Wednesday Comments – Five Ideas For Movies Based On DC Comics Characters

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So, this week The Wall Street Journal announced that Warner Bros has nine DC Comics movies in development, and that’s in addition to Batman vs Superman and Justice League.

They also reported that four movies in development include Shazam, Metal Men, 100 Bullets and Fables, thus it’s safe to assume that those would be four of the nine.

Of course because it’s the internet and comic books, everyone immediately began speculating about which DC properties would be making the leap to the big screen. People point to Guillermo del Toro “dark DCU” project, Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Sandman and Dwayne Johnson hinting that he’ll be playing Lobo as some of the mystery projects.

And it’s also easy to think that Wonder Woman would be one of those films, since she’s the only part of DC’s trinity that hasn’t gotten the big screen treatment. But what fun is that? I’m going to try to offer up some outside of the box ideas

Animal Man – I know that this might not seem like such an odd idea; Animal Man had a pretty successful series that just wrapped up and he’s one of the seminal Vertigo characters. But what’s unique about is the approach; Animal Man would be a kids movie.

Hear me out. First off you get Jim Carrey as Buddy Baker. Secondly, you tell the story of family man (and stunt man) Buddy Baker who gets powers and finally gets to be the star, before realizing that family is what’s really important. It’s a heartwarming flick for the whole family to enjoy, something Marvel hasn’t capitalized on yet, and it’s a DC movie.

It’d be like The Animal, only, you know, good.

Suicide Squad – Since Sony is trying to milk it’s Spider-Man franchise by putting together a Sinister Six movie, DC should follow suit with the Suicide Squad. And the beauty of it is that with all of the villains at their disposal, they can toss a team together and make it work, unlike the Sinister Six, which is entirely Spider-Man foes.

And there’s two ways you can go with the Suicide Squad. One way would be to make it a sort of Ocean’s 11 heist flick, but with bad guys with powers. The other way it so make it an unrestrained action flick. It’s like The Expendables, with super powers.

Imagine this; the movie opens with a team of villains (let’s say Clock King, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Grayven, Gorilla Grodd and Phobia) are on mission as the Suicide Squad. The mission goes south and they all get killed off or maybe all die in an explosion. Boom, the title sequence begins. From that point out, you realize anyone can die, which sets the tone for the movie.

The Question – If there’s one problem with superhero movies, it’s the scale; it leaves little room for anything other than a home run. But hopefully DC will change that and possibly with The Question.

I see The Question as a 1970’s conspiratorial thriller. It’d be like a street level Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Question has to get to the bottom of mystery that goes all the way to the top. And notice how I didn’t say if The Question was Renee or Vic? That’s intentional.

Chronos – Again, breaking the “superhero movie” mold is something that needs to happen sooner rather than later. Chronos is another good candidate for a DC character that could break that mold and still make a compelling film.

Imagine 12 Monkeys, only set in the DC and staring Walker Gabriel. Walker is bounding around the time stream on a mission from the future. He encounters various DC characters at various points in their careers.

He bumps into a novice Batman who thinks he’s a villain. He pops up in Metropolis and maybe inadvertently says something to Lex Luthor about the future, which allows Lex to capitalize on a market and build a fortune. He pops up in Central City and thwarts a robbery by a young Len Snart that puts him on the way to becoming Captain Cold.

It’s a series of these events that culminate in him affecting someone’s origin in a big way. If done right it could have a buzz ending like the Sixth Sense.

Blue Beetle – Is really a two-fer. It’s a teen hero movie and it’s adding some diversity to the DC Cinematic Universe. Marvel has been adding supporting characters who aren’t white males, but Blue Beetle would feature a non-white lead, which would be huge.

And this movie would be like Ironman meets Spider-Man, only it’d have the benefit of introducing Jaime Reyes into a universe that already has heroes. Jaime could still be the hero fanboy who finally gets his wish and has to deal with the repercussions.

Also, ideally, where many superhero movies have multiple foes, Blue Beetle would have a street level antagonist that make Jaime’s life challenging and an actual supervillain who is gunning for Blue Beetle. And I say DC try to get a solid PG rating.

Now these are just some ideas I came up with while literally writing this column. These aren’t ideas that I’ve always wanted to see or dreamed about, just stuff off the top of my head. Hopefully DC has people better than me working on it.

Anyway it’s Wednesday, go out and get some fresh new comics from your local comic shop. Also, check out Amazing Spider-Man 2. I saw it on Monday and it’s a solid movie.