including," his sidekick Robin, his arch-nemesis The Joker, and his occasional love interest Catwoman, as well as Commissioner Gordon, The Riddler and The Scarecrow. Despite all of this, the only writing credit that Finger received for Batman in his lifetime were two episode of Batman (1966), The Clock King's Crazy Crimes (1966) and The Clock King Gets Crowned (1966) which he co-wrote with friend Charles Sinclair.
Eventually, the truth did come out. Finger attended the first official New York Comic Con in 1965 and sat on a panel with other comic book creators where he revealed the role he played in Batman's creation. Finger's story gained exposure in a two-page article titled "If the truth be known, or a Finger in every plot!," written and distributed by pop culturist Jerry Bails. Kane caught wind of Finger's appearance not long after and replied in the form of a printed letter to Batman fan magazine, "Batmania," where he labeled his old friend a fraud. Finger, who by this time was deeply in debt, continued to write for various projects in and outside of comic books until his death in 1974, when he was found alone in his apartment by friend Charles Sinclair. Finger died penniless and his contributions to the character was never acknowledged in his lifetime.
However, after the popularity of Tim Burton's Batman (1989), Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote in his 1989 autobiography "Batman and Me" that "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'"
Many failed attempts were made over the years by Finger's family to get him recognition for his work, including a request from his second wife Lyn Simmons to have his name listed in the credits of Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
Finger remained largely unknown, even to Batman fans, until writer Marc Tyler Nobleman began investigating the late author's life for a book being written about him called "Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman". Nobleman went in search of Finger's family to help fill in the gaps and give him credit. While Finger's autopsy report claimed no relatives were present, Nobleman discovered that Finger had a son, Fred.
Unfortunately, Fred, who was an outspoken proponent of his father, had died in 1992. Nobleman learned that Fred was also homosexual, leading him to believe that Fred had no children before his death. The trail was starting to go cold.
However, after receiving new information from Finger's nephew, Nobleman discovered Fred indeed had a daughter, Athena Finger, who was born two years after Finger's death. Nobleman met with Athena and convinced her to meet with DC about getting recognition for her grandfather. DC in turn welcomed Athena with open arms, cut her a check and invited her to the premiere of The Dark Knight (2008) with all expenses paid. It wasn't until around 2012 that DC offered her more money. This time, however, she had to sign away her rights to her grandfather's claim. With encouragement from Nobleman, Athena rejected the money and took DC to court. It took years of litigation before a settlement was reached. A major turning point in the case was the unearthing of recorded interviews with Bob Kane during the writing of his autobiography. During one of the interviews, Tom Andrae, Kane's co-writer, asked Kane to what extent Finger contributed to Batman's creation. "Bill was responsible for 50 to 75 percent," Kane bluntly responded.
Finally, in September 2015, DC Entertainment issued a statement informing the public that Finger would be listed as co-creator on any piece of Batman media henceforth. Starting with the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and the second season of Gotham (2014), an updated acknowledgement for the character appeared as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger".
Finger's story was later used as the subject of the Hulu original documentary, Batman & Bill (2017).
After the success of the comic book Superhero Superman, artist Bob Kane tried to come up with his own hero "The Bat-Man", the character Kane created wore a red suit with a domino mask, blonde hair and a pair of bat wings. Kane then asked for writer Bill Finger's assistance on the project. Finger rejected several of Kane's initial ideas about the character and suggested several changes in design and characterization. His changes included changing his hair colour, a black colour scheme for the costume, adding a cape and cowl, the idea that he shouldn't have any superpowers, his civilian identity of Bruce Wayne (which Finger named after Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland and general Anthony "Mad Anthony" Wayne), the origin story about his parents being shot in an alley and the idea that he should also be a detective.
Kane marketed the "Batman" character to National Comics, and Batman's first story was published in "Detective Comics" #27 (May 1939). The script was written by an uncredited Finger, making him the first of many ghost writers to work on comics officially credited to Bob Kane. When Kane negotiated a contract about selling the rights to the "Batman" character, he claimed he was the sole creator and demanded a sole mandatory byline acknowledging him as such on all comics and adaptations. Out of fairness, Kane agreed to pay Finger his share with money out of his earnings. Unfortunately, the agreement was never put into writing, and Finger never saw a cent.
Finger would go on to ghost write Batman stories up into the mid 1960's, either with Kane or for DC Comics directly. During his writing tenure, Finger was responsible for the unaccredited creation of many key players and pieces in the Batman universe. These included the Batmobile, the Batcave, Gotham City, and Batman's nickname "The Dark Knight. He also came up with several secondary Batman characters including," his sidekick Robin, his arch-nemesis The Joker, and his occasional love interest Catwoman, as well as Commissioner Gordon, The Riddler and The Scarecrow. Despite all of this, the only writing credit that Finger received for Batman in his lifetime were two episode of Batman (1966), The Clock King's Crazy Crimes (1966) and The Clock King Gets Crowned (1966) which he co-wrote with friend Charles Sinclair.
