Category Big Ideas

New Rules for DC Superhero Movies

silverstar 9 Comments

The Justice League movie. The Holy Grail for nerds. And like the Holy Grail, obtaining it has proven to be no easy task. While Marvel and Disney have been successfully kicking out the jams with their MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), releasing one decent superhero movie after another, all culminating in the spectacular blockbuster The Avengers, and then continuing with stellar solo movies afterward going into Phase 2, DC and Warner Brothers have been, shall we say, less successful. The Green Lantern movie bombed. The Jonah Hex movie bombed. The Wonder Woman movie has been stuck in development hell for years and Man of Steel, while not a box office failure, was a very polarizing movie which was utterly dark and joyless and left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths.

Part of the problem with making the JL movie a reality lies in the total lack of synergy between the companies which operate under the Time-Warner umbrella. Warner Brothers puts the “fun” in “corporate dysfunction”, it’s a giant conglomeration of people all with their hands in the cookie jar vying for big cookie with the giant morsels. The MCU is being helmed by Kevin Fiege, but who’s running the show for the DC movies and TV shows? Chris Nolan? Zack Snyder? Bruce Timm? Allen Smithee? Waldo? Who knows?Warner Bros. is a chaotic mess of executives who all want credit and where no one person is willing or able to be “The Man.” That has always been the studio’s fatal flaw, they’re ruled by committee and not an individual.

We all have our own theories as to what DC can do to step their game up: Regardless whether you think that WB/DC should opt to strike while the iron is hot or ignore the competition and take the “slow and steady wins the race” route, I think we can all agree that they need to formulate a strategy and do something, because right now they’re getting their collective asses kicked. Hard. It’s not pretty.

Personally, if it were me, I’d scrap this whole project and start fresh with a whole new beginning. Forget Green Lantern and Man of Steel ever happened and ignore the Nolan trilogy. For this purpose I present my personal plan for how to construct a DCCU (DC Cinematic Universe) and make the Justice League movie happen, or New Rules for DC Superhero Movies.

