Ok, so, a couple of weeks ago I did a list of characters from the Marvel Universe that I most wanted to see introduced on the big screen and it was requested that I do a DC version of the list. That puts me in a bit of a bind because, whilst I do own a copy of Man of Steel, I've never bothered to watch it and I still haven't watched Batman vs. Superman (so sue me) so I'm not all that up on what they've done so far with their cinematic universe. Plus, DC's apparent aversion to movie origin stories (not necessarily a bad thing) does make it a bit harder to make a list like this. But, you asked for it, so who am I to say no. Of course, I have nothing but the finest of no faith at all in Warner Bros. being able to make a good superhero movie, but you've always got to hope right?
WARNING: Opinions after the jump. You have been warned.
10. Hal Jordan
Film?: Errrr..... I wonder. Green Lantern?
Who?: The guy who used to be cool until Ryan Reynolds got hold of him and isn't called Deadpool.
Why?: Because the last Green Lantern movie was *expletive*. I have actually watched that movie, because Hal Jordan's Green Lantern is one of my favourite superheroes and I thought "it can't be as bad as everyone says, can it?" I regret all my life choices. Honestly, they could do John Stewart as the DCEU Green Lantern and it'd be fine, but Hal deserves another chance. Mind you, they'll probably ruin him all over again, so maybe they'd better go with Guy Gardner instead, because he can't sink any lower in anyone's estimations.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 50/50, they'll either go Hal or John. Guy Gardner is too unpopular, Kyle Rayner's origin doesn't work without Hal already being an established Green Lantern and Simon Baz isn't well known enough for anyone to really care.
9. Ares
Film?: Wonder Woman
Who?: The God of War and one of Wonder Woman's greatest foes.
Why?: So, the Wonder Woman film is meant to be taking place around the time of World War 1. Ares is the God of War. Anyone else see the connection here?
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 8/10. They'd be stupid not to. Even if people aren't familiar with many of Wonder Woman's greatest foes outside of maybe Cheetah, people know who Ares is. It makes sense for him to be involved in WW1 in some capacity as well. They could stick in some of the German villains WW fought in her earliest incarnation, but they were Nazi villains more than anything so they wouldn't make much sense in an earlier setting.
8. Ocean Master
Film?: Aquaman
Who?: Arthur Curry's angry half-brother. Also known as the second best Aquaman villain.
Why?: Because it makes more sense than using Black Manta (who is the best Aquaman villain, and one of the best DC villains). If they do an Aquaman movie, no matter what it's going to focus a lot on Atlantis. Ocean Master fits the role of a villain for a movie like that perfectly. He is an Atlantian, he is royalty and he has a vendetta against both the hero and the surface world. It's the same as Ares for the Wonder Woman movie, it would just fit too easily not to do it. His role works for either an origin story or at a later point in Aquaman's life.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: If it doesn't, I'll be very surprised. 10/10
7. Krona
Film?: Either a second Justice League film before Green Lantern is release or the Green Lantern film
Who?: The rogue Guardian of the Universe, who attempted to witness the Dawn Of Creation and let evil into the universe. Powerful enough to make him a threat to not only the Justice League but also the entire Green Lantern corps.
Why?: Ok. If Krona were in a Justice League film it would be a good way to introduce the Green Lantern corps and, more importantly, whomever they choose to be the Green Lantern before their solo movie. If he's the villain in the Green Lantern movie, it's simple. He was banished/ imprisoned by the other Guardians for his crimes and now wants revenge, basically like the comics. That story works it's self and it keeps the Green Lantern film away from Earth, negating one massive problem (among many) that the original GL film had.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 4/10, they'll probably just go Sinestro because reasons, even though, like Venom, Sinestro is a character that would take 2-3 films to set up properly.
6. The Riddler
Film?: Batfleck's first solo outting
Who?: Do I even need to answer this question? If you don't know who The Riddler is, why are you even on this website?
