DC has a history stretching back almost a century, so naturally they've got a whole
heap of stories to tell. From its legendary library of Elseworlds comics to its most celebrated
canonical tales, the choices are almost endless.
These are the standalone DC movies we want to see happen.
Catwoman has worn many hats in the DC universe. She's been a jewel thief, driven by nothing
but her own desire for decadence. She's been Batman's lover, occasionally his fiancee,
and in a few realities, even his wife. She's done...this.
"Cream. Straight up."
Catwoman has also been a member of various villainous team-ups, for as long as her fiercely
independent nature allows, that is. Occasionally, she's even been a hero, usually on her own
terms and using some pretty iffy tactics, but a hero nonetheless.
Her 2001 solo series exemplified this, and could well form the basis of an incredible
cinematic outing. In this story, Selina returns to the slums of Gotham's East End where she
once worked as a sex worker, a mentor to the other women, and eventually a burglar, too.
Upon learning of a serial killer preying upon the unprotected women of the neighborhood,
she decides to hunt down the culprit herself, and in so doing, learns to fight for the downtrodden
the city elite prefer to ignore.
It's a brooding masterpiece of a series, and one that could easily make the jump to the
silver screen as a smoldering neo-noir tale of Gotham's streets. Darwyn Cooke's stylish,
mid-century take on Selina and her world provides a timeless aesthetic that wouldn't just impress,
but look unlike any other superhero story committed to film. All in all, Catwoman would
be more than just an experiment, it could prove to be a dazzling new vision of the superhero genre's capabilities.
From the 2003 animated Teen Titans series to the deliriously delightful Teen Titans
Go!, it seems like audiences can't get enough of Robin and his motley crew of sidekicks.
And although most of these incarnations draw inspiration chiefly from the 1980s New Teen
Titans series, there's enough life in the idea of adolescent adventuring to dig deeper
into the team's past, specifically, to its original lineup. Introduced in 1966, this
team features Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Speedy, and Wonder Girl.
While the original run has a timely charm of its own, Amy Wolfram and Karl Kerschl's
Teen Titans: Year One depicts a modern vision of the team that practically begs to be adapted
to film. Chafing beneath the demands of the adults in their lives, the merry band of junior
heroes strike out on their own. Unsurprisingly,
they're not entirely prepared to confront the villainy they soon encounter.
But the fledgling group doesn't dissolve at this first blush of conflict: They rally,
fight back, and eventually form the team that would go on to make such a mark on the DC
universe. Teen Titans: Year One wouldn't just be a light-hearted cape-and-cowl romp either,
but a genuine ode to the trials of teen years, think a John Hughes flick, only with magical
lassos and the ability to talk to fish. What could possibly go wrong?
Barbara Gordon has been stylish from the very beginning. Take that ruffled motorcycle she
rode in 1966's Batman, for example, or her early pioneering of the library chic look,
and the wide and fabulous array of costumes in her closet. This attention to aesthetics
informed one of the most recent iterations of the girl in the pointy-eared cowl: the
"Batgirl of Burnside," whose cutting-edge adventures were chronicled in her 2015 solo series.
In this ode to life's early 20s, Barbara moves to Burnside, Gotham's hippest neighborhood,
pulls on a new costume, and takes on a panoply of punchy new adversaries. Babs Tarr's neon-lined
vision of a Gotham is one terrorized by influencers gone insane, mob-connected cosplayers, and
rogue viruses born from the bowels of social media. And this would all fit right in alongside
some of the more daring visual approaches filmmakers have taken to Gotham over the years.
Barbara's world throws itself into the fantasy of superheroes, utterly uninterested in toning
down what makes these stories unique. There's no body armor or drab Kevlar in this Batgirl's
neck of the woods, instead, you'll find Doc Martens, bedazzled utility belts and bad guys
who look more like Takashi Murakami sculptures than military operatives. A movie sprung from
this vision wouldn't just delight but outright dazzle, establishing Batgirl as her own hero
with her own challenges, mission, and neighborhood.
Once upon a time, a boy named Clark Kent grew up in rural Kansas. Think you know where this
is going? Well, this Clark Kent wasn't raised in the superpower-rich environs of the DC
universe, he lived in our world, where being named after Superman was a conscious joke
on the part of his parents. Young Clark bore the name ably but inwardly resigned himself
to a life of ribbing and Superman-branded birthday gifts. Then, one day, he started to float.
A metafictional tale of heroism, Superman: Secret Identity examines just what superheroes
mean in our pop culture-laden world. In many ways, a movie adaptation of the stirring story
would serve as a sort of lighthearted rejoinder to Joker, an alternate origin story, in which
Clark not only embraces his literal powers, but also assumes his figurative responsibilities,
knowing what it really means to make Superman real.
Superman: Secret Identity is a joyous invocation of the superhero in everyone, a celebration
of the spirit that led Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to come up with the big blue Boy Scout
in the first place. This is a Superman that wouldn't just take up the screen with his
feats of goodwill, he'd fill the audience's hearts as well.
The first Suicide Squad movie had an undeniable
cultural impact, but its critical reception was a little lacking, to say the least.
"Harley Quinn, nice to meet ya. Love your perfume. What is that, the scent of death?"
