Comic writer J. Michael Straczynski (Superman Earth One & Two, Spider-Man, nearly all other characters) spoke his mind this past weekend at New York Comic Con on the state of DC on film in comparison to Marvel. The writer mixed a metaphor, saying “I think Marvel is really kicking DC’s clock.”
“I’ve talked to the people at Warner Brothers and said “What is wrong with you people?” They think that they have a very narrow bench – Superman, Batman and then nobody else. We’re trying to get them to understand that we have a really good bench of characters if you treat them properly.”
For those of us who are getting defensive, take a breath and think about it. Since X-Men kicked off the superhero blockbuster 13 years ago, how many DC movies have been released in comparison to Marvel? How many people have come to know Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America and the Avengers due to Marvel’s aggressive attack to get these characters on film? Maybe you think there just aren’t that many DC heroes that people want to see on the silver screen, and to that, Straczynski also had a comment:
“I would love to see the Flash. Ever see The Man With The X-Ray Eyes? There’s a scientist in pursuit of knowledge and information and receives this power and uses it to try and see deeper and deeper what’s going on on the physical scale and the metaphysical scale, trying to burrow through to the core of the universe to understand things better. Make it obsessive like that, I think you could make a really good film about the Flash. There’s a fan-made trailer for Wonder Woman online. Have you all seen that? (Embedded below.) Is that not well done? And that’s what the Wonder Woman film should be. If you treated the Wonder Woman film the way we treated the Thor movie with some seriousness and also focus on her family, you’d get a really good film out of that.”
There are plenty of characters to choose from, I just don’t know if Warner Bros. is too worried about expanding the DC world on film. Maybe they are, but have been scared off (Green Lantern). It doesn’t matter because they have THE 2 big daddies, and don’t need anything else. They are having great success with Arrow, Flash is on the way, and a Jim Gordon show has been announced. So we’re getting our fair share of heroes, 24 times a year instead of one.
I don’t disagree with Straczynski…I just don’t care. I’m a DC guy and want more of MY hero on film, and I’m getting him in two summers. Oh, and he’s bringing his friend. The upper hand that DC has on Marvel is that I didn’t even say who these two were, but you already knew who I was talking about. That to me says DC is kicking Marvel’s clock.
Source – Film Buff Online