#I WANT MORE INTERESTING BATMAN MOVIES WITH NEW CONCEPTS DAMMIT

[super-lupus]

Bring back Christian Bale to play Thomas Wayne Flashpoint Batman I'm not fucking kidding

[fangzeronos]

SDCC 2018 wrap up

Ok now that SDCC is over, I feel like I should do a little wrap up for the weekend. I got to sit and wait for all the trailers and news to come out since I couldn’t afford to go, so this is gonna be strictly from the “Nerd on the Couch” perspective. I’m putting a read more in case anyone wanna skip this.

 Titans: The trailer was alright. Robin’s in a bad place because of Batman so his “Fuck Batman” line is justified. Starfire and Beast Boy could still use some work, but it was only the first trailer, so we’ll have to reserve judgement until the show comes out. I’m looking forward to it anyway.

 Young Justice Outsiders: It’s actually real. I thought for the last two years we’ve all been thinking it’s not coming and that we’ve all been living in a dream about wanting it back. I was in the middle of the store when I saw the trailer and my heart stopped. Two minutes of Season 2 recap, including Wally’s ‘death’ (HE ISN’T DEAD ALRIGHT!? HE’S JUST IN THE SPEED FORCE AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE DAMMIT!!!) before we get the new footage. The new characters look amazing, Geoforce looks like he’s going to be a good character, hopefully we’ll get Terra since she’s “been missing for two years”. Still waiting to see M’gann, Kaldur, Beast Boy, and the rest of the season 2 cast, but I’m excited for this one more then Titans.

 And since both shows above are going to be on the DC Universe Online service, I can see paying $75 a year for it if we’re going to get more Young Justice. With all the shows coming out on DCUO, like Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, and all of the older shows like Batman The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, the older DC movies and the comics, I can justify paying that much for a yearlong subscription.

 Supergirl: Season 4 looks like it’s going to be interesting. Agent Liberty seems like a decent antagonist, but with the way this show has done in the past, hyping a villain for the first half and then swapping it with a generic bad guy for the second, I don’t have much hope. It looks like they’re toning down the relationship drama from season 2 and 3, which is good. I’m honestly thinking they’re going to screw Lena’s character development and have her go evil Luthor judging by how season 3 ended with her “We can begin phase two” line and having the Harun-El made up that she gave to Alura. A few quick shots of Alex as Director of the DEO sporting a new haircut, nothing too revealing except for the Supergirl spacesuit at the end. I saw it and my mind went to the first Injustice 2 game trailer from 2016 with the armored look. I’m looking forward to the new season, not keen on it being on Sundays before the Charmed reboot but have to get the viewers for a remake somehow.

 Arrow: Oliver Queen in prison. That’s a hell of a concept for the season. We know something’s going to change and he’s going to be out by the fourth or fifth episode, possibly earlier. Decent shots of the other characters, Dinah wearing SCPD riot gear was a nice touch, Laurel-2 denouncing vigilantism makes for an interesting idea considering what the hell she’s done in the last seasons. Diaz is fine, not enjoying having him around again but since he didn’t get killed at the end of the last season, it’s fine. Longbow Hunters might make for interesting fodder, but we can’t be sure until the show starts. I’m sick of Felicity, but that arguments been done to death. We all know it was Roy in the Green Arrow suit in the end of the trailer. If it had been Diggle, we’d have seen his face and since we know Roy’s back, it doesn’t really give us many options to choose from. I’m glad it’s on Mondays now so I can watch it and keep up instead of being behind.

 Legends of Tomorrow: It looks great. This one has become one of my favorites on the network and I’m glad to see they’re getting more episodes. Hopefully this season doesn’t get shafted and end up getting thrown to a different night or time or cut in the middle for a different show. Bringing Constantine back for a regular spot is a good move considering what they’re going to be dealing with thanks to the fallout from killing Mallus. Dragons, demons, all sorts of magical and mythical creatures. “Couldn’t we be heroes just a little longer?” made me laugh and it’s that sort of thing that makes Legends stand out to me. It can be dark and gritty but still lighthearted and fun. It’s what Flash started to be and it’s what Arrow needs to be. I’m glad it’s going to be on Mondays along with Arrow.

 Flash: Coming off of the reveal that Mystery Girl is actually Barry and Iris’ daughter (which I’d had a feeling about anyway since she was so giddy at the wedding in the Crisis crossover), Nora seems to be a fun addition to the cast this year. I’m honestly looking forward to seeing what she messed up, why she came back, and why didn’t she learn from Barry’s mistakes about screwing with the Timeline. Cicada looks to be interesting, and I hope he’s going to be the main villain for the year. I want to know more about how Caitlin was Frost before the Accelerator and Flashpoint happened, or is it a side effect of Flashpoint two years later? Guess we’ll find out in October.

 Aquaman: The trailer looked amazing. This might just be part of what the DCEU needs to get its shit together and stop being so grimdark. Wonder Woman proved DC movies can do fun and lighthearted and still hit some dark themes and notes, and this looks like it’s going to do the same thing. Jason Mamoa looks as badass as he did in Justice League, Amber Heard is beautiful as Mera. Atlantis looked amazing. I’m thoroughly excited and December can’t come quick enough to see this.

