China’s ‘Justice League’ Posters Are Insane

Film marketing in other countries is typically innocuous. When there’s a new Star Wars or Marvel movie coming out, the international trailers and posters might give us a glimpse at previously unreleased footage or feature characters that haven’t been as prominent in the US marketing. For the most part, international marketing isn’t too different from the promotional materials released stateside. But then again, there’s the curious case of these Chinese posters for Justice League, which feature the team slaughtering other Marvel movie superheroes.

For instance, skewering Deadpool on Aquaman’s ocean pitchfork is definitely an artistic choice. I’m not sure what any of it has to do with Justice League; maybe featuring extra superheroes makes the film even more of a draw? Maybe it’s a comment on how much more gritty the DC movies are? I cannot pretend to have the slightest idea.

A Reddit user discovered the Chinese marketing via the social media platform Weibo, and the photos quickly started circulating online:

According to ComicBook.com, this is a fan-made poster and not an official piece of Warner Bros. marketing (obviously), but it was adopted by some theaters in China to promote the film. In the image, you can see Batman holding the severed head of Thor (yeah, right), Wolverine dying from some weird wounds, and a dismembered Iron Man. Clearly, whoever created this poster took some artistic liberties with the IP because there is no way in hell that Batman would be able to decapitate Thor — and I say this as someone who loves the Dark Knight a whole bunch.