Lois Lane wasn’t the only beloved Superman character who was given short shrift by the DCEU, either. Honestly, you can’t help but wonder if somebody at Warner Bros. had a bet going to see how many classic sidekicks and allies they could kill off as quickly as possible.
Jimmy Olsen is the most egregious example of this. The comic book version of Jimmy has been appearing in Superman stories since 1941 (not counting a few unnamed appearances before then), and even starred in his own run of comics, “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen,” in the 1950s. He is a close colleague of both Lois and Clark, and hehas been referred to by DC as “Superman’s best friend.” In the DCEU, though, he is anything but. Portrayed by Michael Cassidy, Jimmy turns up in a single scene in “Batman v Superman,” in which he is summarily executed by a random warlord.
Then there’s Professor Hamilton, who was introduced to DC in 1987’s “The Adventures of Superman” #424. The Professor is a sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy + of Kal-El who plays a vital part in the “Death of Superman” arc, on which “Batman v Superman” was loosely based. In the DCEU, Emil Hamilton (Richard Schiff) features in “Man of Steel” alone and, frankly, does precious little before his death in the final act. That same movie is equally unceremonious in wiping out the Jor-El A.I. (Russell Crowe), a character so deeply ingrained in the DC Universe that he even had a cameo in “The Lego Batman Movie.”
These supporting characters had so much potential to brighten up Superman’s world. By wiping them out so quickly and callously, however, Warner Bros. did nothing less than tear it down, piece-by-piece.