Time For A New Type Of Comic Book Movie?

Time for a different type of Comic Book Movie

With the ever-growing collection of comic book movies set to be released on the big screen, i believe it's time for the respective studios to offer us a bit more variety concerning the characters and stories that are chosen to make that giant leap. As much as we all love the Supermans, the Batmans, the Avengers and the X-Men of this world, there are a number of characters that are primed and ready for some attention from the studios. Properties such as Luke Cage, Cable and Nightwing would make for great viewing or there is even the possibility of rebooting Constantine or Daredevil. There are quite literally dozens of characters from both DC and Marvel that could be propelled forward with the right people at the helm.

The success of The Avengers, Ironman, Captain America and Thor has afforded Disney/Marvel the opportunity to push through several projects that may never have seen the light of day otherwise. In the next couple of years we will see Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Dr. Strange given the big-budget treatment, but these films will be part of a bigger picture scenario for Marvel and will all be connected in some way to a shared film for the characters involved. This philosophy of shared experiences for their characters has worked well for Marvel for the moment and will continue to earn them vast sums of money for the next phase of production.However, beyond that i can foresee a malaise creeping in to movie-goers. The constant attempts to outdo the previous film could create a staleness in the overall series of fims as it has done with previous franchises. A way to side-step this stumbling point in the road ahead could be to offer an alternative to the galaxy-altering movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2. Something thats maybe not quite as family-friendly and a little more grounded, a stand-alone film featuring a character that might offer a new approach to righting the world he inhabits. As far as Disney/Marvel's stable of characters go, i could see Luke Cage and a Daredevil reboot breaking the cycle of the grandiose spectacles. The characters are essentially tied to certain parts of New York and if done right could present audiences with a tougher, less-lenient hero than they have become accustomed to. The Punisher has been done badly twice now and should be left alone for the time-being.

With Warner/DC, the future of their properties mostly depends on the success of Man of Steel, but regardless of its final box-office total i would steer clear of a Justice League film until they can get a full grasp on the direction they wish to take their most popular characters in. They are currently losing the battle with Disney/Marvel and should consider distinguishing themselves from the competition by breaking out of their self-imposed constraints. They should look towards the slightly smaller heroes of the DCU. A solo Nightwing film (with completely fresh start and no Gordon-Levitt) would be ideal, he offers something akin to the world of Batman but with an added element of surprise as the general audience won't know as much about him, there have been 7 Batman films over the last 24 years and right now i'm not sure the world needs another one. Also they should consider reviving their much-flaunted prison film Supermax with Oliver Quenn. A comic book movie like this has never been done and Warner/DC would prove to the world that they are ballsy enough to fund a bolder and more daring type of project. Along these same lines, I would love to see Warner/DC take a real gamble and maybe give the public something its truly never seen before; a feature film from the villains perspective like Brian Azzarello's brilliant limited series Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. It'll probably never happen, but if done well it could destroy all preconceptions of what a succesful comic book movie could be. Also there has been some movement from Guillermo del Toro regarding Dark Universe. Again this type of film would distinguish Warner/DC from their competition and give the audience an alternative to the bright and shiny heroes that we have on film at present.

Fox, for their part, are sitting on a potential goldmine with the possibility of stand alone X-Men films. As far as I'm aware Fox has the rights to the X-Men universe, which in itself could rival the DCU or the MU. The broad range of characters and stories within this universe means there a number of story arcs that would offer the average cinema-goer scenarios that they would never have even heard of. Whether its an epic, Terminator-styled version of a Cable movie or giving the world a more complex and tortured account of Mystique, their aren't too many limitations on what Fox could do. Understandably, they have concentrated on rebooting hugely well-known characters like Spiderman and The Fantastic Four but hidden within the vaults at Fox their exists the chance to successfully branch out beyond the obvious characters that we've all seen before.

While I'm a huge fan of comic book movies in general, I do think that in the near future audiences will clamour for more of a variety when it comes to these types of films. As much as we all love the blockbusters, the last thing we want is for the market to become saturated to the point of exhaustion. Last year i watched a little known film called Boy Wonder ( if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend it), it was released in 2010, I was way behind the times on this one. After a massive couple of months that gave us The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises, it was a welcome pleasure to sit down and watch a movie that gave me an alternative to the high-octane, action-packed, $200 million budgeted features previously mentioned. Obviously this film isn't exactly a superhero film but it shows that on a very basic level the themes of these blockbusters can translate to different movies regardless of budget. Ultimately, the studios would be creating a different level of comic book movie that could become a sub-genre in the industry and hopefully this would prolong the current golden period the comic book industry is experiencing in Hollywood.

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