Can a Nightwing and Teen Titan movie work
Well lets think here with Chris Nolan concluding the third and final film in his Dark Knight saga its not going to be long till Warner Brothers reboot the franchise.
Any Batman movie that comes out is sure to sell and the quicker a reboot comes out the quicker profits are made ‘to soon for a reboot you say’ well lets recap The Amazing Spiderman is coming out this summer as a reboot from a trilogy that concluded just a few years ago, next year were getting a Superman reboot only a few years after Singers version, the truth is if there is money to be made and direction to go in reboots of the big guns are inevitable and happen fast.
Ok don’t get me wrong I love Nolan’s realistic take on the batman franchise and its proved to be a huge success but it has come at a price, With all the characters being more realistic there are certain things or people that we will never see in the Nolanverse no matter how many more movies he would have made, people like Killer Croc, Clayface, Freeze, Poison Ivy, Solomon Grundy, Firefly, Black Mask, Penguin the list goes on and if they did restart the franchise they would most likely pit the hero against a villain who breaks the rules of realism.
After the success of The Avengers and Joss Whedon showing that a team of superheroes can not only work in the same movie but also the benefits of having more than one powered up being in the same story, I’m sure there are talks of a Justice League going around but again lets think about this Zack Snyder has stated that his Superman movie will have no part in a Justice League franchise so for now we have no Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash movie have been`rumoured to be in the pipeline but nothing official for years, the only movie that has revealed they would be happy to share there universe with a Justice League movie is Green Lantern but right now I think all their production energy is to give it a sequel and undo the damage they done to the first one before expanding anything else, so with all that in perspective it is highly doubtful that we’ll be getting a League movie anytime soon but what else could they do in the meantime.
The Teen Titans or for better effect just ‘Titans’.
Why would anyone be excited for a Titan franchise as opposed to what could be the Justice League or had been for the The Avengers
Well this is a harder one to sell, The Avengers are marvels biggest heroes united and the Justice League is the exact same in the DC universe so how could anyone build up the hype for a superhero team that consists of sidekicks and/or lesser known characters.
Now yes though this may be true there are benefits in them that shouldn’t be overlooked.
People who don’t read the comics may consider the majority of the Titans as unknown or not good enough for a movie but how wrong they could be. My favourite memory from watching a movie was when I took my girlfriend to watch Superbad a few years ago, I had seen no trailers for it, had no idea who any of the actors were at that time and we only decided to watch it because it started just 5 minutes after we entered the cinema and thought we would give it a go. As we took our seats I had no idea what to expect but (and this bit is important) I had no big expectation that this movie was going to be any good but how wrong I was, from the moment the movie started me, my girlfriend and the whole audience were cracking with laughter every couple of minutes and too this day remains one of my funniest movies I’ve seen. But why did I enjoy it so much, well that’s easy because it surprised me, I went in there with no expectations and no level of interest but what it produced was a great story, funny and likeable characters, plenty of humour and the ending we saw these characters grow to be men in a heart-warming way.
The members of the Teen Titans if done right can easily be just as likeable and relatable as any other heroes but have the advantage of having that same ‘no expectation’ factor. When the new Batman movie comes out I have no doubt we all will be blown away however that is what we are expecting it too and if it doesn’t live up to that hype then I’m sure the fanbase will be very lively, the same for the 2013 Man of Steel movie, there are big hopes that it will be a success and if it is then great but even so it won’t be a surprised feeling that we will get but more a satisfied one and why because ‘you guessed it’ it will have that expectation to be good.
Ok so maybe a Teen Titan movie wouldn’t have that much hype but why should it, does it have enough characters that are both interesting and strong enough be worth making
Absolutely yes, let’s take in to account the leader of the group Nightwing who is personally one of my favourite superheroes ever, a man trained by Batman himself, spent his younger years fighting some of the biggest villains Gotham had to offer and finally stepping up to Bruce Wayne’s sense of justice and goes his own path has his own city to protect and chooses a name based on a Kryptonion Legend told to him by Superman ‘does that sound at all interesting’?
Or what about Superboy, sure at a first glance he could just be seen as a rip off younger Superman but as comic lovers know he’s nothing like that, in fact he is a clone and only shares half his DNA with Superman, the other belongs to who? Only Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor, and not only does he have all Superman’s powers but also has Lex’s ruthlessness and intelligence and struggles on which side to accept the Kryptonion side or the human.
