Zack Snyder was filming his own movie while keeping a close eye on Martin's side.

Both their shooting locations were at Warner Studios—visiting each other was a breeze. Martin had no intention of hiding anything; there was no need.

"Martin built so many practical sets at Pinewood?"

Zack Snyder was a bit surprised.

Unlike Martin's choice, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice relied heavily on green-screen techniques.

To evoke an epic feel, Zack Snyder used a lot of blue and gold tones, adding a grainy texture and oil-painting emotional flair to the visuals.

To perfect the story, he brought in five big Hollywood screenwriters—David S. Goyer, Chris Terrio, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Bob Kane—and revised the script a total of 27 times.

To make the costumes more stylized, he hired renowned fashion designer Michael Wilkinson to create outfits for the three leads: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

When designing Batman's suit, the team used multi-layer stamping techniques to create a new material, allowing for different levels of detail.

The team modeled Batman's suit on computers—it had 75 layers.

In the end, Michael Wilkinson produced 12 Superman suits, 10 Batman suits, and 4 sets of Wonder Woman armor.

You could say Zack Snyder had perfected every detail for this film, all to win.

So when he saw the "sneak" footage his assistant took of Martin's set, he was stunned—it looked too rudimentary.

The Suicide Squad's costumes were basically modified everyday clothes, altered toward "ragged."

Harley Quinn's fishnet stockings with holes, and the rips in her crop top; Deadshot Floyd Lawton's dusty jacket; and Killer Croc's peeling leather coat...

And those props, full of steampunk industrial vibes—that ancient, heavy mechanical feel.

Zack Snyder's tense nerves relaxed a little.

But on second thought, maybe Martin wasn't taking the so-called competition seriously at all? It felt a bit half-hearted.

A wave of slight disappointment rose in his heart.

...

Of course Martin wasn't half-assing it—how could you shoot anti-heroes looking as neat and pristine as real superheroes?!

Besides, the film wasn't without highlights.

In the original timeline, Harley Quinn's ultra-short shorts were a highlight, both in color and... uh, that.

In this version, Martin added some vibrant elements to the Enchantress's costume—like the deep red belt on her tight leather pants, the bright red crop top, the silver-white mask.

The biggest standout was the little wind chime on the Enchantress's sword tassel—when she killed, it let out crisp ding-ding-ding sounds, adding a touch of liveliness to the slaughter.

Martin's assistant director was still Sofia.

After reading the script, she had some doubts and sought out Martin to ask: "In the script, the Suicide Squad members are almost all irredeemable villains, cold-blooded killers. Won't that draw criticism?"

Sofia's concern mirrored the original Suicide Squad director David Ayer's—he whitewashed the villains to avoid mainstream audience backlash.

Like turning Deadshot into a family man, Harley Quinn willingly controlled by the Joker out of love, El Diablo surrendering after accidentally burning his family, even the seemingly vicious Killer Croc got plenty of comedic moments.

Of course, the world isn't black and white—even villainous criminals having emotions is natural.

But the film overemphasized these characters' "white" sides while glossing over their "black" ones, clashing with the premise of "a bunch of dangerous, vicious criminals saving the world."

After release, this became a flaw in the original, otherwise the box office might've been even higher.

Martin had no such hang-ups.

Because he knew making villains the protagonists wouldn't bother or turn off most viewers—like the classic anti-hero series The Boys, which was a massive success.

In fact, due to audience love, in later seasons, the non-lead antagonist—Homelander—got more screen time, while the original lead, Hughie Campbell, gradually became supporting.

In truth, well-portrayed villains could unleash even greater charm than heroes, unbound by restrictions.

In real life, bound by endless rules, don't ordinary people secretly yearn for that unrestrained existence?

Isn't evil something innate in every human's genes? Just like goodness.

Viewers would thrill to it, of course—ordinary folks can't act recklessly in reality, so vicariously experiencing it on screen provides massive emotional release, an exhilarating rush.

Like the "Joker."

With prior experience, Martin was on familiar ground.

"Don't worry, Sofia—I've got this. As long as the audience feels thrilled, they won't care if it's Harley Quinn or Superman delivering the thrills. Instead of making a movie about 'flawed righteous heroes saving the world,' it's more fun to let viewers watch 'the ultimate villains team up to fight.' The film's character setups and story shouldn't clash."

"If a bunch of criminals who treat innocent civilians like ants to crush save the world not because of head bombs or coercion, but out of inner 'justice,' the film would sour."

Like in the original, El Diablo—barely knowing the team for two days, with no emotional buildup—yells "I don't want to lose my family again" in the final battle and sacrifices himself. It's just awkward as hell. Chapters first released on NoveI★Fire.net

Better to have him forced by Amanda Waller's bomb threat to rescue the others, dying in the process—that fits.

Honestly, the original's hype was mostly pervs flocking to see Harley's butt-revealing antics, some even multiple times.