The problem with Martha and motherhood in “Batman v Superman”

By: Beatrice Handlin

I once wasted 2 1/2 hours of my life watching Zack Snyder's "Batman v Superman." If you haven't seen it yet, don't bother. It is a dreadfully boring film filled with toxic hyper-masculine posturing, bland greyscale scene filters, and inaudible dialogue. From there, the film goes from bad to cringe when it attempts to use motherhood as proof of the titular characters' humanity. 

Fade into a rainy night: Batman is pointing a spear of kryptonite (Superman's weakness) at his throat. He utters, "You were never a god...you were never even a man," and goes in for the kill. Superman says, "You're letting him [Lex Luthor] kill Martha." Batman freezes, asking, "Why did you say that name?" 

As Batman is on the verge of killing the Man of Steel, he realizes that their mothers share the same name, Martha, and decides not to kill him based upon this. Batman's homicidal rage is defeated by name-dropping his mom in an attempt to prove our mothers bring out our humanity. Seriously. 

This could work as a plot point if it were not so rushed and hedged in awkwardly. It feels 

too little too late as Batman isn't going to reconsider Superman's humanity while he is killing him. His change of heart doesn't make sense and feels like a disservice to both mothers who lack agency in the movie, one being dead and one being a poorly used plot device.