Feb 5, 2023

James Gunn's plan: further thoughts.

 I don't think Gunn's plan is perfect. I have some issues with it, mainly Starting with Damian Wayne while having a semi green Superman. I feel like this is a Zack Snyder level mistake. We're once again retreading an older Batman whose career happened mostly off-screen. The only difference is that Batman has a Bat Family with him. How big is this Bat Family? There are 4 Robins... yeah, Stephanie counts. Then there's 1 or 3 Batgirls... once again, Stephanie counts. How long has Bruce been Batman and at what age did he start? Will Damian get the League of Assassins ge etic modifications to age him faster or will he be a Terry McGinnis-esque pseudo clone engineered by using Wayne and Al Ghul DNA? Is Tim Drake the current Robin when "The Demon's Butthole" shows up?

We missed Dick's upbringing as Robin, his falling out with Bruce, we missed Barbara, we missed out in Jason's "death" and "return" as The Red Hood. We might also be missing out on Tim and Stephanie's time as Robins. That sucks! There is one way this can be fixed:
A Mini Series on HBO Max. It doesn't matter if it's live action or animated, hell it could be a hybrid series. The idea is using it to set a background on the DCU Batman. The mini series could take SOME Inspiration from the Comic book mini series: Robins. Here's my pitch: the Thirteenth Anniversary of Batman is coming and the arrival of Damian is an unexpected surprise. In order to "welcome him into the Bat Family" Dick organizes a get together with all the former Robins. Dick's plan is to teach Damian about their experiences as Robin, and what it means to each of them. 

Dick tells Damian his origin and his falling out with Bruce due to the latter not telling Dick that Barbara got shot by the Joker while He, Roy Harper, and Wally West were traveling the world looking for young people with potential for being heroes. 

Jason, would tell Damian about his Death and Resurrection and how Damian's grandpa tried to use Jason as a tool for vengeance against Bruce. 

Stephanie would basically speak about her start as Spoiler and her 2 week stint as Robin while Tim was dealing with the death of his parents.

Tim would speak of his origins as Robin, deducting the identities of Dick and Bruce, going to Grayson for help as he noticed that Bruce was being erratic after Jason's "death". Drake would also give Damian his blessing as Robin and taking the Red Robin name to leave Damian as the Official Robin. 

Of course Damian is a little shit about it and dismisses the former Robins. After leaving Grayson's apartment he's "summoned" by his Grandfather and it's up to the former Robins to save him. 

Personally, lean towards a hybrid style of both Live Action and Animation. Having the present stuff be live action (The Robins chatting it up at Dick's apartment and the Rescue Mission at Nanda Parbat.) The Flashbacks would be animated in a different style for each Robin.

Dick's flashbacks should be in Superfriends/Filmation Batman inspired style.
Jason's should mimic gritty GI Joe Extreme/ Spider-Man Unlimited style. Tim's are obviously BTAS inspired. For Stephanie, something like a shojo Anime like Sailor Moon, but with 90s anime fan-service like boumcing breasts, panty shots and for the ladies, Stephanie ogling Bishounen Batman with shots that would make Joel Schumacher rise from his grave and blush.

I would end the mini series with all the Robins tired and worn out reaching Ra's al Ghul's chambers to find Damian with Batman. Batman scolds Damian for mot warning the Robins that he went willingly with Ra's, while commending the Robins for not leaving one of them behind.

The series is meant to be exposition and tribute to what came before. It also fleshes out some of the events that happened off-screen. That's how I would fix that issue. 

Superman is the least of my worries, but I'm hoping for a villain or villains who aren't Lex Luthor or Dru-Zod. NOW the real important thing: Team Trunks. I feel they're the most "Earthling" part of the outfit. They also break off all that blue from a visual standpoint.

Supergirl is a big Question Mark. Will it be an origin movie or will she already be established? Will her cousin show up? Will she tie in to Braniac being the big event that forms the League? Will there be a Krypto the Superdog? Please no Comet the Superhorse.

The Elephant in the room is known as: the Snyder mess being kept alive post Flashpoint.
I understand why Gunn has been a bit coy about this, but the sooner it can be put to sleep, the better.  There are too many questions here that could make or break this reboot. Kinda like the ripples from crisis or Superboy Prime's fists. How much of the DCEU DID happen and how much did the ripples in continuity changed stuff? Waller, Peacemaker, and the remaining DCEU movies are the huge question mark that leave me a bad feeling.

The problem with trying to salvage things from before Flashpoint is throwing a wrench at what Gunn beeds to do, which is a FULL restart. So kinda preserving stuff from the DCEU worries me, especially if it came from Snyder.

Lanterns is going to be Earth based and apparently it involves Green Lanterns discovering an alien conspiracy... The Reach? I mean we have Miguel Diaz and the Scarab... it could make sense.

My knowledge of Wildstorm stuff is very limited, so I have no clue about the Authority. I trust Gunn, since he can make people care about D-list characters... He made people care about freaking Polka Dot Man, for crying out loud!

Booster Gold, like I said, is a tough pull to swallow, at least for me. I find hom annoying most of the time, but I can see the potential of Booster becoming a true hero... Gunn is bringing Chris Pratt to play Booster, isn't he? Fuckdammit! This has nothing to do with Chris Pratt the actor or his beliefs. It's just that Booster Gold feels a bit too close to Pratt's take on Starlord for comfort.

I don't care much about Creature Commandos or Paradise Lost... I'm more curious about Swamp Thing though.

Above all I hope that this venture doesn't suck, because DC needs to catch a break. I want to stay cautiously optimistic... I mean there's no way he can fuck this up worse than Zack Snyder...

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