1. There's no need for DC to "keep-up" or push movies out there. Like any good (or great) movie there should be a good script. It's all about the script.

Look at what happened with Superman, thanks to the last film we now have a deadbeat dad for a hero with a super-powered bastard child. What's next? The child, full of resentment toward the Messiah-like Kryptonian goes on a rampage and Kal-El has to reign him in. Sigh.

It would be great to see all of these great DC characters come to life on the big screen but let's not fatigue or confuse the average moviegoer. At least Christopher Nolan knows what he's doin'.

Posted at 12:22PM on May 6th 2008 by DAVID F

2. A couple of things.

First, please don't blame DC Comics, they don't have a movie division. Blame Warner Brothers. As anyone working at DC can tell you and will tell you if you ask them "we have nothing to do with the movies." After all, WB owns them, hence the licenses. And why, oh why, would WB bother asking the people who actually work with these characters on a regular basis for input? After all, WB has all these capable execs who spent many millions trying to get one Superman movie out that did tepid business and kind of sucked. WB clearly knows what they're doing. Oh, wait, that's not a good thing. Yet they keep at it with the same game plan.

Ultimately, Marvel has the advantage of owning their own licenses. As such they can put it up for grabs to whoever actually comes to them with a good project. And now, they have their own studio dedicated solely to making good movies out of their characters. DC has no such luxury. They're at the mercy of a studio which could care less if their next summer blockbuster comes from a DC movie or an old anime show as long as they have one.

Second, it's really completely unfair to throw out those bad DC movies from 10 - 20 years as an example of DC second tier characters not working. A few years ago I could have throw out the direct to video Captain America movie and the Dolph Lundren Punisher and say "look, first tier Marvel characters won't work." Because they haven't worked doesn't mean they can't work.

Off the top of my head, Flash and Wonder Woman obviously would work as major movies, and despite your gay jokes, we all know Green Lantern would make a fantastic summer blockbuster, especially with today's special effects. If Marvel is pulling off Ant-Man, DC can certainly pull of Booster Gold, Animal Man, Blue Beetle (I'd go with the current incarnation), The Doom Patrol, Green Arrow & Black Canary (I'll stick for the heterosexual version, it took a long time after westerns to do gay cowboys so let's give the superhero genre sometime), The Spectre, Legion of Superheroes...

There's a huge stable to pick from and develop if WB bothered to try. But seeing as how they're hemorrhaging money with wonderful projects like The Golden Compass, I doubt we'll see much.

Posted at 12:35PM on May 6th 2008 by dopiestghost

3. If someone could create a movie analogous to Grant Morrison's Animal Man run, it could not only be a summer blockbuster, it could legitimately be an award candidate. A comic book hero who realizes he's in a movie ....

Posted at 1:14PM on May 6th 2008 by Sam

4. @ Sam

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. Why do you think I put Animal Man near the top of my list? Even if you ditch the meta stuff in the latter part of his run, the earlier more "conventional" stuff would still make for an awesome movie. Practically every story in that run was gold.

Posted at 2:39PM on May 6th 2008 by dopiestghost

5. I agree on yours points about DC needing to keep up, but I'm not sure such cynicism is needed. Simply put, outside of DC's big 3, all other characters don't have anywhere near the marketability. While these characters are great in the comics, there's just no easy way to adapt these characters for mass appeal.

I'd say Iron Man, while not as popular as X-Men or Spider-Man, still has a fairly easy premise to adapt. Guy in hi-tech suit blows up stuff.

Now let's try some of these statements with DC characters. Guy runs fast. Guy shoots trick arrows. Guy makes things with his magic ring.

Don't get me wrong, while I'm not one to draw party lines, I'd say I'm a "DC Guy". However, with that said, it make stuff like this even more painful. Most of these characters are amazing, however they're taken years to develop. There's no way to get to those characterizations in the first film which, unfortunately, is what usually makes or breaks these franchises.

Also I'm not quite sure how accurate your claim of Blade kick-starting the comic book renaissance is. I would say that honor goes to X-Men. While Blade is a comic book property, New Line hardly marketed it as such.

Your comments about Green Lantern and Green Arrow being gay also seem rather counter-productive. While you did say you didn't remember, perhaps a little research is in order because in reality, they are far from being seen as "Cinema's First Gay Superduo". Both are portrayed as womanizers in the comic books. And since when does making something homosexual make it relevant? Please save those kind of remarks for the Fredric Wertham book club.

If you're asking me I'd say there's money to be made with The Flash and Green Lantern. With the right amount of love and care, I think both could birth amazing film trilogies (which seems to be the rule these days). Outside of that, I think things are more difficult. Aquaman just has too big of a stigma to work through. A Nightwing (Dick Grayson) movie would also be too closely associated with Batman, which DC doesn't want to do.

