Stan Lee has said that he created the Avengers as a counter to the Justice League. 20th Century Fox, and now Disney, spent five years preparing for the “Avengers”, kickstarting it in 2008 with “Iron Man”. In the end credits of the movie, we see an eyepatched Samuel L. Jackson introducing himself as Nick Fury, after Agent Coulson reveals his organization to be SHIELD. This continues in the sequel, when they introduce Black Widow and even reference “Thor” (when Fury and Stark meet up in the Donut Shop, Fury refers to an “incident in Nevada”. The bulk of “Thor” is set in a small town in, you guessed it, Nevada), as well as using “Thor” to introduce Hawkeye (the film could have done without the Agent with a bow. If you look, it’s Jeremy Renner, who would continue to play Hawkeye in “Avengers”), and we even see Fury in the final moments of “Captain America: The First Avenger”. All this was five years spent building up to the largest film event of the year, and Warner Bros. couldn’t help but want to retaliate.
It’s been said that nothing breeds creativity the same way that competition does, and the DC/Marvel feud is a prime example. Marvel spent 4 movies building up to one, and DC doesn’t want to bother. Many fans, myself included, see recent announcements as a sign of what we knew- this is going to be interesting.
I everything up to now seemed like incoherent ramblings, this is where it’ll start to make sense. Months ago, Warner Bros. announced that they will start shooting their Justice League movie next summer, but the question is- will they reboot Batman? On theory says yes.
It was rumored that Warner Bros. would use Justice League to reboot Batman, having Arny Hammer as the Bat. Personally, I doubt this very highly. Arnie Hammer is best known for his work as the titular character in the upcoming film “The Lone Ranger”, but before that he played the titular character in “Billy Graham: The Early Years”. Okay, I can see going from Billy Graham to Lone Ranger, or Lone Ranger to Batman, but not in a million years can I see Billy Graham to Batman. The character himself would laugh at the idea of being portrayed by a man famous for playing the worlds biggest televangelist.
Thursday, Movieline reporter Frank Digiacoma told Screen Rant that when he was at a dinner honoring Hugh Jackman, he asked Christopher Nolan if Batman was going to have a cameo in “Man of Steel”. The following comes from the Screen Rant article.
‘Nolan’s actual response to the inquiry was, “I can’t talk about that. You know that,” but Digiacomo makes subjective note of the director’s facial expression, which he describes as an “enormous Cheshire-Cat grin.” He also noted Nolan’s tone as “cheerily” when he brushed off the question.’
I don’t know about you, but where I come from, that’s how we say “I’m ecstatic just thinking about it, but I’m not allowed to tell you”. This is pretty much our giveaway that “Man of Steel” is DC’s answer to “Iron Man”, and this leaves us with a question- is Nolan going to reboot?
One could pose an argument for either case. Nolan has said that he’s done with the character (that reaction tells me otherwise), and Christian Bale has said that his involvement depends on Nolan’s. This leaves with a couple options.
Possibly, Warner Bros. could find a way to show that Blake doesn’t have what it takes to don the cape and cowl, leading Bruce to refill the role, and put everything on its rightful course. This makes the most sense, as Bale is more iconic than Gordon-Levitt. Or, they could use it as a way for Blake to overcome the pressure that comes with the title of “Batman”. This makes less sense, but it would be a make-or-break career move for Nolan. Or, they could completely reboot it with a different actor altogether. I don’t see Nolan having that reaction for this route, but film is a path of endless possibilities. Comics even more so.
DC doesn’t have a very good history with their movies, and Nolan could be the face they needed to change that. “The Dark Knight” was the first film to beat “Titanic” at the box office, followed steadily by “Avatar” and then “Avengers”. One factor that shows how serious Warner Bros. is about their change of tactics is their upstart show, “Arrow”.
They made a lot of mistakes with “Smallville”, and they know it. They turned 5 minutes of movie into 5 seasons of teenie-bopper bullshit. They’d tie in another hero or villain occasionally, but for the most part it was screwing up needless parts of Superman’s origin story. Sadly, it was the most popular drama on television, right next to “One Tree Hill”. Blegh. For “Arrow”, they learned from more successful show “Supernatural”.
“Supernatual” is a healthy mix of action and drama, and “Arrow” follows in the same vein, while staying closer to the comics than “Smallville”. The other mistake they made with “Smallville” was looking at the early years of a superhero as iconic as Superman, while Arrow looks at a B-lister like Green Arrow. By looking at the action and the drama with equal intensity, they’re able to make a great show out of a mediocre hero. If that and “The Dark Knight” don’t show a more grown up DC, then I don’t know what does.
In the end, DC knows that they needed to grow up, and they did. They made their mistakes, and they learned from them. Where that will lead them, time alone will tell. Personally, I’m excited to see where this will go. You can bet your ass that I’ll be in line to see “Man of Steel” when it hits theaters, just to see if Batman makes an appearance, just like I’ve been watching every episode of “Arrow” just to see how long it takes him to use the alias of “Green Arrow”. Stay classy, geeks.
