DC and the Justice League

As the release of 'The Dark Knight Rises' draws closer, DC Comics is already looking ahead into the future with one specific goal in mind. That goal is to successfully make a live-action film based on their famous superhero team, the Justice League. The pressure is especially big for DC now after Marvel's 'The Avengers' was both a huge critical and box office success. But can DC really make it happen the same way Marvel did? Aside from Batman and Superman, DC has been unable to successfully translate most of their comic book superheroes to film. Marvel, on the other hand, has brought Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and many more of their famous superheroes to life on the big screen. DC has a long way to go before they can make a true Justice League movie, and here's how they should do it.

The first hurdle on the road to success for DC is with Batman. 'The Dark Knight Rises' will be director Christopher Nolan's final entry in the Batman universe and while many DC fans are hopeful that Nolan will take charge of the DC universe after that, he currently has no plans to work on any more DC films aside from 'The Man of Steel' which he will be producing for a 2013 release. Another issue that DC will probably have to worry about is finding another Batman because like with Nolan, this will most likely be Christian Bale's last stint as the Caped Crusader. There may be a slight chance that Bale could return for a Justice League film, but odds are that will probably not happen. DC will have to not just reboot the Batman franchise, but also find a new lead as well.

DC's next big release after 'Dark Knight Rises' is of course 'Man of Steel', the latest film about the son of Krypton himself, Superman. DC should already be worried about this film seeing how its their second attempt at rebooting the Superman franchise after the disappointing performance of 2006's 'Superman Returns'. However, if DC really wants to make their Justice League movie work, 'Man of Steel' will also have to the equivalent of what Iron Man was to Marvel. It needs to be the film that gets the ball rolling to connect all of these different universes together the same way Iron Man got things started for Marvel in 2008. However, can 'Man of Steel' really do that? We have yet to see any footage from the film at this point, so who knows if 'Man of Steel' will even attempt to connect to other DC universes in the first place. The main reason I say this is because not only is Nolan uninterested in doing any more DC films, he also wants to keep the Batman and Superman universes separate. If that is the case, then this will be a problem for DC if they want a Justice League movie.

Another franchise DC will have to reboot is Green Lantern. Aside from Batman and Superman, Green Lantern has been the only other major superhero from DC to get a film adaptation in this current era of superhero films and unfortunately, DC's first attempt at bringing this universe to the big screen didn't really turn out so well. Not only was 2011's 'Green Lantern', which starred Ryan Reynolds in the lead role of Hal Jordan, a critical failure but it also failed to do much at the box office. With a final box-office gross of $222 million, the film barely made back its massive $200 million budget. So the obvious step for DC here would be to reboot the franchise. But how should DC do it? Do they recast Ryan Reynolds and find a new guy to play Hal Jordan or do they try one of the other famous characters who have been Green Lanterns over the years, like Kyle Rayner or John Stewart? I'm not entirely saying that you get rid of Reynolds though, because while the film wasn't exactly that great, he actually did a really good job in the role of Hal Jordan. Really, whatever happens with this franchise depends on what DC decides to do next.

Finally, and most importantly, DC needs to start working on bringing its other major superheroes to the big screen. If we look at the original seven members of the Justice League as it was in the comics, DC will have to do solo films for Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter. If DC does not decide to do a solo film for one of these characters, then have that character inserted as a side character into one of the other characters' movies so that they can fit into what would be a massive universe filled with all of DC's superheroes. Marvel already made this work when they had Black Widow debut in Iron Man 2 and Hawkeye debut in Thor, which led to their next appearances in 'The Avengers'. If that's the way DC will have to go, then so be it.

If it isn't any more clear, DC has quite a long way to go before they can make a Justice League movie. They'll most likely have to reboot both Batman and Green Lantern, have 'Man of Steel' actually work as a film, and will also have to get going in bringing their other famous superheroes to the big screen because that is something DC has yet to do successfully. Imagine, if you will, if DC decided to just make the Justice League movie now. Not only will they have to make all of these superheroes work together the same way Marvel did with 'The Avengers', but they would also need to introduce the characters that haven't made the big screen yet to audiences and that's not the best idea if you're making a movie this big. What Marvel did with their cinematic universe was nothing less than amazing in how they managed to not only make all of their superheroes work on the big screen, but also connect them so that they can all work together. DC, it's time for you to get going and also if you're looking for a director, odds are Joss Whedon won't be available.