The Big Picture: Enough With The Batman Already!

[Penguin_Factory]

I think it was Bob who previously suggested that Bruce Wayne play the role of Nick Fury in the upcoming DC movies, paving the way for the Justice League's formation. I'm sure they're never going to do that, but it would be cool.

Wherever they end up taking Batman I just hope they don't play it safe and go the Spectacular Spiderman route. They totally could. They could make us sit through yet another retelling of his origin story, slightly tweaked so that whatever third-rate villain they haven't used yet is somehow involved in the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. We all know they could make that movie and it would totally make millions of dollars. I just really hope they don't do it that way.

My personal recommendation would be an Arkham Asylum adaptation, with a different villain instead of the Joker.

(Also is it just me or does Bob sound like he has a bad cold in this video? Eat lots of chicken soup dude!)

 

[ANImaniac89]

I kinda have to agree with you.
Batman Arkham Asylum (the game, not Morrisons Batman in Wonderland book )got me back into American cape books.You see I had just come out of a weird Manga and Jhonen Vasquez obsession and I was looking for something new. And it just so happens that the day I beat the first Arkham game I also went to a garage sale that happened to be run by a hardcore comic book fan. I started chatting with him and we got along great, I was about ready to leave and he told me to wait. He ran into his house and got a stack of trade paperbacks (which included Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns). He gave the stack to me for free along with a card from the comic shop he shopped at. After I finished Watchmen and DKR I went hardcore on Batman books with in a month I read: Year One, The Man Who Laughs, The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: Serious House on Serious Earth, Hush, The Vampire Trilogy and several other Batman stories. But that thing I came to realize is that the DC Universe is full of many many many other (hell even better) more interesting Characters: the Justice League, Green Lantern (and various other Lanterns), Superman, The Titans, Captain Marvel (no I will never call him Shazam),John Constantine (yes I know back then he was in Vertigo book).

I love Batman but dammit I want, No NEED more then just the adventures of the Scowly Avenger.

PS I think James Franco would make an awesome Joker, I'm basing this on his work on the daytime soap opera General Hospital where he play Artist/Serial Killer Franco.

 

[TwiZtah]

Yes please, I fucking hate Batman.

He might be the biggest villain in the DC universe, because he KNOWS that The Joker etc. will escape from Arkham and kill more people, therefore he is also indirectly responsible for those killings.

 

[luvd1]

There are new borns in North Korea who know the story of batman. Any new films should come out after a JLA film and not be a gods damned fraking origin story.

 

[Plinglebob]

I'm not sure what its like in other countries outside the US (or in the US itself), but DC's biggest issue in the UK is that the only Superheros in their stable with any sort of brand recognition is Batman and Superman. I remember when the first X-Men film was announced, everyone I know was excited not because the premise sounded good or because we had read the comics, but because we all watched the 90's X-Men cartoon (which was awesome!!) and the same with Spiderman. Hulk had already made it into the public conciousness thanks to the TV show and even Iron Man had his own cartoon.

The other problem as I see it (and big on personal opinion here) is that very few DC heroes have the same impact when boiled down to 10 words or less. I've always felt that Marvel were great at coming up with ideas for characters (Billionaire with a robot suit, school kids with superpowers etc) but are crap when it comes to using them. DC on the other hand has blander sounding characters, but does great work when it comes to using them in a story.

Edit:

The only way I could see that working is if Darkseid decided to infiltrate the Earth first, using Granny Goodness and Glorious Godfrey and Batman is investigating their activities and learns that they aren't human, so he has something to do while the other heroes go after more of the other characters and Darkseid himself.

Smallville beat them to it.

 

[Suicidal Zebra]

I wouldn't be adverse to doing the same thing with Batman as was done with Wolverine in the X-Men prequel.

Also, I'm all on board with a Question movie. That would be awesome.

 

[emeraldrafael]

hunh. I just realized, I actually forgot Heath Ledger died. Though I dont think its right to have the joker be heath ledger's character. Or batman to be bales. I think in that way, the nolan films may have done more harm than good to batman for warner bros.

besides, bob, you know the next jump is superman, so I think its going to be a few years before we see smoen "new" get their chance.

EDIT:

brought this up at my college's comic book/manga club, We all kinda agreed wed like to see them go the way of batman beyond. with the animated batman movie where he's like 60, it would work. we agree it would be rather unpopular, but it would be a logical step since you either have to bite the bullet and make a new batman or just do this.

 

[omegawyrm]

I would be happy to see them do to Batman what they did in New Frontier. Set the story as taking place over a few years and subtly signal that he's changing from grimdark batman into fun, genre-mixing Batman with just a few scenes of characterization.

