Before I go there I just want to clear a couple of things. First off I'm not even going to bother with a spoiler warning because I'm sure, judging from the box office numbers, everyone and their own mother have seen The Force Awakens and Dawn of Justice. So if you're going to complain about spoilers then its your own fault for reading the title and the topic.
Secondly this isn't a DC bashing topic. Basically me providing my opinion of the topic and if you still like DOJ regardless of it then power to ya.
So, lets get to it.
Having seen both movies and taking a look at the deaths of two of the most iconic characters: Han Solo and Superman I find myself asking how much of an impact their deaths made? With me I'm judging on how well the death was handled and what it delivered on a storytelling perspective.
Lets take a look at Han. From the starting gate you could see how the situation with Ben/Kylo effected him. It not only made him a little distant to those he cared about but it also sort of lost that spark that he had in the original trilogies. It wasn't till Rey and Finn's arrival that returned that spark that he had lost. And the more time he spent with the two the more the old Han was starting to resurface. While at the same time Rey never knew her original family so due to the time she spent with Han there was a definite father/daughter bond with that. Rey found a surrogate father and Han managed to find a new family in Rey. When Han Solo met Leia you could still see some form of estrangement between the two but also a little hope that maybe things could work out.
As much flack I give Kylo I did like that meeting between him and Han. Yeah we all knew what was going to happen but the reunion was so moving that I honestly felt something in the guy. And when he killed Han, what I got from that was: shit got pretty real, pushed Kylo to the point of no return, it just got personal between the three characters.
Ok lets compare everything after Han's death to everything after the death of Frigga in Thor: Dark World. The stakes got pretty freaking high and both Rey, Finn, and even Chewie want Kylo to die. No joking around, no hur de hur, the participants involved wanted to fucking kill eachother. Sure we can debate on Rey winning the fight but I liked the emotional storytelling behind the fight. And that was what I felt was lacking in most fight scenes in films these days. Just fight fight fight but without any emotion behind it, without any sense of story. That was also where Age of Ultron failed. There was no emotional storytelling in the fight with Ultron. In this one its a fight to the death. With Finn and Rey its revenge for Kylo killing Han. With Kylo going borderline Death Seeker. And I believe that Han's death was what drove Rey to seek Luke out and to improve upon her training.
The only con I'd give this is that while Dawn of Justice at least had a funeral for Superman, Han didn't even get that kind of honor. Spock had one in Wrath of Kahn so it would have been nice for Han to get that kind of send off.
Now for Superman's Death. The more I look back at it the more I felt that it wasn't really needed. Personally my ideal ending would have been the Trinity fighting Bizarro, they kick his ass, then the Trinity search for more metas.
I wouldn't have minded Superman's Death if they actually built it up. Say around Part I of the Justice League film. Which is when I would have used Doomsday. Maybe even do it in a way that Darkseid was responsible for Doomsday's creation and sending him on earth was Darkseid's way of saying he's waging war on earth.
Superman's Death would have been awesome had it had the proper build but I didn't felt it did. For one neither Batman or Wonder Woman knew him enough to make it impactful. And if Suicide Squad is any indication the world still treats Superman as the bad guy. So from the mindset I'm seeing Earth still hates Superman despite the fact that he died? That just makes me dislike the people of Earth for being a bunch of ungrateful assholes. Kara from the Supergirl series gets better respect regardless of that Red K incident. And the whole finding the Justice League? Well we have seen scenarios that they could have done that with Superman being alive. Also it didn't help that Lex in Dawn of Justice was a bigger joke than Hackman's Luthor in the Reeves Superman films. It would be like Captain America being killed by Justin Hammer. At least with my suggestion Superman would have at least been killed by an instrument that Darkseid sent down. Plus the whole death just felt like a rush job. I think if it had some proper development it would have meant something. But unfortunately it didn't. If there was anything I've gotten from Superman's death its the feeling that I actually want Darkseid to destroy a planet filled with ungrateful assholes.
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