Can DC do it?

Grab your seats, a special class is in session.

So I’ve been thinking some lately about the state of superhero movies and what’s on the horizon. There is some awesome stuff coming down the pike and like many others, I’m very much looking forward to what we will be given. I do, however, have some concerns about what DC is trying to do and whether or not it will work.

Right up front I’ll admit to this: I’m a Marvel guy. I have never been much of a DC guy outside of the character Lobo. Not a lot of people know Lobo, but it’s hands down my favorite DC comic. Unfortunately, without doing a rated-R movie (and a hard R at that), we’ll never see a proper Lobo movie, so I’ll never be satiated that way. That’s ok though. Like others, I am also a fan of Batman and Superman, but nowhere near to the extent a lot of people are. I don’t see Batman as the greatest comic character ever. I do like the character, but you won’t see me frothing at the mouth waiting for the next comic or movie. Maybe the games, but that’s a whole other story. I tell you this to give you an understanding of where I’m coming from because let’s face it: some of you are going to think I’m wrong anyway.

So here we have DC comics trying to make their mark in the realm of feature films. Let’s be totally honest here, they are playing serious catch-up right now. Animated feature wise? DC currently rules the roost. Live feature? Marvel is light years ahead. I think DC realizes this, and understands that there is a huge market in the live action films. The want their share of the market, and who can blame them? Look at the numbers Marvel has made from Guardians of the Galaxy alone. It’s staggering. What company wouldn’t want to get that for themselves? Yes, they have given us several Batman movies, however, none of those are apparently cannon with the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film. Yes, they have given us a good Man of Steel movie (they never actually called him Superman), but they are saying this technically isn’t a sequel, so who knows how much of Man of Steel will be considered in Bats vs Supes. We won’t know for some time. While I doubt that it is, this could technically be a whole new movie. What we know for sure is that they are adding new characters to this one. So far we’ve heard Wonder Woman for sure. Cyborg and Aquaman are very strong rumors (as far as I know at the time of writing this). The movie is even subtitled Dawn of Justice. If you know the comics at all, you know what that means. It means the beginning of the Justice League, the DC equivalent to the Avengers. They have the plans laid out.

So by now you may be asking why I think this is a problem. Here’s why: DC is trying to do it all tomorrow. They aren’t taking the time to properly build a universe the way Marvel has. Marvel dipped its toes with Iron Man and people bit pretty hard. Then they gave us The Incredible Hulk. While that did not get as much love, they knew they had something. Next came Captain America and Thor. Then they added Iron Man 2 just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. This whole time they teased the Avengers. You knew it was coming, they TOLD you it was coming, but you didn’t know when. The anticipation just about caused people to explode. Then the Avengers came out and it crushed. People loved it. Even people who didn’t know comics enjoyed it. Why? Because they didn’t have to do any research on the characters. All of the players in the Avengers were introduced before the movie came out. Even Hawkeye had his brief appearance in Thor. It made it easy to understand anyone to understand who you were seeing because you had seen them all before. Personally, I think DC is taking a huge risk and potentially alienating the “non-comic” crowd by trying to dive right in and bring all the characters together at the same time. Yes, people will know Batman, people will know Superman, and they will know their back stories. People will know Wonder Woman, but how many will really know where she comes from? That same thing goes for Aquaman. How many people do they really think will have the slightest clue who Cyborg is, outside of the comic readers? Hell, I AM a comic reader and I don’t really know who Cyborg is. Yes, you are going to make the better part of you money from the hard-cores and the casual comic readers, but to put yourself over the top you have to also have the non-comic reading movie going fans as well. By not giving that person the proper lead in and the chance to get to know these characters, you’re going to cause confusion and turn people off.

I hope I’m wrong. I would love to see the movie do well and get some competition going. I would love to see studios like Fox and Sony be forced to step up their comic movie game because DC is pushing their way forward. Frankly I’d prefer to see Fox and Sony give up completely and just give Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four back to Marvel who could do it all properly, but realistically I know that won’t happen. However, if DC can get up and running strong, and start pushing really good comic movies out? They may not have much choice but to step up their game or get out of the way. Honestly, if this movie hits as big as people think it will, then everyone will win, one way or the other. I just feel that right now, they are going about it backwards and that it may cost them in the long run.

Until next time….

Class dismissed.