 Shazam!: One of my favorite DC heroes, man. Zachary Levi just killed it in this trailer and I was laughing the whole way through. If the movie keeps that same energy up, I’ll be damn happy. March release for this one and I’m ready to go!

 Godzilla: King of the Monsters: It’s frigging Godzilla, fighting his own list of bad guys. Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, all classics that should have been in the first one instead of the MUTO. I’ve always been a Godzilla nerd, so when I saw this trailer I was geeking the fuck out. I’m definitely excited for this one.

 Now, you’re probably wondering, “Hey, where’s Voltron in all of this?” and you’d be right that I haven’t talked about it yet. I have spent three days milling over the reveals from the Voltron panel and been trying the right ways to word things, so I don’t seem like I’m being an asshole and damning myself with what I’m going to say. Now, with that out of the way.

 The season 7 trailer looked good. We’re going back to Earth, so who knows how much time really has passed since the only indication we’ve had was the week that Kuron was in the Galra fighter before Keith and Black found him back in season 3. I’m sad to see that season 8 is going to be the last of VLD, but I can understand why, since they were only approved for so many episodes. Going back to a 13-episode season is the best thing they could have done. Keith piloting Black still kind of irks me, but with Shiro only having one arm, I guess it makes sense. I would much rather have Allura in Black, put Lance back in Blue, and give Red back to Keith, but that’s a whole other post.

 The big thing people took away from the panel was “You’ll meet Shiro’s significant other, Adam.” When I saw that on Twitter, I was…. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed. You’ve had six seasons of moments between Shiro and Allura, the Hand Touch, the way she looked at him when he said “You found me” at the end of the season, how adamant they are about saving each other every time they’re in danger, Shiro’s resolve to get her back in Season 1 after she threw him into the shuttle and got taken by the Galra. And now it’s all thrown out of the airlock?

 No offense to the writers, Josh Keaton who gets mad credit for keeping this close to the chest and not revealing anything, the fans that are a fan of this plot point for the next season, but I’m not a fan. Don’t get me wrong, LGBT representation in animation/kids’ media has come a long way in a few short years. Look at Steven Universe. One of the main characters is a literal fusion of two she-pronoun using space rocks. I just feel like this is shoehorned in like a checkmark on an RPG character creation. “PTSD? Check. Missing limb? Check. Male POC? Check. What else can we check to make people happy? OH! Gay! DOUBLE CHECK!!” is what it feels like to me. To me, this feels like the writers have been shadow stalking Tumblr, AO3, FF.net, everywhere else Voltron is big and made their choice but what the popular ships were in the search results.

 Make Shiro gay, fine. Make him bi, that’d be a better option because then we can ship him with whoever we want and not get comments that say that shipping Shiro with Allura or any other female member of this show is gay erasure. By saying “Shiro’s gay”, you’re shooting all of the other Shiro ships in the face. Shieth shippers are over the moon, Shallura shippers are sitting in a corner, Klance shippers are looking between the two going “WTF”, and the rest of the internet’s like “Why is it a big deal?”

 I feel like I should stop there about this. This is already more then a page in my word doc.

 SDCC 2018 was fun to watch from a distance. CW brought some good trailers, DC killed it with 8 trailers, and Voltron is what it is. Now begins the countdown for SDCC 2019.

[davidmann95]

Chris McKay’s confirmed it on Twitter, so I guess a Nightwing movie really is a thing that’s happening. Presumably he’ll have some kind of role in The Batman, and while I’m damn skeptical the team behind it will stick around, the simple facts that DC’s going for a guy specifically known as “Fun Batman” - I guess they could play him as simply off-brand Batman, but then there’s no reason to go see it, and they must know that - and bringing in this director for it strikes me as the strongest evidence to date that it’s learned from its many, many humiliating mistakes. Of course, while I don’t particularly believe the “Ben Affleck wants out” rumors, it’s also notable that like a week or two after they start DC announces a movie for the guy who in the comics has replaced him a couple times as Batman.

Anyway, here’s how much I’m looking forward to the DC movies.

12. Suicide Squad 2/Gotham City Sirens/Deadshot: Considerably less than the possibility of a bowel movement medically qualifying as “apocalyptic”. Suicide Squad was ass, and there is precisely no reason to think that will change. I cannot imagine a series of events that would cause me to see these movies.

11. Black Adam: If Nightwing is the greatest evidence to date that DC might be changing, Black Adam being greenlit to compensate for the existence of one maybe-fun movie in Captain Marvel is the most compelling that it’s learned absolutely nothing.

10. The Flash: Clearly already a rolling disaster; even if they get a solid director, they’ve already ditched all the work by the Lego Movie people for the creative stylings of whoever penned Gritty Street Fighter King Arthur. More distressingly, if the introduction of Superman to Supergirl really was a fluke and DC isn’t loosening its self-destructive TV character restrictions, I think there’s a chance they may cancel The Flash to ‘make room’ for this - from what I understand Smallville came within inches of being cancelled because of Superman Returns, and A. This is much more clearly the same character (I’ve definitely spoken with people who had no clue Smallville had anything to do with Superman), making it easier to justify scrapping the show as “consolidating the brand” or whatever bullshit, and B. They’ve already built a whole universe to back this guy up, so it’d be easy to replace his show with a spinoff.

