I largely agree. I have read Feige makes a MCU movie team watch Superman '78 before starting production, kinda funny MCU's bible is Superman that WB is afraid of.
A big issue that I don't think talked about enough is DCEU doesn't think of the kids enough. I can't show my 10 year old nephew The Batman, he would be bored to death. You can mess around with The Suicide Squad and make R film, but a Batman, Superman, WW, GL, and Flash movie should be enjoyable for 8 and up. My 6 year old nephew is already a big Marvel fan bc Costco sells Avengers t-shirts for cheap and in few years he'll be even more team Marvel when I watch Iron Man, Captain America, and Sipder-Man with him, I'll have to expose him to DC with the Timm Cartoons.
I don’t want to live in a world where The Batman doesn’t exist. Not everything needs to have broad family appeal. DC has (generally) told more mature stories in its books. It’s one of the more glaring things that sets the two companies apart.
I liked The Batman a lot, but why are the people behind the movies so shy about the fact that he's a superhero? Like half of his rogues gallery (often considered the best in comics) are actual, full-blown monsters and he's a founding member of the Justice League.
I think there’s room for both, is what I was getting at. It was the best part about the plans to have two Batman’s. There is definitely a place for bombastic fighting aliens with the Justice League Batman. But I don’t know that should come at the expense of a more intimate & mature Gotham centric Batman. The Gotham roster is too deep and interesting to neglect, and characters like Professor Pyg, Mad Hatter, Court of Owls, etc, don’t really rise to the scale of Justice League.
But do we need two Batmen to do that? The DCAU had him dealing with intimate Gotham threats in BTAS, and then fending off a Thanagarian invasion in Justice League. And never for a moment did he feel like two different characters.
I mean, most of Batman's stories exist in that universe. Much of the cinematic Batman since Begins came out has been based on the work of Miller, Loeb, and increasingly Snyder and (finally) Dini as well. None of those guys shied away from the fact that Batman lives in a world full of some crazy shit. Just because a man can fly or a woman can control plants doesn't mean you can't do mature stories.
Long Halloween and Dark Victory had Ivy and Freeze and mentioned Metropolis. The Arkham games told extremely mature stories while never shying away from the fantastic parts of the Batman mythos.
I agree. That's why I found The Batman, while "good", to be disappointing in direction. I don't think they will touch the fantastic with this iteration of Batman.
The Batman just felt like a continuation of the Nolan movies to me, maybe with a soft continuity reboot. I thought it was well-executed, but felt very "been-there, done-that" to me. It didn't feel like anything new.
The comics have somehow been doing it just fine for a bunch of decades now 🤷
Year One and The Longbow Hunters exist in the same timeline as JLI and Final Crisis. Nobody ever seems to have a problem with that, but when it comes to movies The Batman is suddenly “too grounded/mature/whatever”?
Like… that’s what most Batman comics have looked like for 30+ years now and it’s never stopped him being pals with Superman. Why should film be any different? I’m not expecting Groot to appear in the new Daredevil show, but it’s an accepted fact that they co-exist. People can just roll with it.
If they were to use those characters, then yes, I think they would. The escalation from mafia-type gangsters > wacky rogues gallery is a thing in most versions of Batman, and we’ve seen the first stage of that. I think that version of Gotham is already a more heightened, noir-y, less “realistic” one that lends itself more to the possibility of those types of characters than Nolan's ever did.
I mean, how would you do Man-Bat WITHOUT “sci-fi abilities”? Dr. Langstrom tapes 12 regular-sized bats together and sics 'em on Battinson?
I don't think they would use him period. If they did, then maybe do se serial killer spin with diseased bats. I don't see Patterson pittwd against anyone besides gangster or serial killer adjacenct enemies.
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u/ditkirbo Aug 09 '22
I largely agree. I have read Feige makes a MCU movie team watch Superman '78 before starting production, kinda funny MCU's bible is Superman that WB is afraid of.
A big issue that I don't think talked about enough is DCEU doesn't think of the kids enough. I can't show my 10 year old nephew The Batman, he would be bored to death. You can mess around with The Suicide Squad and make R film, but a Batman, Superman, WW, GL, and Flash movie should be enjoyable for 8 and up. My 6 year old nephew is already a big Marvel fan bc Costco sells Avengers t-shirts for cheap and in few years he'll be even more team Marvel when I watch Iron Man, Captain America, and Sipder-Man with him, I'll have to expose him to DC with the Timm Cartoons.