And while there was much to loathe about Suicide Squad, it did prove one thing: The idea of
a super-team with muddled morals is a potent one indeed.
Consider, then, a movie centered around another team of DC characters who don't always play
by rigid rules of good and evil: the Outsiders. The Outsiders are a collection of misfits,
oddballs, and heroes who have had more than a few falls from grace, yet they strive to
do good in spite of this, and often succeed, thanks to their unique gifts.
Well-known characters like Nightwing, Starfire, and Arsenal could anchor audiences to stories
they've already experienced, allowing the film to introduce more obscure heroes like
Looker, a bank teller turned do-gooder vampire, or Indigo, a broken android from the far future
who is designed for villainy. The space to take creative liberties is ample, too, some
Outsiders teams have decades of visuals, lineups, and plots to play with, from straightforward
heroics to insidious blackmail schemes. The Outsiders could be interpreted as a strike
team, off-the-books enforcers, a ragtag band of wannabes, or practically anything else.
All would take is the right bunch of filmmakers to make this story really sing.
Wonder Woman's first cinematic solo outing was a roaring success, and there's likely
room for more than one interpretation of her astonishing adventures. After all, Batman
and Superman have had more than their share of screen time according to a vast array of
directors, writers, and actors, so why not Wonder Woman, too?
Wonder Woman: Amazonia, a 1997 Elseworlds story, is particularly ripe for adaptation.
Set in a turn-of-the-century London where Jack the Ripper has murdered his way into
becoming the king, the story finds Diana battling
an entrenched patriarchy on the Victorian stage and the halls of power alike.
Its strong visuals would make a unique splash on the screen: For example, this Wonder Woman
sports a Gibson Girl hairstyle as she protects the crowded streets of Whitechapel. In many
ways, this Wonder Woman story would have more in common with Sweeney Todd than Justice League,
but that would be the movie's greatest strength.
Much as Wonder Woman succeeded in placing its heroine in the maelstrom of World War
I, so too could this film highlight its heroine's unique strength by rooting it in a particularly
dire chapter of English history. It may seem impossible, but when Wonder Woman eventually
triumphs against the forces of violent, systemic bigotry, her victory would be all the sweeter.
For Mister Miracle, juggling an interdimensional war and a newborn son is all part of the job.
Tom King and Mitch Gerads' meditative take on the New Gods character juxtaposed his fantastic
origins against the mundanities of life on earth. But this wasn't simply an exercise
in contrast. King and Gerads used the superheroic whimsy of the DC universe to find feats of
titanic heroism in the everyday, and bring out the ordinary in an interstellar clash of good and evil.
Picture it: Literal gods crowded around a condo's coffee table, cooing over a baby who
doesn't know the meaning of "the anti-life equation." Or legendary villainess Granny
Goodness offering her prodigal children Jell-O on the battlefield. Mitch Gerads' lurid colors
would translate seamlessly to the celluloid fever dream Mister Miracle could become, given the right creative team.
Much like Superman: Secret Identity, a Mister Miracle movie could probe the boundary between
our world and the fictional ones we create, all driven by the high-octane power of Jack
Kirby's legendary Fourth World stories. And, of course, it would be led by a single, all-encompassing
question: can Mister Miracle, the iconic escape artist, really escape his own mortality?
The Question's journey has been a strange one indeed. Originally created for Charlton
Comics in 1967, he joined the DC universe alongside the rest of the Charlton heroes
in the 1980s. Though he is very much a hero, his approach to doing good is often notably
murky. For example, while he doesn't kill, he often considers it, and is usually far
less bound by a fear of crossing the line than some other DC heroes.
In this sense, the Question's mask doesn't just obscure his identity, but his very humanity,
a vibe he very intentionally goes for. There is a real edge to the Question, a line he
dances across frequently in his desire to root out venality and corruption wherever
it hides. Basically: he's a good guy, but not too good. Unexpectedly, Justice League
Unlimited proved that he works as well as part of a group too, especially when paired
in an unlikely romance with the cunning Huntress. All in all, the Question is the voice of society's
conscience that no one wants to hear, the fringe thinker whose constant hole-poking
and theorizing is usually vindicated in the end. He's not your average superhero, that's for sure.
Superman is, of course, the original superhero. His arrival sparked an entire genre, cemented
an art form, and ultimately changed the course of history. His stories number in the thousands,
his fans in the millions. He is an outright icon, one whose appeal has never really dimmed,
despite his constant presence in western pop culture.
"I'm here to fight for truth, justice, and the American way."
But Superman is also a singular character with a unique backstory, set of abilities,
and personality. So what better way to take a fresh approach to the man in the cape than
to go back to the beginning and explore him in one of his earliest roles: as a late 1930s urban crusader?
Many of his earliest comics saw Superman tackling social ills from corruption to domestic violence,
rooting his goodness in everyday life. So why not tell a Superman story in that era?
Imagine Superman as a boy molded by the Depression as it unfolded in rural Kansas, taking on
the underserved populace of the shining city he's moved to. Imagine the power of a portrayal
that strips the character down to its earliest essence, and in so doing, finds him all the
more potent. Superman is an alien, a savior, and a force for good. And sometimes, the best
way to express that is by showing him helping people on the ground, and portraying him as
a guy in a cape who just wants to make the world a fairer place.
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