It was a typical Thursday night back in January 2007. My friends and I had purchased some beer and pizza and were about to watch the newest episode of Smallville before heading out to our usual bar for some karoke. On that Thursday night we were a little more excited that usual to watch Smallville. In this episode Clark was teaming up with Green Arrow, Impulse(Flash), Aquaman, and Cyborg in an episode called 'Justice'. After twenty years of reading superhero comic books it was the first live-action Justice League I had ever seen. I still haven't seen the TV movie done years ago, and I plan to keep it that way. Skip ahead to present day. We are about to get two different Justice League teams within the next five years. One on the small screen, and one on the big screen. But which one will be better?
In it's second season, Arrow introduced Barry Allen, and even showed him being struck by lightening. The show has already featured Black Canary and will bring in Ray Palmer, the future Atom, and Arsenal in season three. Meanwhile, Barry is about to zoom over to his own Flash series and Firestorm is set to make an appearance. This will make six Justice League members in The CW television universe that started on Arrow. It was also announced that Arrow and The Flash co-creator, Greg Berlanti, is pitching a Supergirl series next.
Over on the Warner Bros set another DC Comics team is slowly being assembled. In 2016 the world will see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that will feature Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Victor Stone(Cyborg), and a rumored Aquaman. Man of Steel director, Zach Snyder, is directing this film, and has already said he's directing a Justice League film that has not gotten a release date yet. Most speculate though that the release of Justice League will not be too far off from Batman v Superman.
WB and DC executives have already said that the television and film worlds will not connect like Marvel Studios is doing. This means eventually audiences may have two Flashes, or two Barry Allen's, at the same time that have nothing to do with each other. I bring up the Scarlet Speedster as an example because he is one of the dominant Justice League members just behind the Trinity, but with his own TV series about to debut, and hopefully be a hit, will he be featured in Snyder's upcoming film? The smart thing would be to have another Flash besides Barry(such as Wally) in the film. But so far evidence supports that Snyder and WB aren't that smart. Besides the Flash, most of the other Arrow heroes are B to C stringers(love it) which wouldn't come to a fan boys mind when you name off their top five or seven key Justice League members. But given that Cyborg wasn't an official JL member till just a few years ago he wouldn't be on my A-team either.
What about Green Lantern? The Ryan Reynolds film failed to start the DC Cinematic Universe so WB jumped off with Man of Steel. But he's also another A-lister. Do you just skip GL or replace him with another member of the Corps and give the Hal Jordan stench more time to dry out? By the time these questions in DC's film universe will be answered I feel like The CW will have already had their own Justice League multi-series crossover event.
I can't hide my opinion that I am way more excited for what is happening on my TV than at my local cinema. As a big Superman fan I had quite a few issues with Man of Steel, Zach Snyder, and the vision of the DC Cinematic Universe so far. Arrow creators are crafting a long narrative by getting to know the characters quite well. Meanwhile, Snyder and his film makers are just rushing to catch-up with Marvel Studios.
I feel like WB still doesn't get why they've fallen behind in this comic book movie race. The strength of the Marvel Media Universe is that everything is connected! Bruce Banner can pop-up at the end of Iron Man 3, or Lady Sif can appear on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's all a pay-off for someone who follows it all. I don't watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, if I did I would have enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier that much more because of the tie-in and vice versa. But I didn't have to catch the television series, or any other Marvel franchise movie, to enjoy Cap 2. So why would I pay $12 to see another Flash when I already love the one I get for free on my TV? Minus the better special effects I'm sure it would only disappoint. Basically I'm saying what Marvel has done is brilliant.
My hope is that Warner Bros has already answered all the questions I have posed in this article and I'm just going to eat my words later. And while I am excited for comic book properties kicking ass in every medium, and seeing another a live-action Justice League back on my screens, I continue to be disappointed how Warner Bros is handling these modern day Gods in film.They are trying so hard to be different from Marvel that they are being different; they're sucking. So for now, I'm with Team Arrow.
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