*Spoilers for “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice”and the 2016 Presidential Election follow*

I have two major vices in this world: superheroes and politics. So, like any small child with their two favorite toys, I love to smash them together and see what happens – in this instance, the two things being smashed together are the recent blockbuster film “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and the 2016 presidential election between the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, and the Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton.

The basic premise of “Batman v. Superman” is simple and familiar – Batman and Superman are not each other’s biggest fans and seek to solve their issues via punching – but the film presents a more complicated reality. This film’s Batman, whose secret identity is Bruce Wayne, is older and wearier of the world, having spent 20 years fighting crime in Gotham City; at one point in the extended cut of the film, a denizen of Gotham describes Batman by saying: “There’s a new kind of mean in him. He’s angry and he’s hunting.” So mean and angry, in fact, that he starts branding criminals with his bat-symbol – a brand that, inadvertently, results in imprisoned criminals being murdered. Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s trusted confidant and ally in his one-man war on crime in Gotham, comments that Batman’s branding is a result of “the fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men... cruel.”

Eventually, all of Batman’s anger is given a focal point: Superman. Various tragedies in the film connected with Superman – the fallout from Superman’s battle with hostile aliens resulting in the death of Wayne Enterprises employees, another former employee who was crippled in the attack seemingly bombing the U.S. Capitol building during a Senate committee at which Superman testifies – result in Batman believing Superman to be an unchecked threat to humanity that only Batman can stop, considering his battle with Superman to be “about the future of the world [and his] legacy” and says that Superman “brought the war to us two years ago . . . thousands of people [died]. What’s next? Millions? He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there’s even a one percent chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty... and we have to destroy him.” Essentially, an old, cranky, frustrated-at-the-world Batman sees a threat and believes only he is capable of handling that threat.

Now, if that doesn’t describe Donald Trump, I don’t know what will. Trump sees issues throughout the world and proclaims that only he is able to solve said issues; in a vein very similar to Batman, they are both the self-appointed messiahs of apparently everyone. However, the similarities between Batman and Trump don’t stop there. “Batman v. Superman” takes hefty inspiration, largely in how it treats Batman, from comic writer Frank Miller’s 1984 opus, “The Dark Knight Returns,” which depicts a 55-year-old Bruce Wayne returning to Batman after a decade of retirement and fighting crime with an angrier, more violent vigor; this particular Batman story, however, has been criticized for its fascist overtones. Another entity criticized for fascist overtones? Donald Trump.

Despite this, the similarities between Batman in “Batman v. Superman” and Donald Trump are not what I find interesting; to me, what is especially interesting is what happens to Batman in the end of the film. When Batman prepares to deliver the killing strike to Superman, the latter says “Save Martha” -- something that triggers Batman. Flashbacks reveal the young Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in front of him by a common criminal, thus inspiring him to become Batman. Bruce’s father, bleeding to death, calls out to Bruce’s mother, poetically named – wait for it – Martha. Superman’s mention of his Martha reminds Batman of this critical moment in his childhood and shows Batman what he’s become: the person who killed his parents. Batman/his parents’ killer forces a man, Superman/Batman’s father, to cry out for a woman important to said man, Superman’s mother, Martha/Batman’s mother, Martha.

Batman sees this, realizes the ugly transformation that has occurred within him, and seeks to be better. Later in the film, an alien creature is brought to life by Lex Luthor’s machinations; though Batman and Superman, who team up with Wonder Woman, are able to defeat the creature, Superman is killed in the process, which prompts Batman to deliver the following speech: “Men are still good. We fight, we kill, we betray one another, but we can rebuild. We can do better. We will. We have to.” Here, we have a Batman who has his faith in humanity restored, whose previous ways have been proven wrong; Superman showed Batman how far he had fallen.

Now, if we are presented with a Batman who is without humanity and is then proven wrong, and if that same Batman is also demonstrably similar to Donald Trump, where exactly does that leave us? As our friend, the transitive property, shows, “Batman v. Superman” proves both Batman and Donald Trump wrong in their respective worldviews. Having said that, I don’t know if the film was designed to intentionally skewer Trump, as it finished filming seven months before Trump announced his campaign; however, Ben Affleck, who plays Batman, along with several other actors and the film’s writers all donated to Democrats over the years, and Affleck himself donated to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2015. While satirizing Trump may have been an accidental occurrence, the film does have some important messages about humanity and tolerance. We can do better. We have to.