  1. Reboot Superman again, but get it right this time. For Flip’s sake, let’s skip the origin story this time! By now everyone and their Aunt Gertrude knows where Superman came from, so there’s no need to do an entire movie built around his origin; at the most, retell it briefly in a flashback sequence. I’d have the movie begin some few months after Clark Kent has arrived in Metropolis and started his job at the Daily Planet. He’s already been wandering for some time prior to the start of the film, and has started garnering some media attention with his exploits as Superman. Do NOT make the movie as dark, somber and joyless as Man of Steel was; Superman is supposed to about hope, idealism and sci-fi fun, giving Supes the Batman treatment simply didn’t work. If you want to see an example of a “iconic, all-American good guy superhero trying to make his way through a modern, cynical and paranoid new world” movie done the way it should’ve been done, look no further than Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That movie was what Man of Steel should’ve been. Make Metropolis semi-futuristic and high-tech, and have it run and bank rolled by Lex Luthor, and you’ve got yourself a decent Supey flick and a good starting point for the DCCU.
  2. Reboot Batman again, but this time set in the same universe as the new Superman movie. Tone down the grit, realism and darkness and make it less grounded and more fun. That’s the only way the movie can work in a shared universe. I know the thought of a lighter Batman makes some folks cringe, with nightmarish visions of Batman and Robin dancing the Batusi in their heads, but that’s not what I mean. I’m not talking Bat Credit Card goofiness, but rather tone down the dark and grim aspects of the Batman mythos and focus more directly on why it’s so cool to be Batman: how he’s got boo-billions of dollars to throw around, how he’s a playboy with hot ladies falling at his feet, how he’s got gadgets, gear and gizmos for every occasion, how he gets to lay the smack down on weirdo costumed villains, etc. I’m thinking a slightly edgier Iron Man in black.
  3. Do a Wonder Woman movie at long last, again set in the same universe. Focus on the mythological aspects of WW’s origins crossed with some patriotic idealism, reflecting the character’s status as an ambassador to Earth. Have some tensions begin to rise in “Man’s World”, and Diana takes notice and wants to help, but her mother Hippolyta doesn’t want her interfering. She does of course, and gets mixed up with the US Air Force, introducing Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, et al. It could turn out that someone like Ares or Circe is secretly manipulating events for some diabolical purpose. I’m thinking a mix of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.
  4. Reboot Green Lantern and maybe make a Flash movie, again set in the same shared universe as the other movies. The reason I say “maybe” to a Flash movie is because he’s already got a TV show coming up for the CW, so WB may not want to have too many solo movies preceding Justice League. At the most, some of the movie’s events could be reflected and/or alluded to in the Flash series. Also, I’d probably make the GL of this film John Stewart rather than Hal Jordan, so there’d be a non-Caucasian face on the team.
  5. Throughout all of this, the linkman connecting all of these movies could be J’onn J’onzz, aka the Martian Manhunter. MM first turns up in the Superman movie as a detective named ‘John Jones’ who has been investigating Superman since he showed up in Kansas. ‘John’ meets Clark and befriends him, but doesn’t reveal to him that he’s a Martian…yet. ‘John’ also turns up in the Batman movie, and at the end of that film, he shapeshifts into his green alien form. Dun-dun-dunn!
  6. Make a World’s Finest team-up movie starring Superman and Batman, or a Trinity movie featuring Supes, Bats and Wondy meeting one another and joining forces to tackle some big threat, like say, the White Martians, which could lead to the Big Three meeting ‘John Jones’ together and he’d finally reveal to them all his true identity of J’onn J’onzz and inform them that something big and bad is coming. This would lead to…
  7. The long-awaited Justice League movie, which would bring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash, organized by J’onn (why no Green Arrow? I think 7 main heroes–yes, I said 7, more on that later–is enough, and the team doesn’t need 2 rich guys with toys right now. Plus, moviegoers hot off the MCU films not familiar with the DC Comics would just see Ollie Queen as a Hawkeye ripoff, so we can save him for a sequel) to combat said big bad. Speaking of, I can’t over-stress this: DO NOT, under any circumstances, make the villain of the movie Darkseid! Using Darkseid in the first JL movie is a great idea, if you don’t plan on making any sequels. If the plan is to stretch this franchise out to say, 3 movies, you can’t begin with the biggest bad guy in the DC Universe. Save Darkseid for movie 3, and make the villain of the first movie someone like Luthor or Brainiac or Gorilla Grodd or Starro the Conqueror. Personally I’d go with Starro, so we could introduce Aquaman in the movie (Starro starts out making trouble in Atlantis, where Aquaman fights him and maybe gets possessed and controlled by him for a time in the film, where he and his army takes on the League until they free him and he joins the other heroes to defeat Starro), possibly leading to an Aquaman solo movie afterwards, along with solo sequels for the other heroes.
There. I’m not saying my way is perfect, but I think it’s pretty good for something I just whipped together today. And I’m just a snarky, wise-ass blogger. I challenge Warner Brothers and DC to come up with a better strategy.

A Superman Video Game That Wouldn’t Suck

goldstar 6 Comments

A few days ago, a member of the Toonzone Forums created a thread asking the question “Should Rocksteady make a Superman video game?”

“How about it, Rocksteady? Where’s my game? There are, like, 20 Batman games and only, like, 3 Superman games! What’s the deal? Do you have to wear a long pointy eared cowl and drive a cool car to star in a Rocksteady game?”

Without a doubt, the most common statement that I’ve heard from people saying why a Superman video game wouldn’t work is this one:
“The problem with Superman is that he’s almost invincible and all of the foes he would have to fight would need to be at boss-level since regular henchmen would be nearly useless against the man of steel.”
or
“Superman is boring and lame because he has a ton of super powers and he can beat anybody, but Batman is awesome because he has no powers and he can beat everybody!”
Sense no make. Sense no make.
Seriously? Superman boring and lame because he has powers? Son Goku (from Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z) is very similar to Superman in terms of powers and abilities, and yet I never hear anyone saying that Goku is too powerful to star in a video game. Heck, there are literally dozens of DBZ games out there currently. Samus Aran from Metroid has powers, but no one says that those games suffer because of that. Having super powers is part of what makes Superman cool. Come on! Supes can friggin’ fly! Flying is cool! That alone is reason why Rocksteady should make a Superman video game. Thus begins my proposal. I believe that a Superman video can work, and that Big Blue is capable of doing more than just flying through floating golden rings and beating up a tornado.
These “issues” with Superman are minor and could easily be dealt with with a certain degree of thought and creativity. For example, Superman can be hurt by someone in his strength class and is vulnerable to magic. The issue of Superman’s powers can easily be rectified in any one of the following ways:
1. Have Superman start out with only a limited amount of strength and powers, so that he would gain more abilities and become stronger as the game progresses.
2. Emphasize Superman’s other abilities besides fighting. Give Superman a series of missions, such as stopping a speeding locomotive from falling off of a damaged bridge or finding several bombs hidden in various parts of Metropolis or saving several citizens from an erupting volcano. Also, the missions could be timed so that Supes only has a limited amount of time to succeed in the missions or else he loses a life or something. Every level of the game doesn’t have to have Supes going a few rounds with a villain.
3. Have the game focus on a younger Superman who is relatively new to the super hero scene and as such, Clark’s powers wouldn’t be fully developed yet. Again, Supes’ strength could increase and he could gain more super powers as he progresses through the game.
4. Have Superman’s more devastating powers, such as heat vision and ice breath, reserved as special moves which can be used, but using them would lower his life bar, so the player won’t be able to just use them all of the time, and should mostly save them for extreme situations.
5. Give Superman a Super Meter, which would gradually build up whenever Supes punches or kicks an opponent. Once the Super Meter if full, Supes would be able to unleash a devastating super power, but the Super Meter would empty as he’s doing it. Also, Supes would have to start each new level with an empty Super Meter.

