Wait, Was That A 'BvS' Reference In 'Civil War'?

Look, I probably imagined it. I'm sure it wasn't an intentional reference. There's no way it even could've been, considering that the line has been heard in trailers that came out before Batman v Superman even hit theaters. Yet despite all the evidence otherwise, I'm still convinced of one thing — that whether intended or not, there is definitely a Batman v. Superman reference in Captain America: Civil War .

Let me back up a bit: in Civil War, the latest Marvel movie, much of the plot revolves around the character of Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier. Bucky has been brainwashed to be a weapon used by Hydra to commit major crimes, and in Civil War, he's being used by an evil villain, Zemo, to tear apart the Avengers. About two-thirds through the movie, Bucky gets re-activated as the Winter Soldier, and it's up to Steve (aka Captain America), his best friend, to bring him down. Slowly, Bucky goes back to normal, but Steve and his buddy, Falcon, are still cautious about whether he's totally his true self again, and not an evil, highly dangerous weapon.

Yet soon, Steve realizes that Bucky is back to his regular self, when Bucky utters one line: "Your mom's name was Sarah." To Steve, this is all the proof he needs that Bucky is his childhood friend. Sound like another movie? Batman v. Superman, perhaps, which sees Batman cease fighting Superman when he learns that Superman's mom's name is Martha, just like his mom's name. The BvS scene was a favorite moment for fans, many of whom found it amusing that the two heroes would stop their brutal fighting solely because their moms had the same name, and although the Civil War scene is pretty different, the fact that both movies use a character saying a mother's name as proof that he's totally a good guy now is highly entertaining.

And hilariously, Civil War doesn't let the silliness of that situation slide. When Steve looks like he's about to forgive Bucky because of the "Sarah" line, a bewildered Falcon says, "Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" It appears that Falcon is just as confused about how an apparently evil guy saying the name of his friend's mom makes him not at all dangerous anymore as the rest of us.

But as said earlier, it seems unlikely that the Batman v Superman reference was intentional. BvS came out in March 2016, and the "Sarah" line was present in Civil War trailers in late 2015. Unless that movie's writers got access to the BvS script way ahead of time and decided to have some fun, it's not really possible that they would have written the line as an ode to the DC film. Still, it's fun to imagine that they did – and intentional or not, comic fans will definitely appreciate the silly shout-out.

Image: Marvel/Disney; Giphy