Post by thomasallencummins on Jun 25, 2013 11:03:30 GMT -5
With all the positive buzz surrounding Marvel's The Avengers does it seem like DC/WB is missing the boat without their own blockbuster Justice League feature film?
At first glance you might think that getting your product to market as soon as possible would be the prudent thing to do in order to compete.
Think about it. Whenever you see a McDonalds go up isn't there a Burger King built across the street soon thereafter?
Pretty much from day one Marvel and DC have been like Coke and Pepsi, Ford and Chevrolet, NFC and AFC, Star Wars and Star Trek, Godzilla and Gamera, the old Soviet Space program and NASA, its all about competition and doing whatever it takes to keep the other guy from getting the upper hand.
Well last time I checked Marvel is ahead, WAY ahead and that doesn't serve healthy competition. You may cite Chris Nolan's Batman series as being the #1 superhero franchise in the world and you have good reason to bring that argument to the table however Batman is pretty much all that DC/WB has to work with at the moment. The Superman reboot failed. The recent Green Lantern film was a huge disappointment. And with Nolan/Bale leaving the Batman series there isn't much on the horizon brewing for good old DC except the Man of Steel feature.
Marvel on the other hand has all but cornered the market on superheroes and is poised to do so for the foreseeable future. Whether you agree that all of their recent films were top quality or not you can't debate the fact that Marvel has thrown a very large blanket over geekdom and you can't swing a defeated supervillain around without knocking over a kid with an Iron man t-shirt. (X-Men, Spider man, Iron man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Ghost...er...Rider...ugh, The Punisher-er, Fantastic *cough* Four, er...Daredevil....uh...Elektra...yeah I know its not exactly a flawless lineup.)
The question is: Can DC launch a counter attack that will even the score?
In my opinion the only way DC has a chance is to adopt the Marvel model.
Suppose for instance that DC decided to pull out all the stops and rush a Justice League feature into production as soon as possible, without establishing the less movie friendly characters in the JL lineup or giving their new stable of actors portraying Batman, Superman, Green Lantern a chance to grow into their roles. Never mind that something would have to be done about Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and the Wonder Twins. (Heh. Forget about that last one.)
Its possible to make that all work without much of a running start but the film would be potentially bogged down with setting up origins and establishing the characters that haven't yet had their chance to be realized on the big screen.
If the new face of Batman is a relative unknown actor there might be real problems. Casting and establishing Wonder Woman has been a difficult prospect in the past and until it's done right none of us know what the character will be like after altering her to be movie friendly. Kind of reminds me of the challenge of realizing Captain America but it worked in the end.
I'm not at all sure what or how it will be done but I am sure there are lots of fans that are wondering the same thing that I am and hoping someone will come up with a solution that makes sense enough to justify the wait.
Tom
At first glance you might think that getting your product to market as soon as possible would be the prudent thing to do in order to compete.
Think about it. Whenever you see a McDonalds go up isn't there a Burger King built across the street soon thereafter?
Pretty much from day one Marvel and DC have been like Coke and Pepsi, Ford and Chevrolet, NFC and AFC, Star Wars and Star Trek, Godzilla and Gamera, the old Soviet Space program and NASA, its all about competition and doing whatever it takes to keep the other guy from getting the upper hand.
Well last time I checked Marvel is ahead, WAY ahead and that doesn't serve healthy competition. You may cite Chris Nolan's Batman series as being the #1 superhero franchise in the world and you have good reason to bring that argument to the table however Batman is pretty much all that DC/WB has to work with at the moment. The Superman reboot failed. The recent Green Lantern film was a huge disappointment. And with Nolan/Bale leaving the Batman series there isn't much on the horizon brewing for good old DC except the Man of Steel feature.
Marvel on the other hand has all but cornered the market on superheroes and is poised to do so for the foreseeable future. Whether you agree that all of their recent films were top quality or not you can't debate the fact that Marvel has thrown a very large blanket over geekdom and you can't swing a defeated supervillain around without knocking over a kid with an Iron man t-shirt. (X-Men, Spider man, Iron man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Ghost...er...Rider...ugh, The Punisher-er, Fantastic *cough* Four, er...Daredevil....uh...Elektra...yeah I know its not exactly a flawless lineup.)
The question is: Can DC launch a counter attack that will even the score?
In my opinion the only way DC has a chance is to adopt the Marvel model.
Suppose for instance that DC decided to pull out all the stops and rush a Justice League feature into production as soon as possible, without establishing the less movie friendly characters in the JL lineup or giving their new stable of actors portraying Batman, Superman, Green Lantern a chance to grow into their roles. Never mind that something would have to be done about Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and the Wonder Twins. (Heh. Forget about that last one.)
Its possible to make that all work without much of a running start but the film would be potentially bogged down with setting up origins and establishing the characters that haven't yet had their chance to be realized on the big screen.
If the new face of Batman is a relative unknown actor there might be real problems. Casting and establishing Wonder Woman has been a difficult prospect in the past and until it's done right none of us know what the character will be like after altering her to be movie friendly. Kind of reminds me of the challenge of realizing Captain America but it worked in the end.
I'm not at all sure what or how it will be done but I am sure there are lots of fans that are wondering the same thing that I am and hoping someone will come up with a solution that makes sense enough to justify the wait.
Tom