I’d play a game like that. How about you?

Bringing Action Back, Part 3: Some Possible Solutions

silverstar 3 Comments

As you can guess by the title, this is a follow-up to “Bringing Action Back”.

By now we all know the situation: action cartoons are in a bad way right now. The recent 2-month hiatus of Beware the Batman (which has already been covered by Jason in “Beware the Backlash”) is just the latest blow to action toons. We’ve already been over why action cartoons are having such a tough time presently, but the question remains: what can be done to restore action cartoons to their former glory, aside from securing them a toy line? Here are some possible solutions:

1. Simplify the designs. One of the chief reasons that action cartoons take such a hard hit when they fail is because they’re more expensive to produce than comedy cartoons. Yeah, it’s great how so many action cartoons are drawn and animated in such amazing detail, from the more complex character designs to the intricate cityscapes, but let’s face it, that jazz costs a lot of money. One way to help make action cartoons gain profits is to make them cheaper to produce, and one way that can be done by avoiding realistic character designs. The less detailed and more cartoony the designs, the cheaper and easier the show is to animate. Every action cartoon doesn’t have to look like Princess Mononoke. No, I’m not suggesting that action cartoons should be reduced to fighting stick figures, but the less detailed the characters and designs are, the less expensive they are to produce. Shows such as Samurai Jack have proven that you can make a decent action toon with sparse, stylized designs and without having to draw and animate every wrinkle and pore on the faces and every drop of dew on every blade of grass.

“We’re just gonna paint a happy sun, and some happy grass, and some happy robot ninjas beating up a giant mutant scorpion…”

2. The networks that run action cartoons should promote and support them. On one of the message boards that I’m on, a fellow poster implied that actions should expand its’ viewer base towards a broader audience (in other words, adults) to keep the shows going. We’ve already gone over why most networks aren’t going to start gearing their action toons towards adults in parts 1 and 2, so no need to repeat that. Action cartoons don’t necessarily need to be marketed towards adults in order to secure them loyal viewers, all that really needs to happen is for their network to support them. Let’s use the recent Beware the Batman debacle as an example: it got next to zero promotion by Cartoon Network, and the few ads it did air began airing about a week before the show’s debut with no follow-up advertising afterward and were only shown during the hour when DC Nation was on. Really, when was the last time you saw an ad for a DC Nation show outside of the DC Nation block? Teen Titans GO! doesn’t count, because it gets to air its’ premiere episodes on a different night than the block and it gets encores throughout the week. Any good advertiser knows that you have to make the public want your product; how are kids going to want to see a show when the network it runs on barely talks about it? 

