Now I know that a lot of people are skeptical about the news of a DC Cinematic Universe, many say it can’t be done or itll just be a rip off of what Marvels doing. I can definitely see where these people are coming from and I can understand the skepticism, but this got me thinking, how would a DC Cinematic Universe work? So I came up with some ideas and decided to share them with you guys.
CHOOSE THE LEADING HEROES OF THE UNIVERSE
Out of all of the Marvel heroes, the 4 heavy hitters that were ultimately picked as the best ones to lead up to the Avengers were Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America. Most of these characters were known at least in some capacity to non comic book readers.
Superman is already filling the Iron Man role as the hero who starts it all, but the other heroes that should the heavy hitters are obviously Batman, Wonder Woman and Flash/GL. Batman is the icon of DC as far as movies go so he’s a no brainer, Wonder Woman can fullfil the role of the mythological hero who travels too places like Hades or Olympus, a similar function that Thor has with the 9 realms and Norse mythology.
When I ment Flash/GL I meant it could go either way, although from the looks of things Flash has more of shot than Hal Jordan. The first Green Lantern movie was to say the least a mediocre waste of time and money, Warner Bros aren’t even sure if they’re going to reboot the character altogether or merely make a sequel and act like the first one never happened. On the other hand, the Flash movies script is being finished as we speak and the movie is far closer to being done than GL 2 or a reboot.
The two characters who can’t hold their own films are Aquman and Cyborg (Manhunter wont be because DC has this need to shove Cyborg down our throats). They can serve a function similar to Black Widow and Hawkeye, I don’t see them actually showing up in the other films except for maybe a mention or very small cameo.
USE OF POST CREDITS SCENES
This is also kind of a no brainer, I mean who can forget the Iron Man 1 post credits scene where Fury shows up and talks to Tony about the Avengers. Considering Man of Steels main villain is Zod, it’s fairly safe to assume Brainiac is going to be the villain in the JLA movie.
These short scenes can be used to further expand the universe while also showing Brainiac slowly taking over Earth while the heroes are too busy with their own individual problems. These can also be used as hints as to what movie is going to happen next in the line. Iron Man 1/2 lead to Hulk and Thor, which both lead to Cap First Avengers which all lead to Avengers.
Or perhaps The Flash movie could setup Gorrilla Grodd as the JLA villain, since in the Justice League cartoon, we never had the entire team in any particular story, but whenever Grodd showed up, the entire team was assembled take him down and he proved to be one of their greatest enemies. It makes all of these seemingly unique heroes at least some what connected without them actually meeting up with each other.
WORLDS FINEST AND/OR TRINITY MOVIE
This is something I would want, rather than something that might actually happen. However in the comic books, by the time the JLA is formed, Batman, Superman and WW already know each other fairly well. Plus considering Batmans less than stellar relationship with these two heroes on their first meeting could be too much side stuff for just 1 team up movie to cover.
A Worlds Finest film is a sure thing, Batman and Superman are very well known to movie goers and just the fact that they’re in 1 movie would attract a lot of buzz from the press. I think the animated Worlds Finest film should be used as a foundation for this one, I mean who wouldn’t want to see Bruce Wayne winning over Lois Lane or Joker and Lex teaming up to take down their rivals on the big screen?
A Trinity movie, if made, could be used to introduce us to Wonder Woman. The Hulk gained huge popularity after the Avengers and I think a Trinity movie could be used to do the same thing for Wonder Woman, build up popularity and awareness of the character which could make her own solo film a success. A great story to adapt is the 2001 Trinity story where a rookie WW meets up with Batman and Superman to fight Ras al Ghul who’s threatening to attack and destroy paradise island.
Batman and Superman already knew each other at this point and were both fairly new heroes, this would fit perfectly with the time frame of The Batman, which stars a young Bruce Wayne who’s been Batman for about two years and with Superman who will also been in his first or second year of crime fighting.
USE THE ARKHAM VIDEO GAMES AS THE FOUNDATION
The Arkhamverse is probably the perfect blend of comic booky elements with realism. They are dark, serious and standalone but are still heavily influenced by their comic book origins and could even fit in with the main universe.
People already joke how DCs movies are dark and realistic, so I think that Warner Bros. should just go with this and create a cinematic universe that is faithful and similar to the comics like Marvels movies, but has a darker, more realistic tone to it.
Considering how Man of Steel looks this seems like a pretty safe bet to me. Plus this would greatly benefit Batman who’s never had a hones to god CBM yet. Thats not say some one like Flash should be dark, Flash isn’t a dark character and I think he should be the exception to the rule.
Green Lanten could be kind of mix, the series typically does deal with alien genocide or planets being destroyed so it could also be a mix between the dark and the light hearted. This may limit the demographic to a certain degree, but that’s the price to pay if you want to succeed sometimes.
SCRAP THE SIDE PROJECTS
Movies like Lobo, Teen Titans and Suicide Squad may seem cool. However Warner needs to stop experimenting with this side stuff like Jonah Hex, Wanted or Watchmen.
They need to focus on bringing in their big hitters to the spot light. In fact I cannot believe that Lobo is getting a movie before some one like Wonder Woman or Flash, this just boggles my mind. Teen Titans can’t work because all of the heroes are just starting out and have no partners and Suicide Squad….. just NO! Stop wasting your time and money with this side crap and focus on bringing characters like Flash, WW and Green Lantern on the big screen already.
EMBRACE THE COMIC BOOKY ELEMENTS
Marvel excepts its comic book origins, some times to a ridiculous level. Lokis giant horned helmet or Caps blue spandex suit did seem a little too wacky for me at first. But the audience will accept this as the norm and they wont be scared off by it.
Let us see a guy in a green suit with a domino mask make a giant baseball bat knocking alien warships into black holes or let us see Batman finally facing characters like Man Bat, Poison Ivy, Deadshot or Freeze in all their wacky comic book ness.
Dont be afraid to take some risks, if it ultimately ends up making a better movie then I say its worth doing.
CREATE A DC STUDIOS
Without this one, I fear the DC movieverse is already doomed. The reason the MCU has worked so well is because there is a dedicated team just for movies. These guys over see all the projects and ensure that a quality product is made.
Warner Bros. have a nasty tendency to control everything, this lead to the failure of Green Lantern (among other things), so creating a team just for the movies would allow Warner Bros. to oversee the projects while giving the creative teams who make the films greater freedom.
It also wouldn’t hurt to bring in guys like Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Andrea Romano, Geoff Johns, JMS, Scott Snyder, …. to lead this studio. All of these guys have extensive experience with a particular DC character or multiple characters.
Bruce Timm has been leading the DC Animted Movies division for years now and he created the much loved DCAU along with Paul Dini and Andrea Romano. Let Johns do the Flash and GL movies, let Snyder and/or Dini focus on Batman and finally let JMS do the WW movie since his version of her is probably the most suited for the big screen.
( BONUS) RELEASE SCHEDULE
Now this is how I would do the release dates for the DC CU movies based on the release date of Man of Steel and Warner Bros. recent announcement of no DC movies until 2015.
2013 – Man of Steel
2015 – The Batman, Worlds Finest
2016 – Flash, Green Lantern, Trinity (possibly)
2017 – Man of Steel 2, Wonder Woman
2018 – Justice League of America
So what do you guys think? Did I raise some interesting points, would you want all of these things actually happen or not and if so let me know below in the comments section.