It’s no secret that Warner Bros. has fairly grand, Avengers-grade plans for the DCU. That is, however, being led by something of a mistake; putting the team movie first, and then making the individual movies thereafter.
So, Warners, because we nerds always have your best interest at heart, here are five movies you should make, based on comic books you already own, before Justice League hits theaters.
All of this, by the way, is based on the rumored new roster that has leaked: It’s pretty much the classic lineup, but that presents its own problems.
The Flash
Here’s what the general public knows about the Flash: He runs really fast, and he wears a red jumpsuit. Considering how important the Flash is to the DCU, and considering some of the great writing work that’s been put into the book, and also since we all know Justice League 2 will probably be Crisis On Infinite Earths, a little backstory would be nice. Really, just pay Mark Waid whatever he wants and have him write it, it’ll be great.
A Green Lantern movie that’s a little more serious
The first Green Lantern movie is… well… Martin Campbell tried, really hard, to make a Green Lantern movie that encompassed the mythology, and really the movie, while it doesn’t quite work, does deserve credit for not just sticking Hal Jordan somewhere cheap and having him fight Goldbug or something.
That said, you can actually make a Green Lantern movie that’s a little more serious. Part of what defines Hal Jordan is that he really is trying to save the world, to have absolutely nothing ever go wrong, and that’s ultimately what breaks him. You can get a great movie out of that, Warners, and you really should try.
Wonder Woman, specifically an adaptation of Brian Azzarello’s current run
Again, we’ve got a filmgoer problem. Your average filmgoer associates Wonder Woman not with George Perez but with Lynda Carter. But this can be fixed: Wonder Woman is currently one of the best books DC publishes and that’s largely due to Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Put Chiang in charge of the design and Azzarello in charge of the script, and you’ll have a great Wonder Woman movie.
Martian Manhunter
In the script circulating Hollywood, he’s supposedly been around for a hundred years, so why not explore that? The best Martian Manhunter stories generally take place in the ’50s, and a Martian trapped in, say, a post-war noir would be a lot of fun to watch, and give the character some backstory for audiences.
Mostly what we’re saying is give our friends and parents some backstory. It will help them appreciate the rich history DC has built for nearly a century.
It will also mean we can watch the Justice League movie without having to explain who “that guy” is, every five seconds. But that’s just a bonus.
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Agreed that those would be the movies DC *should* make, but considering their batting average with this genre, I don’t think they would get past the second movie due to another Green Lantern disaster or a John Carter failure to market The Flash or The Martian Manhunter properly
Heh, I have more faith in Warners’ marketing team than I do with Disney’s. Notice that Marvel very wisely has its own marketing team.
I think the reverse of Marvel’s formula could work for Justice League because everyone “knows” the classic lineup. If you were to show the Avengers lineup to a random mook on the street they’d probably only be able to pick out Hulk and maybe Captain America. Doing it this way could work but I don’t think Warner Brothers has any idea what they are doing. If they’re smart they’ll beg Bruce Timm and his staff to write the script.
Logically this would be true, but somehow there’s a classification of moviegoer that find watching cartoons about superheroes childish, reading comics means you’re stupid, while movies about them are perfectly acceptable. Frankly, I just don’t want to hear anything people like that have to say.
the flash, sure. the others? meh. Here’s a list:
Five Movies DC Should Make Before The Four on Dan’s List That Are Not Flash.
5. Snapper Carr Adventure Force
4. Ghost Tank
3. GI Robot
2. Detective Chimp
1. G’Nort
Actually, a Ghost Tank movie would kinda kick ass.
and, by the way, they have been teasing a Sgt Rock movie for about 25 years. WTF?
That’s Joel Silver. The guy currently making a family-friendly Lobo movie. I would not hold my breath.
I would watch a Ghost Tank movie even if it were Jamie Foxx in an adaptation of that one where Jeb Stuart finds out his descendant is black and the entire story is about outdated racial stereotypes.
Part of me is okay to certain degree with not doing too many movies before a JL movie because it means we’ll have movies that are the obligatory origin stories. As a general rule, the second movie of any comic franchise is almost always the best of the bunch, so if we can cover the origins of several of the heroes in one movie it means that any hero that gets their own spin-off movie can get straight to the good stuff without having to deal with the exposition of how they got their powers.
If you want to look at a good template on how to do this, honestly I would go with the Justice League from the DCAU.
I don’t think a Wonder Woman movie is necessary. People know who she is, what she can do. While they might not know her entire backstory, that part isn’t important in a team up film like this.
Not really. Kids and some teens may know her from the cartoons and some Americans may know her from the tv show but most people wouldn’t know who she is and without a damn good movie that manages to duplicate the magic of Thor and intertwine a mythical world with our own own Wonder Woman wouldn’t be a huge failure and brought down to the level of eye candy(especially if they don’t give her pants)
Just as long as Mark Hamill plays the Trickster in the Flash flick im fine with whatever.
I get where you’re coming from, but I get where DC is coming from too.
