Even wearing a mask with its forehead forever drawn into an angry point, Ben Affleck's Batman seems really sad in Zack Snyder's Justice League. The movie kicks off with Superman's death, and the entire rest of the story is funereal because of it. And almost nobody is mourning harder than Batman--because really, this is all his fault. And here's the thing about Sad Batman: It's one of the best conceptions of the character we've had in a while.

To understand why Sad Batman is a good thing for the Dark Knight, we have to understand what, exactly, is making him so sad. That takes us back to Batman v. Superman, the Zack Snyder Superman movie that sets the stage for Justice League. That movie opens with a callback to the movie before it, Man of Steel, in which Superman wrecked a big chunk of Metropolis as he fought the evil Kryptonians led by General Zod. Turns out, Bruce Wayne was in town that day and lived through the horrific destruction wrought by two godlike aliens kicking the crap out of each other in the vicinity of mere mortals. This made Batman angry, and he started to think Superman was not such a great dude.

Batman v. Superman is about the two heroes each thinking the other is a bad guy who needs to be brought down. The situation is exacerbated by Lex Luthor, who passes notes between the heroes like he's in middle school. Then Batman and Superman have their iconic "Martha" moment, find common ground, and unite to fight Luthor's new monster, Doomsday. Also Wonder Woman is there. Anyway, Superman dies beating Doomsday and saving the world, but the entire situation could have been avoided if Batman hadn't been so dang stubborn and self-assured about judging who's good and who's bad.