9. Captain Marvel: They’ve said this one will be more fun, but Zack Snyder specifically mentioned he considered Jimmy Olsen getting shot in the face fun, so god knows. Especially given the likelihood this’ll be an adaptation of the legitimately awful New 52 take on the character, and we already know they’ll continue pretending his name is Shazam.

8. Cyborg: If they make a whole movie about him, they have to finally do something interesting with him, right? Except that certainly hasn’t applied to his now 6-year tenure as an alleged star in the DCU proper. Just make him fun like he was on Teen Titans you guys, this shouldn’t be so hard.

7. Green Lantern Corps: I don’t actually care about a David Goyer movie with my least-favorite Green Lantern palling around with a Hal Jordan who has generously a 1% chance of being written in the Cooke/King vein rather than as the latter-day Johns asshole. But I am sincerely curious what the aesthetic of the whole thing will be in this version of the DCU; it could very well be visually spectacular.

6. Wonder Woman: I’m sure rooting for it, but nothing I’ve seen in the trailers makes me think it’ll pass “watchable”.

5. The Batman: Affleck’s performance as Batman was almost good enough to make you forget he was clearly playing a completely different character altogether in BvS, and given DC and WB actually give a shit about Batman, this one is likely to have a little more basic quality control. Plus a Robin in some capacity is likely going to be in it, which gets my thumbs-up. But Deathstroke’s the villain, we’re almost certainly getting more of Diet Heath Ledger telling us that he’s not someone who is loved, he is >clap< an idea!, and Geoff Johns, the writer of The Actual Worst Batman Story in Earth One, apparently still co-wrote the script. So let’s call my expectations tempered (here’s how I’d do it, personally).

4. Man of Tomorrow (assuming the rumors about the name were true): All we have is word that it will exist, and a rumor that WB wants to rehabilitate Superman’s image with it. There’s nothing to really go on, and no reason to think this will be a meaningful improvement. And it sucks that it’ll probably come out in 2019; The Batman in 2018 means it’ll completely overshadow what that should be Superman’s big year (Superman’s 80th anniversary/40th anniversary of the first Superman movie/10th anniversary of All-Star Superman ending/Action Comics #1000), while this being in 2019 means it’ll be a sidenote to Batman’s 80th anniversary, especially if Nightwing comes out that year. But right now it exists solely as the concept of “new Superman movie”, and whether it does what I thought could work or not, maybe, just maybe, the 8th time will be the charm.

3. Aquaman: It’s an Aquaman movie! That’s just neat. And Wan and Momoa both seem into it, so even though it still seems to be broody Aquaman, maybe this one could work. If nothing else, I have to imagine Atlantis should be amazing. And it’s an Aquaman movie! That’s a thing that’s going to exist in the real world!

2. Justice League: God dammit. I know it’s bad for me to raise my hopes here, but it hurts so good, y’know? It’s a Justice League movie! They’re making a Justice League movie! And Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and Aquaman and Cyborg and the Flash are gonna get together and save the world in it! Holy jeez! And David Goyer didn’t touch this one, so maybe Chris Terrio on his own will turn out to be able to pull it off. And given how the X-Men movies have thrown down the gauntlet with Quicksilver - and that I’d say Snyder is at least a far more impressive visual stylist than Singer - I do expect a blow-the-doors-down Flash scene in here. There’s still absolutely room for it to go completely to hell, but given the simplified-sounding plot structure and the lighter tone on display, I think there’s an excellent chance this will aim and succeed at the modest goal of making a Justice League movie that kicks a lot of ass, rather than shooting infinitely higher than their abilities at an Avengers multiplied by a Dark Knight like last time, and falling to Earth from that height like a screaming comet. If nothing else, odds are good they’ll finally reprint the Kirby Fourth World omnibi in the lead-up to this.

1. Nightwing: My optimism here is founded in this: there are only two realistic options here, because the idea of doing a straightforwardly dark, gritty Nightwing movie while the main Batman franchise is healthy makes no sense, because in that case why not just do more Batman, or at least Robin or Batgirl, instead of investing in inevitably lesser returns with the off-brand most of the general public won’t recognize? So this’ll likely be a fun movie to sell it as something different, meaning the names currently attached to it are fairly likely to stick, and they’re good at what they do so this will likely succeed as a movie about one of my favorite characters, the unlikely-ish DC hero who was always first on my list of “Wouldn’t it be great if they made a movie about...?” superheroes. Or the rumors about Affleck are true and this is here to lay the groundwork for Dick taking over as Batman in future movies, meaning he’ll probably be Batman again in the comics too, which is definitely good by me. In either case, maybe they’ll finally come up with a better justification for the name than “Superman told him about it in a Kryptonian fairy tale”.