Interesting Fan Theories From Superhero Movie Franchises

From Redditor u/rafael-a:

The real reason Red Skull got deformed and Captain America didn’t. Bacteria is the answer. In the scene of the transformation of skinny Steve Rogers into big buff Captain America there is a small joke where Erskine injects him penicillin beforehand. The penicillin shot was much more important than it seems, because human body is full of bacteria, and the Super Serum would enhance microbes as well, therefore they should be killed beforehand.

In the movie it is shown that Johan “Red Skull” Schmidt injected the serum by himself, it worked but it also enhanced the bacteria, the grow in such a way that they destroyed the skin of his face (and maybe entire body), and it would have killed him if he wasn’t enhanced as well, so his body is in a constant battle against super microbes and that messed up his face.

From Redditor u/poeir:

In the interrogation scene, the Joker says, "For a minute there, I thought you were Harvey Dent," referencing Batman's actions at Bruce's fundraiser.

This explains a couple of apparent plot holes. First, when the Joker arrived at Bruce's fundraiser for Harvey Dent, the Joker wasn't randomly killing people--he had a plan, and part of what made his plans horrifying was his ability to tell the police exactly who he was going to kill and then kill them. Killing random bystanders doesn't accomplish that. When the Batman (who the Joker thinks is Harvey Dent) jumps out the window to rescue Rachel, the Joker expects them to be the same person, so there's no reason to keep looking for Harvey Dent at the party.

Later, when Harvey Dent is being transported by police, the Joker uses an escalating series of weapons against the convoy, but doesn't use the rocket launcher on the paddywagon containing Harvey Dent. The only weapons he uses are ones that can't penetrate the paddywagon's armor, and he gradually escalates to make the threat to Harvey Dent seem real. He does this to discover if they really are the same person: If the Batman shows up, Harvey Dent isn't Batman. If the Batman doesn't arrive, Harvey Dent is Batman.

The Joker never wanted to kill Batman (he says as much in the interrogation scene, "I don't, I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You... you... complete me."), he wanted to force Batman to break his "one rule." A dead Batman cannot be corrupted, so as long as Harvey Dent might be Batman, Dent must not be killed.

From Redditor u/jimmy_talent:

In most Batman origin stories the Waynes hand over their money to the mugger but the mugger gets spooked and shoots Thomas and Martha anyway, the point of this is that they are killed by random pointless violent crime. I feel like this is why Batman is usually more interested in justice and order rather than revenge and punishment.

In Dawn of Justice however, Thomas Wayne tries to fight the mugger and that leads to both him and Martha being killed, so in this universe it wasn't just a random pointless thing it was Thomas standing up a criminal and getting killed because of it.

I think this would significantly impact Bruce's moral code, instead of seeing crime as a symptom of chaos and poverty maybe now he sees criminals as scum that need to be punished.

From Redditor u/Elranzer:

tl;dr: Splinter is way too strong and talented to be captured by mere teenage Foot Solders. He let himself get captured by the enemy to gather intelligence.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, something about Splinter being captured didn't sit with me right. It was a little too Raphael "damsel in distress" for such a character. Then I thought that he let himself get captured. Consider the order of strength of the characters:

• The four Turtles can easily defeat rooms and rooms of Foot Soldiers, despite being teenagers and new to fighting (though the Foot Soldiers are also troubled teenagers in the film). This is due to being trained by Master Splinter, and their massive, mutant muscles.
• Regardless of the above advantages of the four Turtles, Master Shredder can defeat all of them in 4-vs-1 combat
• And regardless of above, Master Splinter can easily best Master Shredder.
• So are we to believe the weakest link here (the Foot Soldiers) could easily take Master Splinter?

Now follow the timeline of the film:

• When the film begins, both the Turtles and the Foot operate from the shadows, and neither knows of each others' existence.
• When April O'Neil starts doing news stories on the Foot, she is told to be silenced.
• And for good reason... April's stories are the first mention Splinter hears of "the Foot"

Splinter here allows himself to get captured, to confirm his enemy is indeed his old enemy from Japan

Splinter does not say a word to Shredder, who gets up in Splinter's face. Splinter at this point is 99% sure Shredder is Oroku Saki. (Splinter had a hunch that if his enemy was indeed Oroku Saki, that Saki would keep Splinter alive to try to gather information.) Splinter tells Danny that "You wear his symbol upon your brow." (the Kanji for "oni"/"demon" which visually looks similar to the Kanji for "foot")... by this point, Splinter is sure. Shredder is able to best the four Turtles in 4-v-1 combat, though he gets slashed once by Leo.

