Jim Smith tagged posts

A recurring theme in the DC Universe is life and death.  In this phase, we will look at this.  In the comics, many major characters have
died and come back to life, and we have already done this with Superman.  Now we will do it with other people in the DC
Cinematic Universe.  We also have the
first time where ordinary people oppose the actions of the heroes because they
are unaware of how bad things would be without the actions of the heroes.  In the end, we leave everything stable,
allowing for a new arc of movies to be developed following these.

Green Lantern: War of
the Rings

The Guardians are at odds over how to deal with the
appearances of the new corps, each wielding rings which allow them to tap into
the power of part of the emotional spectrum. 
Some of them want to guid...

Having dealt with the magical nature of the DC Universe, we
turn to the most distinctive feature of the DC Universe: the Multiverse.  The idea of a multiverse was introduced to
explain different versions of heroes during different eras.  We now see the idea of the multiverse come
into the movies, with a much abbreviated version of Crisis on Infinite Earths. 
The introduction of the multiverse brings with it a need of first
contact between the universes, which will follow the way it was initially
established in the comics, with the two flashes coming into contact first.  We use Shazam in the first movie as a bridge
to the fourth phase and to tie up any loose threads from phase 3.

The Power of Shazam!

Billy Batson is chosen by the wizard Shazam to be a champion
of the Lords of Or...

At the close of phase two, Apokalips was defeated, but the
devastation was vast.  There is great
fear of the power of “super heroes”, but even more fear of the malevolent
forces that battle them.  That fear
causes the government, and even some in the hero community to take action to
monitor them.  All the while, mystical
energies, made more powerful by the energy released in the battles with
Apokalips bring forth the next world-threatening crisis, as some seek to
harness those magical forces for their own gain…

Wonder Woman: Gods
among Men

The war with Apokolips is over, but there is still much to
do.  Wonder Woman is hunting for
Steppenwulf, one of the denizens of Darkseid who escaped the destruction of his
armies.  In his search for a way off the
Earth, he terrorizes ...

As discussed in “Creating the Universe: Phase 1”, DC Comics
is lagging behind Marvel in the making of movies because they lack a cohesive
vision of the how to link movies together. 
DC has the most iconic comic characters, which is why they have been so
successful on the small screen.  DC’s
characters have a depth that is unmatched, and that was BEFORE the New 52
brought those characters even more depth. 
The DC characters can be the heart of some incredible character-driven
movies, so without further ado, here is Phase 2:

Superman:
Resurrection

Following the events of Justice
League: The Death of Superman, the members of the League have gone their
separate ways, each taking turns helping to defend Metropolis.  Soon, reports start to come in of several
Superman-li...

Some great discussions happen at
comic book shops, let me tell you. 
Recently, we were talking about DC’s seeming lack of ability to
establish an interconnected movie franchise the way Marvel has.  However, what is always forgotten is that
even in the standalone films, there are sly references to the other
heroes.  Consider Captain America’s
shield in Iron Man 2, or the
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents questioning whether the destroyer was “one of Stark’s” in Thor. 
What DC needs to do is have a story arc in place that they can use to
weave random threads into the standalone movies, the way J. Michael Straczynski
did with Babylon 5.  One of the things that was remarked on was
the fact that DC has a stable of far more iconic characters than Marvel does,
and that those iconic characters, bot...