Owlman - Nothing Matters

An edit I made playing around my new fast computer specs, hope y'all enjoy it, Owlman is an interesting DC character imo(tbh Nihilist villains done right are the scariest villains to me). Finally what's y'alls answer to Owlmans Nihilism?

So much more compelling a “nihilistic Batman as multiversal threat” than Batman Who Laughs

I love how he didn't contradict himself at his final moments. Shows that he truly believed what he said.

You gotta hand it to Owlman, he had conviction. Usually when faced with certain death, villains will compromise their beliefs in order to survive. Owlman did not, and when just mere seconds away from his demise, uttered out the only words that he truly believed, “It doesn’t matter.”

I like how a Planet Destroying bomb has a "Are you sure you want to continue?"

The writer for this movie(the late Dwayne McDuffie) said that the moment Owlman realized that he had a choice in deactivating the bomb, then his decision no longer mattered as it was no longer the prime Earth. Such a good movie.

The final "It doesn't matter." is why owlman has my respect the way he does.

I love how when owlman tells Batman that there are alternate versions of him that he would like its never stated that he researched other versions of him he just knows

That little "it doesn't matter" at the end gives me these strange chills. Owlman as a character is so fascinating to me because I can fully understand his motivations they aren't complicated per se but they are still incomprehensible like a moral illusion I can see all the parts and understand the reasoning but I can't put them together in a way that allows me to fully wrap my head around it all.

I believe the moment Owlman arrives in Earth Prime, it became a copy. He isn’t on the original Earth anymore. And every second he and Batman existed on the planet, he spiraled away from Earth Prime faster and faster. Like he said, it doesn’t matter. It’s impossible for him to reach Earth Prime

One of the few times where the movie adaptation that attempts to make the original more high stakes and conventional actually works. The original comic and this movie can be consumed separately and enjoyed on their own without either diminishing the other. Wish more adaptations were like this.

I think an underrated part of the Owlman character is his purpose as a reflection of Batman. While he may not seem it, Bruce is an optimist. Believeing no person is beyond redemption and that every decision matters as a random gutless act is what birthed the Batman in the first place. Every life matters. Owlman is a pessimist. Decisions are irrelevant as there will always be another world where the opposite happened. A person's life does not matter. And never will. McDuffie was a great writer, man

What I love about Batman is that despite his cynicism and witnessing the worst out of people every night, he refuses to give up his hope of making the world a better place for those who deserve it

James Woods did an amazing job for the voice of Owlman. Calm and yet you can almost hear the seething rage and anger under the surface.

Owlman is my favourite alternate universe “Batman” that went off the deep end. Because he maintains Batman’s strengths and social flaws but they are increased ten fold because he holds nothing back. His tech is more deadly, his standard outfit is stronger and more durable and he is stone cold. But one flaw of Batman’s that is emphasised in Owlman is arrogance, and that became his downfall in his final fight.

Imagine being an alien from a different planet and hearing some guy explain that somehow erasing Earth Prime will undo the whole universe like your choices didn't even exist.

The idea of "nothing matters" is so interesting since it makes a logical loop. If "nothing matters", then everything is on equal ground, meaning that "everything matters". What "matters" to one person or another is merely perception, with Owlman representing the nihilistic "nothing matters" view and Batman representing the equally nihilistic "everything matters" view. And if you think one to be more "realistic" or "hopeful" than the other, then that too holds a perception on their values and importance that simultaneously does and does not matter.

What I admire about him is that he 100% believes what he says, even at the very end of his life he just smiles and says "It doesnt matter." that is truly respectable in a character even if he is completely nuts.

Didn't quite understand this as a kid. As an adult though, I have an immense amount of appreciation for owlman as a villain. Such a complex character

Owlman's dilemma is so very interesting to me. He wants to reach a "prime" universe, absolutely devoid of any choice, and destroy it. The thing is, him being present in earth prime makes it open to chance, and thus no longer earth prime. It's like one of those graphs that get infinitely smaller but never reach 0, forever teetering on the edge of reachin Earth Prime. His final realization, in the end, is that it doesn't matter - he had a choice, and it made him realize that wasn't earth prime anymore - it doesn't matter if he wins or loses, his chance was already gone, and was never achievable in the first place