Why?: Because, sorry everyone, we don't need to have another Joker main bad guy film, tv show, cartoon or video game. The Clown Prince of Crime is fun and all and I'm sure Jared Leto is going to be amazing in Suicide Squad, but Batman does have other villains too you know. He's in the same situation as Spider-Man, where he has a fantastic rogues gallery but it's just Green Goblin all the time. Riddler, if done right, will be a great character to bring to the screen in a darker comic book movie. He's a mental match for Batman, just like The Joker, possibly even smarter. It was a legitimate shame that Nolan didn't take a crack at him but I guess we'll have to make do with Batfleck.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 6/10. It's likely we may see him at some point, if they decide to go down the route of cramming literally every villain they can find into the film like it sounds like they're planning. But as a lead villain, nah, they'll just go Joker because it's safe.
5. Batgirl/ Oracle
Film: Possibly first Batfleck movie to introduce Barbara Gordon, more likely a second outing for Batgirl.
Who?: Nah nah nah nah nah nah Batgirl. Aka Jim Gordon's daughter.
Why?: The best possible use for The Joker in a Batman film is to screw with the Dark Knight. Now, there are two ways you can really really go in with this and that is to do either A Death In The Family or The Killing Joke. And even though her main purpose in the movies would be to end up being shot, Batgirl would be a great character to bring to the silver screen anyway. She's a strong female character even without the association with Batman and as Oracle she's not only a fantastic female inspiration, but a fantastic inspiration to disabled people and people who have gone through trauma. Batman not only has one of the best rogues galleries of any superhero, but he has probably the best supporting cast and the more of them they bring to the big screen the better.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 5/10. I can see them bringing in Barbara Gordon, but not as Batgirl. Oracle may be a shout though.
4. Jason Todd.
Film?: It's Batfleck again.
Who?: Batman's biggest failure. aka the second Robin
Why?: To kill him of course. Like with Babs, he is the integral person in one of the finest moments in Batman and the Joker's relationship. Even if they kill him before the film (which I bet someone is going to tell me that they mention Robin having died in Batman vs. Superman in the comments) he needs to get killed off. And they can't kill Dick because.... well, we'll get to that.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: Well, you guys tell me. Did they mention anything like that in BvS? If not, umm 3/10. They'd either go no Robin or Dick Greyson.
3. Mongul
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Film: The Justice League
Who: A powerful alien tyrant who rules over Warworld. An enemy to Superman and the Justice League its self.
Why?: Ok, so we need a powerful alien tyrant to fight the Justice League, bearing in mind that Marvel have already beaten DC to the punch by having Thanos regularly show his face. Who do we go to. Darkseid obviously. But is that the best move? Do DC really want to blow Darkseid straight away. Because out of DC's entire pantheon of villains there is only one villain who is more powerful and that's the Anti-Monitor (oh, we'll get to him). Are they really going to use him straight away in their fifth film? Using a similar, but less powerful villain in Mongul makes much more sense, he's still a legitimate threat that would require the formation of the Justice League, but he would only need the guys like Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman to take him down, with the help of Superman of course, rather than the entire cavalry, which Darkseid always does in the comics. Save Darkseid for a later date and just have the New Gods cameo every so often.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: 1/10. Just because they should doesn't mean they will. They're going to blow the New Gods straight away and it's going to suck because Warner Bros. don't know how to make superhero movies.
2. Martian Manhunter
Film: His own preferably. Or a future Justice League film.
Who?: The guy who was a founding member of the Justice League instead of Superman or Batman. Also he's the last surviving green martian.
Why?: Because it's the Martian Manhunter. He's the guy regularly described as the heart/ soul of the Justice League. He's also in the same boat as Aquaman in that he's one of the most underrated superheroes of all time. It's quite disappointing that they aren't including him in the Justice League to begin with, but hey, you can't have everything.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: Again, I would be very surprised if he didn't end up in a film at some point. He's still one of DC's most recognisable faces, one of the classic 7 Justice League line up. So they've got to at some point, just not soon enough.
1. Nightwing
Film: Batfleck? Nah, lets just go full on fantasy and say A TEEN TITANS MOVIE!!!! DO IT DC/ WARNER BROS.