Shredder then plays Leo's emotions to gain an advantage on Leo. Splinter then throws Shredder's tactic right back at him... Splinter, now speaking to Shredder for the first time, has been saving this piece of information as a weapon... that he is Hamato Yoshi's pet rat. Splinter opens decades-old wounds, and hurts Shredder's ego, and reviving the kind of old grudges the Japanese are famous for.

Shredder is defeated by Splinter outsmarting Shredder, and also letting Shredder's dishonor cause his own demise... simply catching Shredder's backstabbing knife mid-air causes Splinter to let go of Shredder. (Of course, Shredder might not be dead, and the corrupt NYC police are not gonna just arrest him. And if they do, Shredder might have enough bribe money to be released. What's there to do? I guess it was a good thing true vigilante Casey Jones was there to "correct the problem"... "OOPS!")

From Redditor u/Ttran778:

TL;DR-- Bruce Wayne may be genetically hardwired to sleep less, giving him more time to do other stuff, like being the Batman.

I'm a huge Batman fan, always have been since I was a kid. I always wondered how he was able to successfully operate one of the largest and monetarily strongest companies in the (his) world. He's also a pinnacle human being, with a physique that rivals the classic Roman statues and abilities that are borderline superhuman. He's trained in almost every single martial art. He's had the time to invent and build nearly his entire armory. He's a founding member of the Justice League. He is easily hands down one of the greatest and most capable people in his universe, and often times only bested by people with superhuman or supernatural powers......but how is he able to make the time for all of that?

After doing some reading, it dawned on me. Bruce Wayne may actually have a genetic abnormality that allows him to operate on less sleep than the average human being. Specifically, in ADRB-1. Recent testing in both humans and rats demonstrated findings where subjects who were known to sleep and feel fully rested in as little as FOUR HOURS.

That's why Bruce Wayne can operate a huge conglomerate during the day, and why Batman can protect Gotham at night.

From Redditor u/epsonabcdefg:

Superman doesn't wear a mask. And even when he is walking around as Clark Kent, he doesn't go to any extreme lengths to disguise himself. He puts on a pair of glasses, parts his hair differently, and adjusts his posture slightly... that's it. Sure, it might have been easier back in the golden/silver age of comics, but nowadays? In an age of facial recognition, social media and everyone having a camera in their pocket, how does he stay hidden?

The answer is simple. People don't go looking for his secret identity... because he doesn't hide it. Think about it. Characters like Batman, or the Flash, or Blue Beetle have masks. There is an element of mystery about them, and people cannot resist a mystery. The best way for Superman to get people off his back is to remove the mystery. They can't solve a mystery that's already solved.

Hiding in plain sight is often the best way to hide. And even if he wasn't wearing the glasses, he'd probably still be able to hide just fine. There's real world evidence to support this. In an article, Henry Cavill stands in front of a giant billboard of his face and goes completely unrecognized. Presumably actors and superheroes would have the same amount of fame in the DC universe. If Superman's actor can go unrecognized when standing next to a giant picture of his face, how would the average person in the DC universe recognize Superman while he's flying way up in the sky? Speaking of which, we also have to consider whether the average person is getting a good up close look at Superman, let alone Clark Kent. Superman might be famous, but Clark Kent is not (at least not at the same level).

But what about facial recognition software? We live in an age where companies like Facebook and Google can scan images and compare them to almost every other image on the entirety of the internet. Billionaires like Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne would most likely have access to computers that would have the sufficient capability of doing something similar. How does Superman get past these?

Again, the answer is somewhat simple. He puts on a pair of glasses, parts his hair differently, and adjusts his posture slightly... that's it. That might not sound like much, but it goes much further than you might realize. You can try this yourself. Take an image and simply reverse it, or even just crop it a bit, and Google's reverse image search tool will have a hard time analyzing it. Granted, facial recognition and reverse image searching are slightly different, but the principal is the same. It will have trouble comparing the faces if it has poor quality pictures to work with. The comics seem to support this idea.

In short, as long as Clark Kent keeps his glasses on whenever he steps in front of a camera, Superman will be fine.