Are movie goers going to want to pay to see movies about The Guy Who Runs Real Fast, The Really Old Shapechanger, The Hot Chick Who Won’t Take Her Clothes Off, and Green Lantern 2 BEFORE they see how cool they are in the Justice League movie?
That’s a good point, but by the same token, it’s not hard to get people to go see Big Explodey Movie with Lots of Explodey. I just would prefer something not utterly retarded.
That kinda sounds like the Marvel movies. Surfer Guy with a hammer, Puny Guy who becomes superhero, and Puny Smart Guy that lives alone and who becomes an Angry Monster at the wrong times
What I know about the Flash is that nerdy guy on Big Bang Theory wears his symbol on his t-shirts all the time…
Did you not include Aquaman on the list because everyone would make Entourage references and fish jokes? In reference to that, I actually think James Cameron should do an Aquaman movie. He’s the only guy that could make it work.
Nah, I just couldn’t think of a good angle for an Aquaman solo movie. Although apparently DC is working on it.
Honestly I’d love to see an Aquaman movie that plays out like a King Arthur story. But it would never happen because its Aquaman
Although those high-fantasy comics DC did for a while were pretty good.
If I were going to do an Aquaman movie, I’d adapt the arc where San Diego gets dumped into the ocean and all the residents become water-breathers.
I think it would be funny to see a solo Aquaman movie that incorporates the idea of him having to put up with all kinds of shit from people for being, well… Aquaman. Like they sorta did at the beginning of the current comic run.
So basically it would be Aquaman beating the crap out of Dane Cook for ninety minutes?
…
It’d make MILLIONS.
Shut up and take my money.
The problem with the DC Universe, at least it always has been for me, is the existence of Superman. No one else matters and he’s kinda boring.
Supes is boring until you start dinging his emotions. That’s why I personally find “Superman Returns” to be so underrated. Although it must be said the best Superman movie is actually already written: “For The Man Who Has Everything.”
I thought they threw together a damn good adaptation of FTMWHE in JLU. When Supes breaks out of the fantasy, the anger in his voice. I knew what was coming and the intensity still took me by surprise.
I assume we’re just talking about mainline DCU and not Vertigo, or I’d say throw Preacher and Transmet on the list as well.
Also if we’re doing a GL movie does it have to be about/centered on Hal? I for one would be down for a John Stewart movie or even a Kyle Raynor one.
A John Stewart movie would be great. Unfortunately, you also have to deal with Hollywood’s racism, and quite possibly some pin-headed executive insisting people will show up thinking it’s about The Daily Show.
Yeah, pretty much all 3 other Earth lanterns are more interesting to me than Hal. Gardner’s pretty infamously hated but I get a kick out of his doucheyness.
If they’re going to do Jon Stewart, I’d like to see Idris Elba play him. I also think he’d make a great Michael Lane/Azrael
I never really cared about the character but if the Martian Manhunter movie tosses in some Golden Age DC characters and treats it like the Minutemen opening from Watchmen… I would watch the hell out of that.
Yes. Hellz, YES.
I LOVED the JLA “New Frontier” cartoon. Too bad they already did it…
To me it’s not been made until John Cloud closes his eyes and dives into the mouth of a t-rex.
Why not a classic team up? Say a movie staring both the Flash and Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds could play both parts.
Let Superman start it and go from there.
Don’t make a new Green Lantern, even if they deviate from Reynolds as the casting and just introduce them in the movie. Enough people saw GL last year to get the concept of the character, and if they don’t bring back Reynolds then make it Raynor or Stewart. Do a Martian Manhunter movie to set up the bad guy and the team aspect, even if it takes some liberties with whoever they decide for the villain. Reboot Batman beforehand so we get a World’s Finest team-up before the big team up and then do JL. Introduce Flash and Wonder Woman there and then use response to JL to determine who gets a movie afterward. Wave 1 would look like:
Superman
Martian Manhunter
Batman
World’s Finest
JL
Stupid autocorrect, Rayner.
Honestly, I want a World’s Finest movie a lot more than I want a JLA movie. Not that I’m not going to go see anything DC puts out, because I’m a whore, but that’s not the point.
Sadly you’re going to have to explain the characters even if they do have a lead in flick. I’ve already had to deal with idiots who couldn’t get it through their heads that Avengers was effectively a sequel to five other movies.
The second time I saw The Avengers, there was some poor fifteen-year-old who had obviously been dragged to it by his entire family to serve as a sort of walking Marvel Encyclopedia.
Unfortunately DC has no idea how to market their characters while Marvel has the comic book movie thing locked down. I would say there’s a higher probability of X-Men Origins: Dazzler getting made then a new Wonder Woman or Flash movie at this point.
If Warner Bros. was smart, they’d be carefully dissecting everything that made the Avengers movie successful and replicating it for the DCU. A series of fun or thoughtful solo films that explain the characters to the public, then a movie that gathers them all up and presents them to a combined universe.
Mind you, if they were geniuses, they’d turn to Paul Dini and the rest of the animated writers and ask them what they should really do.
I would like them to start getting into Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne in the movies.