Why doesn’t CN promote the DC Nation shows? Run ads for them, give them at least 1 encore, ensure that they get to premiere alongside other premiere shows, since kids are more prone to stick around to watch a show when there are other new episodes airing before and after them to check out. If CN promoted their DC action toons half as much as the promotional blitzes they gave TTGO!, Uncle Grandpa and Steven Universe, then maybe the DC Nation shows wouldn’t be in the pickle they’re in right now. Say what you will about Disney, but they at least promote their shows, even the action cartoons, and given them plenty of encores. 
“Hey, Warner Bros. We own Marvel, and our superhero movies make money and don’t suck. So take a wild guess what YOU can suck! Ha-Ha!”
Don’t get cocky; you’re latest Marvel action cartoon offerings haven’t been that great, and last I heard, you were moving Marvel Universe to 8 AM on Sunday mornings, not a good sign. Moving on…
3. Make action cartoons more accessible to a mass audience, not just hardcore action fans.  Another reason action toons are having such a tough time right now is because many of them follow extensive and ongoing story arcs, which not only forces a newbie just coming in to them to play catch-up in order to keep from getting lost in the overall plot with but also shortens their lifespan in reruns, since only the most devoted fans are willing to revisit an arc once it’s over. Perhaps making more stand-alone stories is the way to go, since that way the episodes can be rerun in any given order without viewers feeling lost. I think that action cartoons should try to have more self contained stories rather than having so many season long story arcs, as self contained stories have greater replay value because the episodes don’t have to be shown in any particular order and ongoing sagas tend to not do well in reruns. Networks aren’t going to run these shows in a straight, linear, coherent order after their initial airings anyway. Back in the ancient 1980’s, plenty of the action cartoons from that era such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe and even the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did mostly stand-alone episodes, save for the occasional 2 or 3-parter. There’s no reason today’s action toons can’t do the same.
4. Schedule them at a time when people will actually be around to see them. Going back to Beware the Batman for a moment (geez, people are talking more about BtB now then when it was on the air), one reason that show failed to find an audience was because there weren’t any other premiere shows running alongside of it; Ben 10: Omniverse was already in reruns by the time BtB debuted, and the Teen Titans GO! episodes which air on DC Nation are just encores of the eps which premiere on Monday nights. It doesn’t take a genius to see that a single new first-run show isn’t going to get as many viewers when it’s sandwiched between 2 reruns, especially when the network running said show does next to squat to remind its’ viewer that the bloody show is even on. One reason the Hub’s Puppy/Pony/Pet combo works so well is because those shows usually air their premiere episodes at more or less the same time; a kid is more wont to stick around where there’s a good hour or 2 of premiere goodness in store for them. Which brings me to a point raised by Jason during a recent conversation, which I’ll quote here:

Why don’t cable/satellite channels run action cartoons on weekday afternoons anymore? Toonami in it’s hey day did well in the ratings on weekday afternoons for years. Miguzi (which was like a scaled down Toonami geared toward a slightly younger audience) wasn’t as successful as Toonami was, but the block at least did well enough to stay on for a couple of years. That formula worked once, why can’t it work again?

Yeah, how about it, CN? Really what else are you doing during that time? More encores? That joke of a block you laughingly call Cartoon Planet? Why not try running action toons on weekday afternoons to early evenings again? It couldn’t hurt to try.

5. Give the viewers some original ideas, characters and concepts. Yes, I understand that action cartoons are a risky and costly investment, and as such most networks prefer to play it safe with known properties, but that may be part of the problem. People might be getting sick of nonstop reboots of Batman, Spider-Man, the Transformers and the Avengers. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give them heroes, villains, premises and settings which they haven’t already seen 100 times already. I know you’d risk losing money on a new action idea if it tanks, but you’re losing money on the established properties right now, so what more harm could experimentation do?
-As always, we’re not saying that these ideas are guaranteed to work, but they’re at least ideas. They’re better than just continuing to let action toons languish, I think. It wouldn’t kill The Powers That Be to give 1 or 2 of these suggestions a try at least. After all, you can’t hope to succeed if you don’t dare to fail.

Fixing Hub Nights

silverstar 5 Comments

As regular readers of this blog know by now, I’m not a huge fan of The Hub’s nighttime schedule, and would really like to see it revised. I’m not saying get rid of the 1980’s family sitcoms, especially since they seem to be working, I just don’t feel that The Hub should rely solely on 80’s family sitcoms for their PM lineup. I get that The Hub is a family network and all that good stuff, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but even to be family-friendly, Hub’s PM lineup is sorely lacking. Come on, people in the 80’s didn’t just watch domestic sitcoms and nothing else. Family-friendly doesn’t mean that The Hub can or should only run one genre of programming and no others, variety is the spice of life, and I as well as others would like to see something else on there at night.

