Man of Steel Artist Confirms Controversial Detail About Metropolis Battle

Jay Oliva, storyboard artist on Zack Snyder’s DCEU opener Man of Steel, remarked on the casualties incurred during the movie’s final battle.

As far as modern DC movies go, Man of Steel is mostly well-liked. However, there are a number of elements present in the film that tend to rub audiences the wrong way.

One such element is the superpowered blowout between Henry Cavill’s Superman and Michael Shannon’s General Zod. The damage done to the city of Metropolis was nothing short of catastrophic.

Jay Oliva Defends Man of Steel’s Final Fight

Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva waded into a fan debate on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). The discourse centered on a parking garage seen during the fight sequence toward the end of the film.

In the specific scene in question, Superman dodges a tanker truck lobbed at him by Zod. The truck then slams into a parking garage and promptly explodes. 

Oliva defended the massive scale of destruction shown by pointing out that the creative intent was always to have no civilian bystanders present in the parking structure:

“I came up with that scene and had no bystanders anywhere shown and used an empty parking lot for said destruction. If you want to believe that there’s people in there then that’s on you but not what’s in the film or what was intended.”

The artist then suggested that if Metropolis citizen was indeed inside the garage, they would have been rescued by the Flash, Dr. Fate, or some other DC hero. 

“But I can also say that whatever bystander was in danger the flash came in and whisked them away to safety throughout the destruction of meteopolis. Or that dr fate or other dc superhero was there to help save everyone.”

Barry Allen was indeed present during the Battle of Metropolis but the Flash movie establishes that his attempt at heroics weren’t especially effective.

The Battle of Metropolis Was a Costly One

Even if there was, in fact, no one in the parking garage when the explosion occurred in Man of Steel, as Jay Oliva stated, there’s no mistaking that Metropolis was decimated when Kal-El duked it out with Zod.

The two Kryptonians hurled each other into skyscrapers, and their heat vision did some serious damage as well. Not to mention that the Kryptonian scout ship crashed into the city and leveled several blocks.

What’s worse is that Clark Kent, Mr. Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow, did little to halt this cataclysm, apart from trying to stop Zod. But that’s more of a problem with director Zack Snyder, who seemed to favor blowing things up over meaningfully serving his characters.

That’s not to say that Snyder’s Supes didn’t get things right, but throughout his DCEU tenure, there seemed to be a desire to paint Clark as more of a badass rather than the friendly face that he’s traditionally portrayed as.

Man of Steel can be streamed on Max and purchased wherever movies are sold.