All in all, I think time will tell. Superman and Batman are such pop-culture icons, their movies seem like givens. There was a time, however, when even turning X-Men or Spider-Man into a film seemed ludicrous, so maybe one day we'll get our successful DC films.

Posted at 12:45PM on May 6th 2008 by Jeremy Lacey

6. I think, given the right directors, writers and performers really good movies could be made out of Green Lantern, Flash and Wonder Woman.
There was a story awhile back that Guillermo Del Toro was working on a Deadman movie, he could make something terrific with that, if it were ever to come about. He'd be great on The Spectre too.
I'm looking forward, cautiously, to the Shazam movie, that could be a hit and I'd love to see someone like Sam Raimi take on a Plastic Man film.

Posted at 1:28PM on May 6th 2008 by Stephen

7. This site is taking a dark turn toward being white straight male. It's okay if you are white straight and male. it's just not very interesting to read the same posts each day. Oh, well, one less place to go.

Posted at 12:52PM on May 6th 2008 by akaison

8. I'd love to see someone adapt Denny O'Neil's run of the QUESTION from back in the late 80s/early 90s.

To direct it I would push Sam Raimi and John Woo into a Cronenberg-ian teleporter to create RaimiWoo.

Posted at 12:58PM on May 6th 2008 by Rich Drees

9. I can't say I'm a comic book geek (my mom never let me get 'em; I've since gotten into selected manga), but I'm rather a fan of the better comic book (and comic book-style) movies. But after Elektra and Catwoman, I can't say I'm surprised by a little hesitation over Wonder Woman. One would think it wouldn't be hard to keep a movie from being as horrible as either one of those, but ... I'm sure those seemed to be a good idea at the time, as astonishing as that might seem. If they make this thing, especially around a female superhero, it would be nice to see a good one for a change. Or even one that isn't embarrassing.

Posted at 1:05PM on May 6th 2008 by ML

10. Blade - ah, R-rated, katana whipping, traci-lords-wet-and-dancing. Now that was a comic-book movie.

"Some motherf^ckers are always trying to ice skate uphill."

Posted at 1:30PM on May 6th 2008 by YouFaceTheTick

11. Aw, c'mon, let up on Plastic Man.

Ant-Man sounded pretty bad until Edgar Wright signed on, right? The same could happen for Plastic Man!

Posted at 1:53PM on May 6th 2008 by AJ Wiley

12. I've been waiting for a movie on The Flash to come out since this whole superhero movie craze started, but my anticipation has yet to be satisfied.

Posted at 3:07PM on May 6th 2008 by Gregory Rubinstein

13. You guys forgot to give credit to some other DC comics movies: V for Vendetta, The Watchmen

They are Alan Moore comics and even though he didn't like what DC has done with his past movies, V for Vendetta was a good film. Better than the Fantastic Failure movies at least. And who is not excited for The Watchmen? That movie is going to rule if you trust Zack Snyder with comic material. The artist Dave Gibbons visited the set and immensely impressed with everything so far.

Give credit where it is due.

Posted at 5:01PM on May 6th 2008 by geoffyd

14. What u want Green Brokeback Mountain now?
As I said on other posts Green Lantern is the one I wanna see and I think it'd be HUGE, hell I'd write it for free if they'd just put my name on the credits.
Green Lantern is the best comic and the first link my father and I had together so I'm kinda partial to it.

Posted at 7:44PM on May 6th 2008 by Aaron

15. I think the KAMANDI story would make a great Sci-Fi movie or even a Sci-FI channel series. The last boyon Earth with all the intelligent animals.

Posted at 8:36AM on May 7th 2008 by Mike S

16. OMAC, One Man Army Corps would also be cool. A lot of the Jack Kirby characters would be good movies

Posted at 8:41AM on May 7th 2008 by Mike S

17. I would love to see marvel by the rights to PITT by fullbleed mag. It would take something the caliber of HULK to stop him..

Posted at 6:35PM on May 7th 2008 by dfoster

18. you guys wanna know what the real problem with DC movies is? The freaking underwear! Every single core character has em, and it may look fine on paper or even animation, but big screen....forget about it. With that being said I am a huge dc fan, not because of the characters, which compared to marvel are second tier at times, but because of the awesome writing. When I was a kid all my friends read Marvel because of the better art work. But DC has the most detailed story lines.

Yes warner bros shot a dead superman film and I am glad. All those films still suck. Shouldn't Earths greatest champion have a hottie Lois Lane. Margo Kidder? Who did she sleep with to get that part.

I could go on and on about that but let me address the future. Warner Bros wants a good Superman film all they gotta do is look under their nose. Smallville was an immediate success. They should continue to build that story for Clark moving into his full mantle and along the way continue to introduce fascinating characters like Cyborg, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Supergirl. these characters prove that live action DC heroes can be achieved through the right direction. Have a huge finale introducing the core Justice League and then give everyone what they want in a giant 3 hour blockbuster two summers later.

Posted at 3:58AM on Jun 25th 2008 by david shearin