Sunday's Cool: DC Under the Gunn
Comics Corner! Let's talk about DC's new James Gunn era.
Today we take a break from talking about faith and a flourishing future for all to talk about a subject pretty much every editor I’ve ever worked for has told me to stop writing about so much: superheroes! That’s the sort of post this is and it’s free so who are you going to complain to? The manager? Babe, I am the manager! Bam! Pow!
The reason for this happy occasion is James Gunn’s big unveiling of the All-New, Mostly-Different, Once More, With Feeling! Era of DC Movies. Can the most chaotic superhero filmmaker in Hollywood bring a little stability to the most chaotic superhero cinematic universe? Decent Chance!
Now, look. I’m a Marvel Comics guy. Even as the movies have lost a lot of steam over the last few years, I’ll always root for the House of Ideas. I’m more interested in the comics than the movies, but I usually end up forking over the cash to go check out the latest MCU thing in the theater. It’s in my blood! But no matter how much I love Marvel, I love drama even more, and Marvel can’t touch DC on behind the scenes drama. Come on! Dwayne Johnson tried to astroturf Black Adam to box office success with cooked numbers! Zaslav locked a completed Batgirl movie in a safe and melted the key! They are actually releasing a Flash movie this year starring an actor who is wanted by the law!
That means that no matter how good Ant-Man: Quantumania ends up being, it just can’t compete with the real life drama of watching James Gunn try to right the ship here.
So what’s that going to look like? Let’s dig in. Apparently this first phase of DC movies will be called “Gods and Monsters,” and here are my thoughts, in the order of Gunn’s announcement.
Creature Commandos
Look. I don’t know if this will be good or not. But you have to respect the gumption it took for Gunn to decide that his first, big, universe-resetting pivot will be a cartoon about a bunch of freaks.
Waller
Next up is Waller, a spin-off from Peacemaker starring Viola Davis. I liked Peacemaker quite a bit and Davis is rock solid casting, but I think Gunn really has really fumbled Amanda Waller as a character so I’m a little nervous about this one. In the comics, she’s a government operative with enough brains, spine and gumption to give Batman a run for his money. In the movies, so far, she’s mostly been an idiot stooge. Would like to see this rectified!
Superman: Legacy
Hey, now we’re talking. To my thinking, the animating question at the heart of every great Superman story is “What if Mister Rogers was a god?” To my thinking, the all-time best summary of Superman ever committed to film came from King Christopher Reeves himself.
Man. If you wanted to explain Superman to someone who’d never heard of the guy, that’s where I’d start. Not the cape. Not Krypton. Not “faster than a speeding bullet.” Just this: “A friend.”
Gunn has pretty strongly hinted that Legacy will be drawing heavily on Grant Morrison’s classic All-Star Superman for this movie, and that’s the right choice. If you’re looking for a great Superman story, this is up there with the best of them, features artist Frank Quitely at the peak of his powers and really gets Superman’s inherent sweetness while paying tribute to the sci-fi kookiness of DC Comics in the 1960s. We’ll see how it goes.
Lanterns
Poor Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds’ turned his first superhero flop into an empire, while he left Green Lantern to rot in the dustbin of history. DC’s been trying to give it another go for a while and now Gunn has actually cracked it by making a Green Lantern TV show inspired by …uh, True Detective? Sure. What is a ring if not just a flat circle? Green Lantern is a pretty significant blindspot in my comic book superhero lore but I know the Lanterns mean a lot to you nerds. In brightest day, in darkest night, let’s hope they all do this one right.
The Authority
The Authority is one of those superhero groups you either have never heard of or are very invested in. Warren Ellis and Brian Hitch created the Authority as a subversive little spitwad at groups like the Justice League. They even put Apollo (their thinly veiled Superman pastiche) and Midnighter (their thinly veiled Batman pastiche) in one of the most devoted and stable romantic relationships in all superhero comics. I’m a bad comic book nerd in that I don’t generally care for Ellis’ writing or Hitch’s art, but The Authority is good and one of the most naturally adaptable properties in the DC canon. It’ll probably be a hit.
Paradise Lost
A Wonder Woman prequel TV show, huh? Wonder Woman Minus Wonder Woman. Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez’s Wonder Woman: Historia seems like the obvious inspiration, and that book is gorgeous, but it doesn’t seem easily adaptable for TV. Hmmm. We’ll see.
The Brave and the Bold
Robin! Holy FINALLY, Batman. Why has it taken so long to get ROBIN into a movie? Are people’s brains broken? He’s a kid who gets to hang out with Batman! That is money on the table, folks. How on earth did Fox manage to drop two (terrible) Dark Phoenix movies in the time it took Warner Bros. to do zero things with Robin?Everyone involved should be gulag’d.
Batman is at his best when he has to play father figure (or, in this case, literal father) so this one is set up for success. One thing I really like about putting Robin in a Batman movie is it will push the creative team to move past the gritty realism vibe. You can’t be all that gritty or realistic when Batman’s got a tween in tights doing somersaults hither and yon across the Gotham rooftops. I liked Matt Reeves’ The Batman but part of the reason this character’s got legs is that there are so many different kinds of stories to tell about him, and the movies have been stuck in the same gear since the Nolan days. By bringing the kid along for the ride, Bruce Wayne will finally be forced to grow up a little.
Booster Gold
Man, I would not be surprised if this show was the whole reason Gunn threw his hat in the ring for the DC job in the first place. Booster is such a James Gunn character. If he didn’t already exist, Gunn would have been forced to create him. Booster’s a glory-seeking showboat from the future secretly crippled by self-doubt. Gunn is absolutely never better than when he’s trying to get audiences to root for unlikeable cads with a soft heart, and that’s pretty much Booster Gold.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic is one of the best I’ve read in ages. Crackerjack storytelling on every page, eye-popping art, the definitive Supergirl story. I’d love for the movie adaptation to be good, but I just don’t see how it could top the book which you should run, not walk, to read right now.
Swamp Thing
Maybe the most promising thing on the menu. Swamp Thing is just such a cool guy. So spooky. So provocative. So moving. An early sign of Alan Moore’s genius. Let’s just hope he gets a fair and equitable cut of this movie’s box office when it— *touches hand to earpiece* I’m sorry, what was that?
Would be happy to hear you nerds’ thoughts on all this stuff so you know what to do. Sound off!
Currently Reading: Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone. My wife told me this was like an elevated thiller, kind of doing for airport paperbacks what Poker Face is doing for mystery-of-the-week detective stories. So far, so good.
Currently Listening: A new mix called “Backseat Cocaine,” filled with songs about men and women with the law on their tale and demons in their guts. Enjoy!
I need to check out the Supergirl run.
I assumed, when I heard about King being involved, that they were adapting Mister Miracle as an HBO Max series.