We’re now less than a month away from the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Obviously, there’s a growing excitement regarding the blockbuster. But, according to a rumor that has emerged online, there has been an increased effort to smear the reputation of both the superhero hybrid and Warner Bros.’ expanding DC Cinematic Universe.
This theory was started by Twitter’s @Editor_of_Steel , who posted his thoughts regarding the alleged DCEU smear campaign to Reddit under the username LegendsVII .
In fact, LegendsVII was able to find myriad tweets and online posts that featured the keywords “Batman v Superman” and “Rain.” However, most alarmingly for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice fans, these posts seemingly seem to be appearing on a regular basis.
LegendsVII posted an IMGUR of proof he’s gathered of the anti-DC smear campaign, which appears to have begun around February 13, while then also encouraging people to check Twitter for live updates of the repeated tweets. Here are some of the posts:
“The Batman V Superman movie will be two hours of epicness and haters crying in the rain”
— Hal Jordan (@Revrse_Flash) February 28, 2016
The Batman v Superman movie will bw a two hour tracking shot of ever; single DC character crying in the rain.
— yadra (@mdyadra712) February 27, 2016
The Batman v Superman movie willrbe a two hour tracking shot of every singlenDC character crying in the rain.
— olivia (@femolivia548) February 27, 2016
The Batman|v Superman movie will be a two hour tracking shot of every single DC cyaracter crying in the rain.
— roderiga (@lupepaez506) February 27, 2016
Batman v superman is just 151 mins of people crying in the rain. Make DC happy again #notourdc #notmysuperman #makedchappyagain
— Josh Krubner (@TWITrIhrdlyNOer) February 27, 2016
The Batman v Superman movie will be a two hour tracking shot of every single DC charpcter cryi g in the rain.
— damita (@damitalamas235) February 27, 2016
Each of these posts pick up on a popular criticism regarding both Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice’s trailers and its predecessor Man Of Steel , which are that its tone and style have been overly dark and serious.
LegendsVII, who insists that he is a Computer Science major, goes on to insist that this attempt to filter a negative message regarding Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice is referred to as “botnetting.”
This sees numerous Twitter accounts reposting messages and posts, and LegendsVII suggests that people are probably “writing it because of some sort of ‘deal’ online (a lot of surveys for fake products online require that users to either post or tweet certain things so they can get their ‘prize’).”
Because of the specific language used in the numerous tweets it’s easy to see how this speculation has amassed, and there’s cause for concern that these posts will soon start a “domino effect of negativity” that will start to effect Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice before it has even been released.
LegendsVII went on to provide an update from Forbes ‘ Mark Hughes regarding the potential smear campaign, who explained that “these attacks are likely just a result of trolling on a MASSIVE scale.”
In one month, the son of Krypton goes to war. #BatmanvSuperman #WhoWillWin pic.twitter.com/rOrZPbbZDC
— Batman v Superman (@BatmanvSuperman) February 25, 2016
Meanwhile, a social media marketing specialist also commented on the thread, via Comic Book , suggesting that this potential smear campaign is likely a lowly-funded, but still paid online campaign, which has avoided being detected by the spambot on Twitter because the variety of posts have different spelling errors, double spaces, and other numerous ways that avoided cut-and-paste identification.
This potential smear campaign comes just a few days after Hitfix reported that Warner Bros. executives were nervous about the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice . Of course we’ll find out if the studio had anything to actually worry about when Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice is finally released on March 25, 2016.
[Image via Warner Bros.]