Eventually, the truth did come out. Finger attended the first official New York Comic Con in 1965 and sat on a panel with other comic book creators where he revealed the role he played in Batman's creation. Finger's story gained exposure in a two-page article titled "If the truth be known, or a Finger in every plot!," written and distributed by pop culturist Jerry Bails. Kane caught wind of Finger's appearance not long after and replied in the form of a printed letter to Batman fan magazine, "Batmania," where he labeled his old friend a fraud. Finger, who by this time was deeply in debt, continued to write for various projects in and outside of comic books until his death in 1974, when he was found alone in his apartment by friend Charles Sinclair. Finger died penniless and his contributions to the character was never acknowledged in his lifetime.
However, after the popularity of Tim Burton's Batman (1989), Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation, and wrote in his 1989 autobiography "Batman and Me" that "Now that my long-time friend and collaborator is gone, I must admit that Bill never received the fame and recognition he deserved. He was an unsung hero ... I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say. 'I'll put your name on it now. You deserve it.'"
Many failed attempts were made over the years by Finger's family to get him recognition for his work, including a request from his second wife Lyn Simmons to have his name listed in the credits of Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
Finger remained largely unknown, even to Batman fans, until writer Marc Tyler Nobleman began investigating the late author's life for a book being written about him called "Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman". Nobleman went in search of Finger's family to help fill in the gaps and give him credit. While Finger's autopsy report claimed no relatives were present, Nobleman discovered that Finger had a son, Fred.
Unfortunately, Fred, who was an outspoken proponent of his father, had died in 1992. Nobleman learned that Fred was also homosexual, leading him to believe that Fred had no children before his death. The trail was starting to go cold.
However, after receiving new information from Finger's nephew, Nobleman discovered Fred indeed had a daughter, Athena Finger, who was born two years after Finger's death. Nobleman met with Athena and convinced her to meet with DC about getting recognition for her grandfather. DC in turn welcomed Athena with open arms, cut her a check and invited her to the premiere of The Dark Knight (2008) with all expenses paid. It wasn't until around 2012 that DC offered her more money. This time, however, she had to sign away her rights to her grandfather's claim. With encouragement from Nobleman, Athena rejected the money and took DC to court. It took years of litigation before a settlement was reached. A major turning point in the case was the unearthing of recorded interviews with Bob Kane during the writing of his autobiography. During one of the interviews, Tom Andrae, Kane's co-writer, asked Kane to what extent Finger contributed to Batman's creation. "Bill was responsible for 50 to 75 percent," Kane bluntly responded.
Finally, in September 2015, DC Entertainment issued a statement informing the public that Finger would be listed as co-creator on any piece of Batman media henceforth. Starting with the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and the second season of Gotham (2014), an updated acknowledgement for the character appeared as "Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger".
Finger's story was later used as the subject of the Hulu original documentary, Batman & Bill (2017).
Most newspaper cuts were made by Wallace Keefe (Scoot McNairy) some time prior the movie events as a way to menace and intimidate Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) but they were never shown to him by his employees until it was too late, as it was taken as mere hate mail. Keefe had a heavy grudge against both Superman (Henry Cavill) (for indirectly causing him to lose his legs during the fight against Zod in Man of Steel (2013)) and Wayne (blaming him for his disgrace to the point of rejecting his aid payments). After Keefe vandalized Superman's statue, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) saw him as a pawn for this schemes, using him to disturb and manipulate Batman into destroy Superman by providing the angry man resources, credibility for Senator Finch's audiences and supporting his menacing hate mail towards Wayne, including the final one that reads, "you let your family die". In the heliport, Luthor confronts Superman and references the newspaper cuts in quality of being the mastermind behind the whole affair. Prior to the movie's release, some people assumed the the Joker was behind the handwritten notes because of the similarity in handwriting to the spray painted message on the Robin suit in the Batcave. While clearly that's not the case, in the movie's theatrical cut it served as a proper red herring to both Wayne and the audience.
