Comic book anthologies have their roots at the genesis of the format. The pages of Action and Detective Comics have spawned the single character titles that have fueled generations of superhero fans and help defined what a comic book is.
Today the anthology has fallen out of favor for books focused on one character/team/etc. However as we are still fumbling around with how to translate our heroes to the silver and small screens, why not take a lesson from the past? Comic book film anthologies can bridge the gap between $200 million bloatfests, and all of the weird and wild dark corners of the comic book world that would be too expensive to give their own films.
An anthology film is one with multiple stories, usually not connected to each other, or connected via some framing device (like the evil sphere in Heavy Metal). The stories can be short or long, between 10 and 30 minutes. Sometimes the main story will run longer.
Some film anthologies include Twilight Zone: The Movie, New York Stories, or Four Rooms. Creepshow is actually a horror movie anthology based on a fictional comic book. Anthologies have a lot of advantages over full features, advantages that work particularly well for our purposes.
For this discussion, I’m laying out a blueprint for DC to establish their two flagship anthologies as a series of regularly produced films.
Detective Comics and Action Comics would each be produced once a year, released at the beginning and end of summer. Their budgets will be variable, of course, and each segment will be created by a different production team. The total budget and runtime should be comparable to a standard blockbuster film – about 2–2.5 hours and 100-150 million.
Action Comics will focus on lighter, more action orientated material. Flashy superheroes, a lot of heroics, more outlandish, and cosmic. Detective Comics will be just the opposite. Darker, more cerebral, violent, more grounded in reality.
These are just guidelines though, some stories would be hard to place. What are the advantages we gain be going AC/DC? It is all about getting odd properties below a risk threshold so that they can be finally adapted to the big screen. Once they are there, they will have a chance to develop a relationship with a wider audience on their own terms.
Obscure or Hard to Depict Characters
Aquaman. Dr. Strange. Gorilla Grod. She Hulk. Booster Gold. Hell, even Wonder Woman is proving to be tough sell. Comic book characters aren’t anything if they aren’t weird. The problem is its tough to adapt their spirit to the screen, and to figure out if this translation connects with fans and the uninitiated alike. In an anthology, the budget, screen time, and overall risk are diminished greatly. If they are a success, they can be spun off into the larger DCU. If they fail, either there is little interest in the character, the approach was wrong, the story was bad, whatever. What’s awesome about the anthology is the reduced risk allows another team to get a chance to work out the problems if the interest is still there or the mistakes obvious.
Outlandish Stories
I would love to see a Fourth World movie, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen. What I could see happening is a Fourth World serial, told as part of these anthologies. If it doesn’t catch on by the first few episodes, then wrap it up quickly or abandon it all together. If it does catch on, continue the story in installments. If it turns out to be really popular, it might warrant its own feature.
Either way, the more bizarre stories of the DC universe will get their time in the sun with the masses. I don’t think Gotham by Gaslight could sustain a whole film, but it would be a perfect 30 minute story and would certainly put butts in seats. So would other What Ifs? like Red Son of Krypton. Out of continuity and multiverse stories would be on the table like never before, and that is awesome.
Feeder Stories
One of the reasons The Avengers was a success was because the main characters were established in their own films. This is a great idea, but do you really need a full film to do so? The anthologies can set up these characters economically and so that they don’t wear out their welcomes and use up all their tricks by the time you want to really let them loose.
I complained a lot in my last article about the dead weight of the origin story. What if the origin story for a future blockbuster was told in the anthology, acting as an introduction to the character, demonstration of tone, and to get feedback on how the audience reacts so that adjustments can be made before the main production starts down the wrong path.
I’ve Always Wanted to See…
The Killing Joke will never be a feature because it’s too short. Not every epic battle or major story element from your favorite comic will make it on the screen, there is just too much to draw from. Some iconic moments will make it to features, but usually altered or taken out of context.
The anthology format allows you to set up a fight quickly and get to business. They might not make a Secret Six film, but there’s no reason you can’t show their last throw down in Gotham.
Well… That Didn’t Work
Movies are complicated, adaptations even more so. Sometime you need more than one shot at getting it right. Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, and The Hulk from The Avengers is a perfect example. Instead of wasting a blockbuster on a misfire, you waste a segment of a larger film. I would also surmise that a misstep on the anthology level would do significantly less damage to the character’s brand than a flopbuster like Green Lantern did.
And if it’s really bad, just don’t run it. You aren’t committed to a segment as much as you are a full movie. Shelving a blockbuster isn’t possible, shelving a segment is.
Farm System
One of the best reasons to try out the anthology format is that it becomes an amazing farm system for writers, directors, actors, and all the other production associates. Talent that can handle the material are groomed for the features, and big assignments are given to those who have repeatedly proved themselves on the smaller ones.
Short stories are also a great way to attract experienced talent who might not want to commit to a full feature or franchise. Instead of major commitments to a major project, they can instead get their beaks wet and see if the genre is right for them. There is no telling how many actors, directors, and others are concerned about entering into the franchise heavy world of comic book movies for fear of a decade long commitment.
Marketing
Since these stories are short and not necessarily connected to each other, they can be broken up and repackaged in any number of ways. The original anthologies, character collections, combined sterilized stories, etc. are just a number of ways to package these stories.
Cross promoting your characters is also a good way to let those new to the DC universe get a more complete picture of the variety and interconnectedness of the worlds depicted. The anthologies also cast a wider net, meaning you are more likely to attract a moviegoer with at least one of the stories even if they are less interested in the others.
Conclusion
Comic Book and Superhero movies are realizing a new age. This age requires new thinking in order to take advantage of the attention our genre is receiving right now. Relying on blockbusters and multipicture franchises has been the order of the day. However, given the richness of the source materials, there are and number of stories to be told that won’t fit that mold. Anthologies are just one tools we can use to bridge the gap between pulp and screen.