Yes, I am aware of the nonsense that they decided to put Superman through in the comic books. They do love trying to be edgy, don’t they? – And it will work just as well as it has in the past; which is to say, not at all. It won’t sell ’em more comic books and it won’t even stop the steady erosion of market share. But cheer up: the character will eventually enter the public domain. Or somebody with the copyright will decide that they’d like to increase their sales for a change. Either will do.
7 thoughts on “The FLASH and BLACK ADAM teaser trailers.”
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… was that the Michael Keaton-era Batmobile under a sheet? Or the animated series one?
Setting aside the shallowness of the approach the current writers are taking, I think that writing a demigod posses a very interest set of writing challenges. Hercules and Gilgamesh form fundamental story archetypes in our cultural heritage. Superman follows in those footstep. You need to really understand what you are trying to do with your story to write them in that any casual challenge is easily swatted aside, but just escalating the power level leads to facing the “super-duper really bad and nasty guy” – a cliche because it is so badly handled so often.
Looking back, one of the reasons I preferred Marvel over DC growing up was that, as a general rule, Marvel had a habit of starting with their heroes as people first, and super powered beings second. This ended up making for more interesting characters and better stories in the long run.
That’s not to dismiss the fundamental strength of the archetypes inside of DC’s pantheon. They are well known and have withstood the test of time and bad writing.
I have a couple of times set down with the challenge of how would I write Superman. It really made me focus on what made for an interesting story, what themes matter the most, and what elements of the cannon intrigue me the most. What does it mean to be human with the power of a demigod? What Nature vs Nurture elements can be discussed in this context? What ethical and emotional challenges could Kal-El or Clark Kent face that are not resolvable with superhuman power? What challenges require such power? What temptations are posed? Can you create an inspirational character that offers moral and philosophical inspiration to the read? For me, another important theme would be the exploration of “the American way” in contrast to being the last heir to a scientifically advanced civilization that experienced apocalyptic catastrophe.
The more I have thought about such questions, the more I think most of the current writers are bad hacks.
At which point did that stop being insightful, and become circular reasoning?
Because it totally ended at the starting place, but was an interesting trip.
The Flash trailer concerns me. He’s the capiest of capes. Pairing him with the iconic cowl, in a dark palette, screams “missing the point”.
(Not that it couldn’t be done. It would be brilliant to see the story playing up the “heroic officer of the law” vs “noir private investigator” contrast. It would be even better with Batman providing classic noir narration. But that’s clearly not what we’re getting.)
Of all the supers, Batman is the one who slips into noir narration the easiest. Is it bad that I now want to live in a universe where Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart played as Flash and Batman?
IIRC, the intent is that the Flash movie will be the Flashpoint storyline. I haven’t read it myself, but Batman played an important role in the comic book version of that story.
Mind you, I don’t like that story myself, though the reason has nothing to do with Batman. The basic thesis of the story is that Eobard Thawn can run to the past whenever he wants, and wreck young Barry Allen’s life to make him utterly miserable growing up (within certain limits – which more or less amounts to he can’t do anything that keeps Barry from being able to become The Flash). But the moment Barry goes back in time to *stop* one of Thawn’s schemes from happening, all Hell breaks loose on the timeline, and somehow the timeline becomes *completely* screwed up in ways that couldn’t possibly have derived from a simple “cause and effect” of Barry’s “fix”.
For example, Barry going back in time to stop Eobard somehow results in the Amazons invading the US.
Basically, Eobard’s power has the safeties on, which means that he can’t actually change anything… ever. Nothing he does in the past can affect the future, because the future he lived in was the one where he did all that stuff. Any time he thinks he’s actually made a change, he’s lying to himself. He’s an incredibly petty man doing horrible things, but he can’t actually succeed at any of his real goals.
Barry’s power is the tool with sharp edges that *can* change the future, which means that when *he* mucks around back there, all sorts of stuff happens.