There are hard ways and there easy ways to do almost anything.

Even killing Superheroes.

Many people have tried to kill Superman over the years.

They’ve nuked him, tried to freeze him, drown him, use kryptonite on it.

Yet all failed to make a lasting mark on the Man of Steel.

That was…

until he went up against Batman.

In the epic battle fans everywhere have been waiting for.

The Caped Crusader - the ultimate anti-hero takes on the ultimate good guy hero - Superman - in a modern day battle to the death.

Now ponder me this.

Why does Batman decide to kill Superman?

Why would one good guy, take on another?

The answer is simple. (Or is it?)

Because Batman comes to believe Superman is the enemy.

An enemy who has the power to wipe out the entire human race.

That’s what the bat believes.

But is it his belief?

Or

Did someone plant it there?

Slip it in behind Batman’s mind. Worm it in so deep that it eat away at him, gave HIM nightmares…

a world so dark it took Batman’s breath away.

A threat so real and imminent he could not ignore it, even if he knew there was a good chance it would mean his death.

It’s the classic tale of an unstoppable object meets and immovable force.

So who is the puppet master?

No doubt your intuition tells you that Lex Luthor is involved.

(And of course he is.)

Lex has wanted to kill Superman from the beginning.

He has a hatred of "interfering aliens”. He is a billionaire with an incredible mind that out-thinks his enemies but who has repeatedly failed to kill Superman.

A change in strategy is what is called for.

He knows that if he went up to Bruce Wayne and said:

“I want you to kill Superman.”

Bruce’s rational mind would reject the idea.

So Lex needs to seed ‘kill superman’ deep into Batman’s subconscious mind - so he doesn’t even realise the idea was not born from himself.

Lex knows the subconscious (or we could say the primal brain) is driven by emotion. Not reason.

So Lex knows he needs to translate the idea into an emotional concept - one that will stick.

An idea that once fully formed will compel Batman to act, without ever realising he was being influenced all along.

An idea that leads to the greatest gladiator match in the history of the world.

“God vs. Man. Day vs. night. Son of Krypton vs. bat of Gotham!”

So as you go to watch this movie (or if you’ve seen it already) pay attention to the artful ways Lex weaves his hand, guiding Bruce Wayne to do his bidding.

It’s the story of control, influence and covert manipulation that occurs all over the world everyday by those who use the tools of influence for harm rather than good.

Remember the easy way to influence is to start from within the existing structures  (ideas, beliefs, wounds, desires, fears etc.) a person already has operating. Present your information in such as a way that it activates those existing structures in a strong emotional way, that causes their ideas to morph and a new catalysed idea to take hold, one they feel they generated from within - so they believe it is in their best interest to act, and leaves them feeling like to not act would be inconsistent with who they really are.

When you can do that, as Lex shows - you can have even the best of men fight each other.

(Of course I encourage you to ONLY use these skills for good.)

To find out how the bat leaves his mark on Superman (and how Lex masterminded it all), go see the great new movie.

And since it’s Friday, I wanted to share this hilarious deleted scene from "Batman v Superman” starring Jimmy Kimmel. Check it out; it’s the funniest video I’ve seen so far this year.

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