Another, well how about Raven, a character who is the daughter to a demon Trigon who can steal other peoples emotions rendering them emotionally numb, can manipulate shadows and darkness into forms of energy, can teleport and has a darker evil side inherited from her father that she is constantly having to keep in check.
And these are just three of so many more of the Titans but prove that they not only could have their own movie but in some respect ‘they deserve one’.
Ok so the Titans are different but why would any studio invest in the gamble when they could just stick with what they know would work aka the big and popular
Right well it’s true the characters are different but at the same time they still resemble the heroes that are more known lets take a look.
Superboy is the teams version of Superman (obvious right).
Nightwing is the teams version of Batman.
Diana Troy is the Amazonian warrior aka Wonder Woman.
Wally West/Bart Allan is the speedster of the group….etc.
Though the members are their own identity they still do resemble the bigger names enough to at least start the hype going. Another reason could be argued how Marvel is dominating DC in terms of ComicBookMovies and its simple let’s look at the last 10 years from DC.
We have had 1 Superman movie with another on the way.
We’ve had 2 batman movies with one more in a few weeks.
One Green Lantern movie with a sequel rumoured.
Now aside from Watchmen, R.E.D etc. these are the only true DC movies that have been done now let’s look at Marvel.
Three Spiderman movies with another coming up.
Two hulk movies.
Thor with a sequel made official.
Captain America with a sequel made official.
Two Ghost Rider movies.
Two Fantastic Four movies and a reboot planned.
Daredevil.
Two Iron Man movies with a third to start shooting soon.
Three X-men movies with a wolverine origin spinoff and a sequel to start shooting soon.
A X-men first class movie with a sequel planned
Two Punisher movies.
Three Blade movies.
Electra
And of course the Avengers with a sequel planned.
Can you see the point I’m making it’s not that Marvel has released more movies as such but more they haven’t been afraid to gamble on their lesser known characters and given them their own chance at a movie. Now some may have been more successful than others but the truth is they took that risk and have introduced heroes to an audience who may never of heard of the characters before.
Now this is just my opinion and even though I enjoyed watching the films the Punisher, Daredevil and Elecktra they were perhaps the worst movies that came out however it still introduced the characters to the audience and because non comic readers were then aware of them it has opened the doors for a Punisher TV series rumoured to be in the works and also a Daredevil movie reboot rumoured to be in the making now the movies may not have been a huge success but it has made poeple aware of them as heroes, now lets go back to DC in the last few years both a aquaman and a wonder womaan have tried to been made and both have had a pilot filmed but both have flopped and again why, because people outside the comics can't relate to them and also they dont know much about the characters themselves.
The reason I’ve gone through all this is because DC needs to learn what Marvel has done, to not be afraid to take a gamble on a character and not stick with ones that they know will work (pretty much Superman and Batman) and the Titans are the perfect franchise to take that gamble.
Ok so I have expressed why DC should consider the Titans, I have expressed how great the heroes in the team actually are and why they should have their own shared franchise but what would be at the end of the tunnel, when the team does come together who would be the villain, The Avengers has Loki an entire alien army and (spoilers) Thanos and if it were to be a Justice League movie then Brainiac or Darkseid comes to mind but who is their for the Titans
This is easy without a doubt the villain to the Titan movie would be Trigon himself think about it he is a demon whose power can easily match that of a God, (uh that sounds to much like Darkseid doesn’t it) well no it all comes down to the design team and direction in how Trigon is portrayed also Darkseid calls himself a god because that is his belief but in fact he is alien in nature, his powers are alien and his army is alien, Trigon is a magical entity whose both powers and armies again are magical in nature, they could have human cultists spread through the independent movies speaking of releasing their Dark Master etc and with Trigon having connections with Raven a really strong story arc can be spread throughout and have a big build up.
My conclusion is yes starting a franchise with a team of heroes that aren’t that well known would be risky, yes there can be many flaws and it can all turn into a expensive mistake however the exact same thing could have been said to Marvel and that hadn’t stopped them.
With the right casting, the right directors the right team behind it this could be just what DC needs, exploring different superheroes, surprising audiences as underdogs and of course proving that DC has so much more to offer than some people may think.
I would love to hear anyone else’s thought’s on this article, everything I have written are my own thoughts and opinions but ones I think are valid but to hear what you guys think would be very much appreciated.