Nolan's Bat-verse strikes me as a no super-powered people in it.
Might be sacrilege in a thread about comic book heroes but I prefer it that way.
Nolan's Bat-verse strikes me as a no super-powered people in it.
I heard there used to be a major feud between DC writers and Warner execs who not only wanted to make the movies "their way" but then tried to force DC to write comics "for their movies", although most of the people who were involved are now gone, it's still lingering somewhere.
The problem with many DC characters is that you have to understand that they don't do "dark, edgy, grubby" Characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, etc are bright colourful symbols. If you make a dark, self-doubting, edgy Superman you completely missed the point, he should be an inspiring figure.
When somebody says "Superman is a lame boyscout" they usually mean "He doesn't shoot people in the face with a bazooka and doesn't make a wisecrack about their sexuality afterwards and that that's why Superman is lame."
I think doing a JLA film out of the blue could work if the people making the film don't lose their nerve. Stand firm and tell a good story and sell the characters as they are. Just like they did with Thor. Don't try to change things in an attempt to lure the lowest common denominator because you end up with third-rate material.
I'd love to see Batman in a Gotham hit by an earthquake. He pulls off some amazing stunts to save people, but as a tsunami is coming, he's way over his head. Then cue John Williams and have that blue-red-yellow streak appear in the sky. Superman slows down the tsunami with his ice breath while Green Lantern makes a dam to protect the city ... While Batman is trapped in a collapsing building, have Wonder Woman pull him out. Batman may not be able to hold back a collapsing building, but he knows the city better than anybody else and can coordinate the effort to keep power going and the rescue services reach their destination. Once the crisis is over Batman knows the earthquake is not an accident. Slowly reveal a major threat, show that Batman is smart and skilled enough to outmaneuver any of the heroes with great powers, have him lift Green Lantern's ring, sneak up on Superman, pull a move on WW she didn't expect etc ... Make Superman an honest, courageous man who uses his power to save people, gives hope and inspires people. He could rule our planet like a God, but he decided that we should rule ourselves, he's just there to help and give everybody a chance. Wonder Woman is compassionate, understanding, always looking for a peaceful resolution, but once the gloves do come off she can kick ass on an epic level and will go where not even Batman or Superman want to go ... These heroes have never worked together. Everybody is surprised that Batman is handling Gotham without any superpowers. Guys like Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter can be introduced as things move along.
If you can sell that, JLA will be as big as Avengers.
The point is that Superman, Wonder Woman etc aren't really characters, they are personifications of ideals, they represent values that we should all aspire to. They wield vast powers, to represent how much we can achieve with the right motivation and cause. They represent Truth, Justice, Compassion, Integrity and our ability to fight adversity no matter how bad things get. When Superman saves the day, it's really about the people who put out fires, rescue others, raise money, travel to far out places to help others in trouble.
If you tone them down to grim and dark, you lose everything they stand for.
Dark is merely a fad, it's not the hallmark of a greater sophistication, of better storytelling or any other superlative, it's just a marketing gimmick.
They came up with New 52.
There's more to the characters, particularly in their modern depictions, than meets the eye, but your statements perfectly encapsulate the marketing problem DC faces. People go in with the attitude that all these golden and silver age characters are no different from what tehy were in the 50s.
My biggest problem with DC was the rollout of the new 52.
When they had the weekly series 52, they brought in a lot of c-tier heroes, like Booster Gold and the Question, and made them part of a fun read.
This continued into Booster Gold, and I really liked the subplot with Rip Hunter (huge Rip Hunter fan BTW). things were going well, revealing little tidbits as time went on (lol - bad joke), eventually revealing that Rip is the son of Booster, and his job was to put Booster on track to start the Time Masters.
That was even more fleshed out in the Time Masters: Vanishing Point mini - until around issue 3. Then all that became a Flashpoint prelude.
All the build up for the last 3 years was gone. In fact, if you look at the re-introduction of Rip Hunter in 52 and JSA, more like 6 or 7 years.
And in other titles, there wasn't a lot of thought put forth.
For example: Batman has been operating for 5 years, but has had 4 sidekicks? (5 if you count Stephanie, but she hasn't shown up yet, has she?)
Blackest Night happened in continuity...sort of.
All in all, the whole reboot was extremely poorly thought out and executed. It makes Final Crisis look good, a mighty feat in my opinion.
In my local shop, I know I wasn't the only long term customer that walked away.
My $.02 on this subject.
Might be some anti-trust issues there Plus they'd likely run into an X-Men 3 situation of having so many characters that it's bloated and not worth the celluloid it's printed on.
Solo,The GL movie TRIED touching on Hal's real problems -- and they ARE real -- but it did so in a pretty weak way.
You want to know what Hal Jordan's issues are? Here's what I've figured out in a nutshell. ...
The film scratched the surface with these issues, but it was so disjointed that none of that stuff really sunk in. That's all deep emotional problems, though. And not small ones, either. Also, I thought Ryan Reynolds was PERFECTLY cast in that role. If anyone could play a cocky *******, it's him. What I was surprised to see, though, was that Reynolds actually did a good job of showing the vulnerability lying below the surface -- to the extent that the story and editing allowed him to.
Alas, the execution of the story was weak, tried to take on too much, and as a result failed to really work effectively. I think part of why Marvel's stuff works is because their characters' powers aren't quite so "big" and therefore you can use the powers as PART of the character, which allows their personality to come through more effectively. By contrast, DC characters have BIG powers that outshine the personalities of their characters.
GL has a ring that lets him make real anything he imagines. If you don't strike a PERFECT balance with your story, nobody will notice the psychological issues of the character because tehy'll be too busy watching him create a giant robot to fight off some villain or somesuch.
Actually, that's another thing that I think hampers DC characters. Their powers are so big that they end up NOT translating well on screen. GL makes a huge cartoon fist to squash a guy, for example. Works fine in the comics. Laughable on screen.