Here’s my suggestion: keep the canceled family sitcoms (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy,The Facts of Life, ALF, Who’s the Boss?, Step by Step, et al) running on The Hub (so don’t worry, retro fans, I’m not suggesting that the domcoms leave the channel; their fans can have them), but place them on a block, call it The 80’s Rock or Family Time or Kickin’ It Old School or Hangin’ with the Family or something similar. Said block would run weeknights from 7 PM to 10 PM. From 10 PM to 6 AM, The Hub could run a late-night adults’ block (I don’t have a name for it yet; let’s call it Hub Nights for now), similar to Adult Swim but less stoner-y and more politically correct, consisting of both reruns of other genres besides domestic comedies as well as some original programs, both made exclusively for the channel and acquired. Some examples of what to expect on this block:

  • Retro Action Shows: Sliders, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Lois & Clark, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, Riptide, Knight Rider, Baywatch, Baywatch Nights, The Powers of Matthew Star, RoboCop: The Series, Mutant X, Farscape, etc.
  • Retro Comedy/Sketch/Variety: Carol Burnett and Friends, The Best of Saturday Night Live, SCTV, Carson’s Comedy Classics, Fernwood/America 2-Night, The Red Green Show, The Muppet Show/MuppeTelevision/Muppets Tonight, etc.
  • Retro Camp Teencoms: The Monkees, Saved by the Bell, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Weird Science, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, etc.
  • Riff Shows: Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mad Movies with the LA Connection, On the Television, Cheap Seats, etc.
  • Hidden Camera Prank Shows: Candid Camera, TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes, etc.
  • Crimefighter/Superhero/Spy Spoofs: Batman (the 60’s Adam West version), Get Smart!, Police Squad!, The Tick, Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, etc.
  • Campy Retro Cartoons and Kids’ Shows: 1980’s Transformers, G.I. Joe, Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Laverne & Shirley in the Army, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, The Kids from C.A.P.E.R., Going Bananas!, Krofft shows such as H..R. Pufenstuf, The Bugaloos, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost, Far Out Space Nuts, Filmation shows such as The Ghost Busters, The Groovie Ghoulies, The New Adventures of Gilligan, Star Trek Animated, etc.
Toss in some original productions and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent late night block. None of these shows are too dark, edgy or provocative, so I could see them running on The Hub (licenses and ownership rights permitting, of course) without tarnishing their family-friendly image, especially since this block would air after 10 PM, and the family sitcoms are still around and air early enough for their fans to enjoy them without interference. I’d watch a block like this, how about you?

Justice League, The Movie, The Dream Casting

goldstar 1 Comment

One reason why I’m pumped for the premiere of the new Superman movie Man of Steel on June 14th, aside from the fact that I’m a major Superman fan, is that if Man of Steel does well at the box office, then it will kick open the door for the long awaited and long speculated Justice League movie, which has been talked about as early as 2000 and it’s production has been pushed back until (???).

Justice_League_Logo_(Earth-2992)

Many fans have different ideas about what the JL film should be like, who should be in it, what the plot will be, who the movie’s big-bad will be etc., and here at Twinsanity, it’s no exception. Since it’s going to be a little while before the JL movie comes out, I thought that I would share some of my choices for the casting of the JL movie. But first, a disclaimer:

The following is nothing more than my own choices and speculations. None of this is canon, nor is it a given that any of my choices will end up in the film. As far as I know, there isn’t even a written script for the movie as of this writing.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the dream casting. To get the ball rolling, as it were, Let’s start with the lineup. As far as the team roster goes, I’m guessing that the JL movie will deal with the League first being formed, so then there will be about 6 or 7 main characters initially. There can’t and shouldn’t be a Justice League Army in the 1st movie. The Avengers‘ producers had a hard enough time trying to juggle screen time between 6 central characters (8 if one counts Loki and Nick Fury). Keep in mind that there’s only 90 minutes to 2 hours and you still need to have a story, an establishment of the main characters, a reason why they’re brought together and some sort of of conflict/crisis for them to resolve. To have to deal with all of those actors and egos and try to keep everyone’s parts equal would be a writing and directing nightmare, so the main group should be kept relatively small. I think that it’s a given that The Trinity will be featured in the film. No one wants to see a JL movie without Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. No one. If people who’ve been waiting for over a decade to see a big budget movie about the Justice League and when it finally happened, what we got was this:

