I'm a DC girl myself, so I can't help but feel a little jealous that Marvel is doing so well. Batman has been successful so far, obviously, and with Christopher Nolan's help, we can only hope the same for Superman. I'm optimistic about Green Lantern's chances - I like the teaser posters - but what about the vast DC universe of other characters? With the Batman series so well defined and unique, I wouldn't want a big Crisis-style crossover movie, or even a Justice League team-up, but there's so much untapped potential. I'm still a relative comic book newbie, but here are my top 5 DC characters I would like to see in a movie.
Booster is my favorite character, so he would be my first choice. Quick backstory: Michael Jon Carter is a disgraced football star from the future. While working at the Metropolis Space Museum, he decides to steal various superhero devices and go back in time as Booster Gold in search of fame and fortune. His trusty robot sidekick Skeets contains a repository of all the events in history, so he is able to appear at every major catastrophe and save the day. Later, he joins forces with time traveler Rip Hunter to move around and fix alterations in the timeline. To protect himself and his work (if they knew who he was, rival time travelers could go and kill him as a baby), Booster has to pretend to be incompetent. So what's great about Booster? Everything. He's incredibly funny, and his interactions with other characters are great. Because he's a time traveler, the storyline possibilities are pretty much endless - he can go anywhere at any time, and if the timeline is still malleable, there's always something to do. A Booster Gold film would be a great way to get a lot of DC characters together because he knows them all, and any one of them could be in danger at any time. And if you need to get a little deep, how about the internal conflict of getting no recognition for all the good you do? Considering Booster's first motivation was fame, the fact that he's a joke within superhero circles is interesting.
Booster Gold's first test as a time traveler was to go back and stop the Joker from paralyzing Barbara Gordon. Booster went back hundreds of times but couldn't ever prevent it; the lesson was some things can never be changed. Barbara is probably better known as Batgirl, but considering she's still only a child in The Dark Knight (and really, Batgirl is kind of lame), she would be much better as Oracle in a movie. After she's shot by the Joker and confined to a wheelchair, Barbara uses her super-intellect, computer skills and training as a librarian to help out other superheroes. She's also the leader of the Birds of Prey, an elite female superhero team. Barbara would be a tough sell as a movie because she's so intricately tied to the Batman mythology, but I think she's too good a character to ignore. Birds of Prey was made into a TV series that didn't do too well, but there is a real dearth of female superheroes right now (seriously, is there one in development? Other than Black Widow in the Avengers movie or the few female characters in X-Men: First Class, I can't think of any). Now I'm a little outraged. I feel like I should write a letter to someone.
Zatanna is a stage magician who discovers that she's descended from a race of "Homo magi" with actual magical powers. To cast a spell, she has to say the words backwards, which is kind of silly but looks good written down. She also has the power to wipe minds, which has caused friction with other members of the Justice League. Zatanna's another character who has strong ties to Batman, but the concept of mind-wiping would be interesting. For me, Inception has prompted an interest in stories about controlling someone's mind and thoughts, so maybe that's the angle a film might take. Could the character sustain a whole movie on her own? Probably not. But as a pivotal side character, I think she would be a lot of fun.
The Flash has a huge number of enemies, including the group called the Rogues. My favorite is Pied Piper. Piper was born deaf but got his hearing back and became obsessed with music, which he uses to hypnotize people. He's funny, he's charming and he eventually repents and turns to the side of good. Who doesn't love a redemption story? Piper is also one of the very few gay comic book characters. If a Flash movie is ever made, I think Piper would be a good secondary character - he's interesting and fun, and he has a distinctive way of speaking that would be neat to see. According to Wikipedia, Piper may make an appearance in the proposed movie Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max. It doesn't look like it's really happening, though. Oh well.
Unfortunately, this is where my list falls apart. I could really only think of four characters, so this last one will be a little vague. Dr. Will Magnus is one of the many genius scientists in the DC Universe, and his claim to fame, other than looking pretty cool with his pipe, is creating the Metal Men. Each of the robots is made of and named after a different metal, whose properties determine their personalities. A lot of the events surrounding the Metal Men are explained as a product of Magnus' mental breakdown or bipolar disorder, which might make for an interesting story. With a newly relaunched Metal Men series, I think a movie might work. Special effects technology is good enough to do some kind of motion capture on the Metal Men, maybe even in 3D to get the full effect of Mercury's movements. Actually, now I'm thinking about it, this is a probably the best idea of the five. Think of the merchandising possibilities. OK, I have to go work on my pitch now.
(images via Wikipedia and Comic Book Resources)
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