 

[franksands]

I wholeheartedly agree with Bob. Enough with the Bat. I would love a *good* green lantern movie or a good wonder woman movie.

EDIT: A good inhouse solution would be just get the staff that does the animated features for DC. Green Lantern First Flight was very good, some of the Superman animated features were very good.

 

[synobal]

For the love of god someone greenlight a Batman Beyond movie.

 

[Realitycrash]

No, WE HAVEN'T, because they haven't made a new Batman: Beyond cartoon/series/movie/whatever yet, and it is pissing me off.

Edit: Derp, Ninjad...Which is good, because that means others want more too!

 

[axlryder]

Bob fails to fully comprehend the unstoppable force that is Batman with prep.

Also, I'm really not sure how they're going to handle The Flash with these films. I love him, but he's really far better suited to comics. Even if they lowball his abilities (which I'm guessing they will) he's still going to be awkward to portray in film.

 

[UniversalRonin]

I actually agree with this video. DC/ Warner Bro's need to look at their other characters. Flash, Question, Booster Gold (Normally Green Arrow would make it into this mix too, but then Arrow happened. And actually, I thought that Green Lantern was better than it seems to be generally accepted as, so he's not on the list either.) They have such a wealth of brilliant under tapped characters at their disposal.

And without Superman being asked to 'Kneel before Zod', my hopes for the movie aren't that high.

EDIT:

Hey, Why don't we make sure Flash gets SOMETHING first.

like really awkward premature ejaculation problems?

Still better than Wonder Woman's premature cancelation problems!

Anyone? Anyone?

Supporting cast or no supporting cast? That IS the question!

Ahh no!!!! Looks like I got mega- ninja'd on this! Hahah!!!! Ah well! Flash and Q are For The Win. Especially Q. One of my all time favourites!

 

[The Great JT]

How about we put Batman out for a while and replace it with something...unexpected? No, not Superman. Flash...eh, he had a TV show that ran for a number of seasons, I think the public still kind of knows his deal. Green Lantern had his shot and dropped the green energy construct in the shape of a ball so badly it blew up a planet. To me, there's three major DC characters ripe for adaptations that have had pretty minimal exposure (relative to Batman) that I would love to see on the movie screen.

Spoiler: The First

WONDER WOMAN

Okay, yes, I know she too had a television show, but that was 40 years ago and personally I don't think it's aged very well. My thought is that people don't really know what Wonder Woman is about. To me, and I admit this might sound familiar to a lot of people, Wondey is the most compassionate person on the planet. You know, defender of the weak and downtrodden, protector of the innocent, friend to all children [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/Gamera?from=Main.Gamera], blah-dee-blee-dee-blah. However, Wondey in this day and age could be one of the few full-time superheroes. Why would Wonder Woman, arguably one of the three most trustworthy things on planet Earth (the other two being Superman and Walter Cronkite) need a secret identity, outside of to get some privacy? Maybe this is just my interpretation, but I never thought she needed one.

Spoiler: The Second

MARTIAN MANHUNTER

Now yeah, I know MM (like Wondey) was one of the main characters of Justice League, but he was, for the most part, downplayed into a support role. Martian Manhunter is, ultimately, Superman-level strong (with telepathy and shapeshifting tossed in for good measure), but you can also add in the fact that because of his shapeshifting, he can be anyone. Why is this important? Becuase he could just as easily blend into any nation in the world and step in when trouble pops up. Think about that for a second. This could be your way of creating a superhero that works out of, say, any major city in the world. Forget that it's a way of getting exotic locations into a movie, it's a way of showing that because of his powers, Manhunter is thought of as the entire world's answer to Superman, being able to insert himself into any culture of any country in the world.

Spoiler: The Third

ZATANNA

Aside from being an excuse for having another insanely attractive superheroine, Zatanna is arguably the most powerful magician in the DC Universe. Plus, unlike a number of other spellcasters, she actually has to speak aloud the vocal components of her spells in addition to the somatic (hand gestures). Plus, in addition to being a superheroine, she's a stage magician, so she uses her powers to entertain in addition to kick ass. Ultimately, I think it's just a case of "I like Zatanna, I think she's an interesting character (in addition to so smoking hot you can visibly see smoke), I would like to see her get more exposure."

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Hey, Why don't we make sure Flash gets SOMETHING first.

Pretty much THIS.

There's been no animated series, no movie, no starring roles in any of the DCU Animated films, and one Live-Action show almost no one remembers.

As one of the DCU's main heroes, can the Fastest Man Alive get SOMETHING now please?

[small]With Mirror Master as the villain, kthnxbai. [/small]