Fans would justifiably be ticked. If I have to wait 13 years for a Justice League movie, it had better not end up being about a bunch of “jobbers”. So yeah, you need Supes, Bats and Wondy. So that’s 3 slots taken right there.
It’s also likely that the movie will feature The Flash and a Green Lantern, who’ll most likely be Hal Jordan (but probably not one who’s played by Ryan Reynolds, who said that he’s not interested in reprising the role). The only reason to cast John Stewart over Hal Jordan would be for racial balance, but there other solutions to that, which I’ll address in a little bit. So anyway, that’s 2 more slots taken. Who else should be cast as part of the team?
Aquaman: I’m actually kind of iffy on this character’s inclusion, but the reason isn’t because I think that Aquaman is lame. Aquaman is NOT lame. The character was only shown as being impotent due to his being massively toned down on Hanna-Barbera’s Super Friends TV show, and that was over 30 years ago. It’s time to let that joke die once and for all. Aquaman is King of the Sea, and the Earth is 71% water, which would mean that Aquaman is King of 71% of the planet. Arthur is also half wizard, so it would be easy to give his abilities a little boost, such as giving the character some kick-ass hydrokinetic powers. No, the reason why I’d be reluctant to use Aquaman is because he has an entire undersea kingdom to rule over, so it would present a challenge to the movie’s writers to try have the main plot revolve around the ocean in order to accommodate him.
Black Canary: No. I have nothing against Dinah Drake, but in the wake of The Avengers, using her probably wouldn’t be a good idea, since people unfamiliar with the DC comics would likely just consider her to be a ripoff of Black Widow. If BC appears at all, it should be in one of the sequels.
Green Arrow: Again, no. I mean no offense to any fans of Ollie Queen, but here it is: I’ve never been down with the idea of Green Arrow and Batman being on the same team. The Justice League doesn’t need 2 rich guys with high tech toys in place of super powers. And again, fans unfamiliar with the comics would just see GA as a Hawkeye ripoff, so it’s probably best if GA sits this one out.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman: No. I have nothing against these characters, but since the movie isn’t going to be a continuation of the WBA cartoon, we’re not going to see Shayera romancing John Stewart, and I don’t want to see Hawkwoman in the movie without her husband Hawkman, so it’s best to just avoid using both characters, as this would just be excess baggage.
We still need an ethnic, as we don’t want the JL roster to be nothing but Caucasians. As I said earlier the GL featured will most likely be Hal Jordan, so no John Stewart, but there are other choices for non-white Justice League members:
  • Use Cyborg. In the most recent reboot of the DC universe, Victor Stone is one of the founding members of the League, so why not go with him?
  • Use Martian Manhunter. Yeah, I know that J’onn J’onzz is a Martian, and that in the DC universe, Martians are green, but they’re also shapeshifters, so then J’onn could just spend much of the movie in his morphed human alias John Jones. I envision Martian Manhunter as being a CGI creation while in his Martian form while being played by an actor while in human form. Make J’onn’s human form that of a black man and that’ll solve this problem.
  • Years ago, someone on the internet suggested that singer/actress Jennifer Hudson could play Wonder Woman. Now, I’d be perfectly OK with an African American Diana Prince. I know that some hardcore comic fans would have a nerd rage over such a decision, but I’ve read that an African American actor is being considered for the role of the Human Torch in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, so why not have a black Wonder Woman? Let’s briefly review Wondy’s origin, shall we: Diana is an Amazon from the far off island of Themescara. She was sculpted out of clay by her mother Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, and was magically brought to life by the Greek goddess Hera. Nowhere in that bio does it specify that Wondy has to be white, so if someone wants to cast a black actress as Wonder Woman, it’s perfectly OK with me.

No sidekicks: Sorry, fans, but if the JL movie is going to be about the formation of the League, teen sidekicks would just be in the way. No sidekicks should show up until at least the 2nd or 3rd movie in the franchise.

Here’s my ideal scheduling of the DC films leading up to Justice League:

  • Man of Steel
  • Wonder Woman
  • Man of Steel sequel
  • The Flash
  • Superman/Batman Team-Up
  • Justice League
Only thing is this would likely push the release of Justice League back to 2016 or 2017, but if the preceding movies were good, it would be worth the wait.
Finally, there’s the question of who the movie’s villain should be. Initially, I was going to suggest Darksied, but he’s kind of a big deal. You may not want to launch the JL film with the League going up against Darkseid. It might be better to lead up to him over 2 or 3 films. Instead, the 1st JL movie could have the League squaring off against someone like Starro the Conqueror of Dr. Destiny. Perhaps the villain should be Lex Luthor or the Joker, or perhaps the 2 of them forming a temporary alliance. Or possibly a team-up of Lex and Brainiac or something similar. Or perhaps an invasion of the White Martians. I know that I’ve mostly been suggesting Superman villains here, but that’s mainly because aside from the Joker or Ra’s Al Ghoul, most of the Batman villains are freaks and weirdos with a gimmick who’d get their butts handed to them by the Justice League. The movie would go much better if evil at least stood a chance.
OK, that’s enough geek rambling from me.