Super Friends Unite!

The new trailer for Man of Steel has been released, and I have to say that for the first time in a long while I am actually excited for a Superman movie. Why would I say that? For starters, I am a Batman and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) fan, and not much of one when it comes to Superman. Don’t get me wrong, I like the character and actively watched Smallville; it’s just that he’s all-powerful until…OH NO…KRYPTONITE!!! If I were Supes, I would round up all the kryptonite in the universe and either destroy it or keep it safely locked away for those times when it might be needed against other beings such as General Zod. Rather than allowing, oh I don’t know, EVERY ENEMY TO POSSESS YOUR ONE WEAKNESS.

I digress…

From the looks of the trailer, this Superman reboot is not your typical camp of previous live-action films (sorry Christopher Reeve). It looks dark and brooding, but with a sense of hope the good that one super-powered alien can bring to humanity. It is also possibly the first in a DC Comics Justice League movie series, a la Marvel’s The Avengers and related films like Iron Man and Captain America. Of course, that’s the rub:  in order to do justice to a Justice League movie, you need a few stand alone origin stories of the mainstay DC characters as well. Hence, Superman – the comic book superhero that pretty much started it all and has made comic book collecting a passion for decades. Even before Superman Returns, the franchise has been in need of a reboot.

Naturally, one cannot have a Justice League without Wonder Woman. The warrior princess from Themyscira is a cornerstone of the triumvirate comprised of Superman, Batman and herself. Fortunately, there is talk of a WW movie. And Batman? Christopher Nolan just finished a Batman trilogy; would there need to be a reboot of the franchise so soon? Whether that series would be a tie-in or not – and the end of The Dark Knight Rises alone would hamper that scheme (oh, sorry...*SPOILER ALERT*) – I feel a stand-alone Batman movie before a Justice League one would be unnecessary. A person could never read a comic book, but they know Batman. Rather than yet another rehashing of his origins, all that would be needed is a cameo by an already operating Batman (aka Bruce Wayne, there can be no other *SPOILER ALERT*) tacked onto the other films hinting at their forthcoming alliance, again a la Marvel. This then could lead into a stand-alone sequel/reboot afterward that ONE CAN ONLY HOPE would delve deeper into the later adventures of “The Caped Crusader.” (Hey look, a movie title that would have been more original than…The Dark Knight Rises.) As for Green Lantern, the movie equally could serve as a catalyst for a reboot of and/or sequel to the titular movie starring Ryan Reynolds, again with really no need to have another stand-alone movie tied-in beforehand.

You may be asking, “What about my favorite character Aquaman?” Short answer:  I hate Aquaman. No matter how hard DC tries to revamp the character and make him cooler, he still is no match for Marvel’s Sub-Mariner. Like Wonder Woman, though, there is talk of an Aquaman movie, as well as (it's about freakin' time!) a Flash (Barry Allen) one. That said I do feel there is room for Green Arrow, another of my favorites, who has seen a boost in popularity thanks to the television series, Arrow. If DC wanted to capitalize on it, they could do for their green-clad archer what Marvel failed to do in the underdeveloped characterization of their purple-clad archer, Hawkeye, in The Avengers. (Probably THE major disappointment of an otherwise awesome movie).

What I do know is that with the movies set to come out in the next few years…I am now hoping the Mayans were wrong. 

©2012 Steve Sagarra