The Dream at the Cave: Running away from his parents' funeral, young Bruce Wayne fell into a circular shaft leading to a cave, where he saw in vision hundreds of bats surrounding him and rising him above the darkness of the pit and back into the light. Bruce Wayne himself says in the movie that this dream propelled him into crime fighting, hoping to find the light... but it never happened. He became ruthless and, as Alfred tells him, cruel, almost a villain when the movie starts. The movie shows how his perceived imminent risk to Superman makes him willingly kill in cold blood... but in the last moment, Superman shows him a better path, a redemption for his trauma upon the death of his parents via Martha Kent's rescue. The concept that this dream originated through supernatural means is never addressed, but it could be interpreted that Superman's example and, ultimately, his sacrifice makes Batman finally see "the light" of justice, becoming a little more humane (as demonstrated by not branding Lex Luthor in his cell) and thus starting his mission in search of other meta-humans in company of Wonder Woman, in order to "be united". On the other hand, this dream-like scene takes iconography Christopher Nolan introduced into the Batman mythos in The Dark Knight Trilogy, but with a twist, thus making it a tribute to Nolan's trilogy and his character's contributions inside the DC Expanded Universe.
The Creature in the Tomb: At some point of the movie, Bruce Wayne has a dream where he visits his parent's mausoleum and, while contemplating Martha Wayne's tombstone, a black liquid starts to pour from it. As he examines it, the tombstone bursts and a dark-skinned creature attacks him from inside. Wayne wakes up disturbed. Just like the Dream at the Cave, if this dream implies any supernatural element is not currently confirmed in the overall DC Expanded Universe, but it can be taken as Wayne's mind still trying to cope with his parent's death trauma. Furthermore, in an allegorical way, it could mean he is always subconsciously projecting his inner demons on his parents through the form of a humanized giant bat, thus not allowing him to get over it. Another way to look at it could be that somehow this dream is connected with the nightmare, the creature could be another vision of a para-demon or even a premonition/vision of the weight his mother's memories could make him realize Superman is not his enemy because, if he (Batman) lets Martha Kent die, the whole world will suffer the consequences.
The Knightmare: Waiting for the long process of decoding the hacked copy of Lexcorp files, Bruce Wayne falls asleep in front of the computer. He has a dream/vision of a dystopic future where the world is barren, civilization is destroyed and Superman is leading an army of both human soldiers and winged creatures while Batman is armed with a pistol. On the ground a large Omega symbol has been carved. While trying to take possession of a kryptonite sample, Batman is captured, having been sold out by his own team. Superman confronts Batman, unmasking him and saying that he "let her die" and then kills him, presumably by ripping his heart out. Wayne wakes up in the Batcave but a red-masked man appears from some sort of portal, wondering if he came "too soon" and saying to Wayne that he was "right about him" (not entirely clear if he meant about the latent danger Superman might pose, Lex Luthor, Doomsday or someone else) but Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is the key to avoid such a future. Suddenly, Wayne "wakes up" wondering what has just happened -- the dream of the red-masked man was a dream within his original dream.
Elsewhere in the movie, Lex Luthor points to his father's apocalyptic painting in the wall and talks about "demons coming down from the sky" as a red herring, since evidently he was not refering to Superman (he always refers to him as a messianic figure or even "god") but to something else, as he left the painting upside down before he had been taken into custody. Note the close similarity between the creatures in Batman's nightmares and the figures in the painting.
All these elements heavily imply that Batman's vision was caused somehow by a future Flash (Ezra Miller) coming from a possible timeline when an inter-dimensional warlord called Darkseid has taken control of the Earth and Superman is now under his command due to Lois Lane's death. The winged creatures are called Parademons and are Darkseid's minions. In the last scene, when Batman confronts Luthor in his supermax cell, Luthor keeps calling out about demons from heaven to Batman, emphasizing that he succeeded in his plan to "kill god" so that Darkseid's arrival turns out in the super-villain's victory. While this movie presents dreams and nightmares as a new element to Batman's psychology and it's never clearly stated why or how Batman has such a vivid, detailed vision of this possible future, it certainly becomes the "heart wrench" he mentions to Diana Prince, the reason for them both to start looking for metahumans after Superman's sacrifice and be united, thinking such hideous future has been avoided but Darkseid's intervention has not, setting up the story for Justice League (2017) and since it involves time travel, possibly The Flash (2023) as well.
The Creature in the Tomb: At some point of the movie, Bruce Wayne has a dream where he visits his parent's mausoleum and, while contemplating Martha Wayne's tombstone, a black liquid starts to pour from it. As he examines it, the tombstone bursts and a dark-skinned creature attacks him from inside. Wayne wakes up disturbed. Just like the Dream at the Cave, if this dream implies any supernatural element is not currently confirmed in the overall DC Expanded Universe, but it can be taken as Wayne's mind still trying to cope with his parent's death trauma. Furthermore, in an allegorical way, it could mean he is always subconsciously projecting his inner demons on his parents through the form of a humanized giant bat, thus not allowing him to get over it. Another way to look at it could be that somehow this dream is connected with the nightmare, the creature could be another vision of a para-demon or even a premonition/vision of the weight his mother's memories could make him realize Superman is not his enemy because, if he (Batman) lets Martha Kent die, the whole world will suffer the consequences.