Who?: ........ It's freakin Dick Greyson ok. Actual best comics character in DC history, sorry Batfanboys, OG Robin is better than Brucie.
Why?: Because Nightwing. Reasons enough.
Ok but being serious. If you place Nightwing in a Batman film, you have a HUUUUUUGE part of the Batman mythos into the film with the first Robin having grown up and moved on from Batman, coming back to help his mentor. If you have Dick Greyson in the film, you've got Robin's growing up story. If you have either in a Teen Titans movie, the internet immediately goes into meltdown as the world nerdgasms. You've already got Deathstroke guys and Cyborg is in the Justice League. Please give Nightwing, Raven, Starfire et al their moment. The cartoons are great, their comics were great (until you ruined them. Damn you New 52) the characters are great.
Likelihood Of It Happening?: Until it's a dead cert, it's never going to be a high enough likelihood.
Ok, now for the fun part. Those characters I don't want to see.
5. Hawkman
Why?: Ok, stop me when this gets confusing for you. So, this guy is an alien from the planet Thangar, who travelled to Earth through a dimensional rift and ended up in ancient Egypt with his true love. They are then killed and spend the next couple of millennia being reincarnated and killed until they end up as museum curators who discover their heritage and decide to become superheroes. You didn't stop me? Well that's just the modern origin, which is an amalgamation of his golden age origin, where a museum curator discovers he is the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian prince, and his 90's origin as an alien. How exactly do they transfer this to the big screen without over half the audience just going "what?". Plus he's famous for hitting people with a mace. That'll be good onscreen won't it, all the brains and limbs flying everywhere.
4. Captain Marvel aka Shazam
Why?: He's a kid. A kid who transforms into a fully grown man through saying a magic word. But he's still a kid guys. Not only is the premise stupid, they're going to have to age up the character to adulthood to get around the fact that, that guy right there, the guy with monstrous power who's beating up/ getting beaten up by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (in all probability), yeah he was a 10 year old a few seconds ago. Anyone else see the problem with this?
3. The Sandman
Why?: I might have done a list on how DC/ Warner Bros. could make this movie, that doesn't mean I want it to happen. Invariably DC properties don't translate well to films, Batman being the only exception really. And The Sandman is such a classic of the medium, even an "alright" translation would be bad. Plus they'll undoubtedly mess it up anyway because Warner Bros.
2. Etrigan The Demon
Why?: Ok, let's lay out why this guy isn't suitable for a screen adaptation, and I'm talking for TV, let alone a film. 1. The rhyming. That is going to catch on isn't it. Your casual audience is not going to get the rhyming at all, not one bit. 2. The costume. Long sleeves with Superman trunks, mmmmm, classy. That's going to need some major changes if anyone is going to take this guy seriously as a threat. And he's a demon, from hell, so he should be a threat no matter how many Jason Bloods he is bound to. 3. If they don't go all out it will be cheesy as..... I want to say hell but that just seems too punny. But seriously, the whole fall of Canterlot, Merlin's demon, rhyming transformation, demons, sorcery thing is going to come across with all of the finesse of an 80's dungeons and dragons movie. If they did it right, made it dark or just aimed for it to be cheesy it could be great. But if they did it even slightly wrong, it will be horrifically cringe-worthy. And do you want to take that chance?
1. The Anti-Monitor
Why?: No, bad DC, Bad. I see what you're doing, saying that your TV shows and your movies are part of a "multiverse". You're trying to go down a route that eventually leads to a Crisis film/ TV tie in aren't you. No, please no. We don't want it, you don't want to do it, it will ruin you, piss off the fans and you'll make everybody hate you. Keep the TV and films separate if you aren't going to directly link them, because if you start doing Crisises (Crises? What's the plural of Crisis?) you'll do what you always do and mess it up. Have you learnt nothing from Zero Hour? Or Infinite Crisis? Or The New 52? Or whatever universe reboot you're planning for next week, or the week after that, or the week after that? STOP REBOOTING EVERYTHING AND GIVE US A TEEN TITANS MOVIE!
