It’s our DC Midyear Report! Sean and Mark discuss the leadership changes at DC Entertainment, new images and details from Aquaman and Wonder Woman 1984, Matt Reeves looking for a younger Batman instead of Ben Affleck, and Joker having a pair of movies in development!
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I have to completely disagree with Mark on Geoff Johns. I think he’s been terrible for DC, at both the comic book level and at the film division level. He’s a hack writer who has fetishized the all the things that make DC inaccessible to a broader audience. He’s made their product more insular and less inviting. I’m a lifelong DC fan, but my own personal disaffection with DC mapped almost exactly to his rise at the company: The more involved he got with each division (comics, TV, movies), the more my interest waned. It was a perfect correlation. On top of that, I think (from everything that I’ve read) that he threw Zack Snyder under the bus on “Justice League,” and for that I just can’t forgive him.
I’ve never met the man. I’m sure he’s a very nice person. I wish him well. But personally, I think WB would do well to keep him quarantined from any future DC projects.
My two cents.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. I think Zack Snyder (along with Darwyn Cooke and Alex Ross) understands (understood in the case of Cooke) the DC characters better than anyone and have created some of the most interesting interpretations of these characters. All three have a strong visual sense (something which I think is vitally important for visual media like comix and film but which has tended to get the short shrift with writers like Johns in charge). All three emphasize the mythic nature of the characters. And all three (but especially Snyder and Cooke) focus on the moral complexity of the characters.
Regarding the new Batman movie: I think you guys are severely underestimating the level of Batman fatigue out there amongst the general public. By the time this movie is released, it will be the 10th live-action Batman in 30 years and will feature the sixth (!) actor to play the title role during that time (this isn’t even counting the LEGO Batman films). I think the audience has zero desire to see a rehash of what we just saw in the Dark Knight trilogy.
If WB wants a younger Batman, and if Ben Affleck wants out, the obvious solution is to do this film as a Batman Beyond story. Not set in the future, but with an older, tired Batman turning over the mantle to a younger character in a high-tech suit. This will allow Affleck to transition out of the role, and it will showcase a new version of the character (essentially Iron Bat—a combination of Tony Stark and Peter Parker) that audiences haven’t seen before.