The Knightmare: Waiting for the long process of decoding the hacked copy of Lexcorp files, Bruce Wayne falls asleep in front of the computer. He has a dream/vision of a dystopic future where the world is barren, civilization is destroyed and Superman is leading an army of both human soldiers and winged creatures while Batman is armed with a pistol. On the ground a large Omega symbol has been carved. While trying to take possession of a kryptonite sample, Batman is captured, having been sold out by his own team. Superman confronts Batman, unmasking him and saying that he "let her die" and then kills him, presumably by ripping his heart out. Wayne wakes up in the Batcave but a red-masked man appears from some sort of portal, wondering if he came "too soon" and saying to Wayne that he was "right about him" (not entirely clear if he meant about the latent danger Superman might pose, Lex Luthor, Doomsday or someone else) but Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is the key to avoid such a future. Suddenly, Wayne "wakes up" wondering what has just happened -- the dream of the red-masked man was a dream within his original dream.
Elsewhere in the movie, Lex Luthor points to his father's apocalyptic painting in the wall and talks about "demons coming down from the sky" as a red herring, since evidently he was not refering to Superman (he always refers to him as a messianic figure or even "god") but to something else, as he left the painting upside down before he had been taken into custody. Note the close similarity between the creatures in Batman's nightmares and the figures in the painting.
All these elements heavily imply that Batman's vision was caused somehow by a future Flash (Ezra Miller) coming from a possible timeline when an inter-dimensional warlord called Darkseid has taken control of the Earth and Superman is now under his command due to Lois Lane's death. The winged creatures are called Parademons and are Darkseid's minions. In the last scene, when Batman confronts Luthor in his supermax cell, Luthor keeps calling out about demons from heaven to Batman, emphasizing that he succeeded in his plan to "kill god" so that Darkseid's arrival turns out in the super-villain's victory. While this movie presents dreams and nightmares as a new element to Batman's psychology and it's never clearly stated why or how Batman has such a vivid, detailed vision of this possible future, it certainly becomes the "heart wrench" he mentions to Diana Prince, the reason for them both to start looking for metahumans after Superman's sacrifice and be united, thinking such hideous future has been avoided but Darkseid's intervention has not, setting up the story for Justice League (2017) and since it involves time travel, possibly The Flash (2023) as well.
Before its theatrical release, Warner Bros. spread the word that there would be an Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on Blu-ray disc which contains an Extended Cut with 30 more minutes of footage. Zack Snyder announced that this extended cut was his director's cut. And that seems plausible because the new footage does not look like footage put in afterwards to make a few more bucks with a longer version. On the contrary, some of that footage is quite a loss for the theatrical version that needed to be removed for its theatrical release, as to not push it because the theatrical version still runs approximately 2½ hours. As one can see in the following comparison, the extended version is definitely the better version. But there is a downside as well: Narrativewise, the often criticized structure of the movie gets worse. Due to a lot of extended footage during the first half, the actual story regarding Batman v Superman starts with the Capitol scene after almost 90 minutes. And as also criticized quite often, there is not enough time for the duel anymore before they team up to fight Doomsday in the big finale. Compared to the rest, the beginning is still too long but the warming phase is more satisfying and explained more reasonably in the extended cut. The scheme against Superman & Clark Kent's investigation was just too short in the theatrical version. Subsequent things such as the short, rather mysterious introduction of Steppenwolf, which is obviously supposed to point to the Justice League, or the reversed censorings which got the extended cut the R-rating (which it deserves by the way) but without making it an incredibly brutal movie, make the result much more appealing.
This is most likely to signify that what would've otherwise been characterized as "The People v. Superman" like a court case but not necessarily a literal such is instead "Batman v. Superman". It connotes exactly that Batman is the one who has a bone to pick with Superman, but that the "verdict" doesn't necessarily have to be the triumph of one hero over the other like a sport or chess, as it would suffice for Superman to merely get Batman to drop the "case" against him, which is what happens. This choice of syntax for a movie title describing a competitive match is somewhat unique; a departure from, for examples, the films The People vs. Paul Crump (1962), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The People vs. George Lucas (2010), The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015). An interesting bit of trivia is that there was a real Batman v. Commissioner case in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, back in 1951, the appealing party's whole name being Ray Batman. As there is no dot immediately following the "v", it also possible that the solitary letter may not be an abbreviation at all, that it signifies the symbol for the logic operator "or", which signifies union in set theory; as in "Batman ∨ Superman" / "Batman ∪ Superman".
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By what name was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) officially released in India in Hindi?
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