Poll: Which Upcoming DC Comics Films Are You Excited For?

Last week, hoping to finally put up a real fight against the hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros. announced an aggressive slate of upcoming comic book superhero movies based on its DC Comics properties. Which of these movies (if any) are you most anxious to see?

Which Upcoming DC Comics Films Are You Excited For?

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Honestly, despite currently enjoying both ‘Gotham’ and ‘The Flash’ on TV, I’m not terribly excited about any of these movies. (For the record, Warner and DC are treating their film and TV projects separately. The Batman and Flash movies will have no connection to the TV shows.) I find Marvel’s movies more interesting than DC’s, and quite frankly I’m getting burned out on superheroes in general.

Nevertheless, I’ll probably see some of these anyway. I’m curious to find out how well Ben Affleck takes over the Batman role. Will the Flash movie be as upbeat and fun as the TV version?

Can I resist the allure of team-up projects like ‘Batman v. Superman’ or ‘Justice League’? Probably not, even though I’m sure they’ll be underwhelming.

I don’t know what ‘Suicide Squad’ or ‘Cyborg’ are. I’ve never even heard of those comics. Then again, I didn’t know anything about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ either and that movie turned out to be a blast.

Are you looking forward to any of these new superhero flicks?

61 comments

  1. Ryan

    I’m still pissed that they decided to shoehorn so much into the next Superman. I loved Man of Steel and wanted to see a true sequel.

  2. Im not counting the days or hours, but I am extremely curious to see how the Batman/Superman flick will play out. Even though he wouldn’t be in my top list for playing the Dark Knight, I’m still looking forward to seeing how Affleck will portray Bruce Wayne and Batman as a seasoned and burned out hero. Will he do a raspy Bale voice? I’m also very curious about the new costume. I still think they’re kind of rushing things with bringing Superman and Batman together on the big screen. I would of liked to see Superman carry his own sequel before teaming up with another hero, but that isn’t happening, so this will have to do.
    The Justice League movie could be interesting and ever since George Miller tried to put one together, I’ve looked forward to seeing one. I like superhero movies in general, and to me it’s become it’s own genre and I don’t think they’ll be going anywhere for a while. I’m more familiar and fond of the Marvel universe, but have nothing against any comic book company to bring their heroes to the big screen.

  3. Shazam is probably the most interesting of the stand-alones for me, but I’m going to predict that this schedule gets modified/cancelled before we even get to the Shazam movie.

    Batman v Superman is going to make a billion worldwide, so I’m confident we’ll at least get to the Wonder Woman flick.

  4. EM

    Iā€™m a superhero-comics fan (more Marvel than DC), but superhero movies seldom pique my interest. As the saying goes, the book was better.

  5. cardpetree

    I don’t see how it could be possible to make a decent Wonder Woman movie. Very cheesy character anyway. I just think of Elektra when I think of any super hero female lead movie. Elektra was horrendously bad.

  6. Chris B

    I really only care to see Superman Vs. Baman and the Justice League movie. I wish DC would make a Sandman Mystery Theatre movie. It was a comic series published under their “Vertigo” imprint back in the 90’s and was very underrated…It’s a gloomy detective series set in 1930’s Los Angeles…could make a fantastic film if the right director was hired.

  7. Chapz Kilud

    DC casts are so much weaker than Marvel’s. Copying Marvel’s model wouldn’t replicate Marvel’s revenue. Christian Bale alone would have elevated the Dawn of Justice. Unfortunately he wouldn’t do it even though he was reportedly offered a blank check.

  8. Drew

    Why is the following option not included?

    “Forget Marvel. DC owns the comic book movie genre.”

    That’s the option that I want to select.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Because this isn’t a poll about which upcoming Marvel movies you want to see.

      Also, other than Batman, DC hasn’t done a terribly good job of making movies to date. You’re not a big Green Lantern apologist, are you?

        • I thought it was a snooze…it was too much a word for word/shot by shot version of the comic book – it wasn’t altered enough to make it interesting (i.e., see Gus Van Sant’s PSYCHO or FOX’s current GRACEPOINT show).

          • Chris B

            I can kind of understand their approach given the adoration fans have for the source material though. It’s frequently touted as “the greatest story ever told in comics” so I can see why they didn’t want to alter it very much.

      • Drew

        This has nothing to do with what DC films have already been released. I simply feel that DC has a vastly superior stable of characters. And to me, they own the comic book movie genre. On top of that, I’ll take ‘The Dark Knight’ over every single one of the MCU films, combined. In fact, I can almost say the same thing about ‘Batman Begins’.

        Anyway, your response failed to address my question. My question is why there’s no option for those of us who prefer DC over Marvel.

        • Chris B

          Haha seriously Drew?! “..DC owns the comic book movie genre”? Marvel has made a ton of vastly superior comic book movies compared to DC. You may like their characters more and you may think they have more potential to make great comic book movies, but as it stands now DC has gotten their ass kicked by Marvel (with a few exceptions as previously noted.

          • Chapz Kilud

            Superman and batman will trump anything marvel have combined. However, Marvel does have better depth in terms of super hero casts. For movies Marvel had better actors, it isn’t even close.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            Man of Steel underperformed. A number of Marvel movies have outgrossed it. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series is done, and it remains to be seen how much audiences will take to the Ben Affleck version of the character.

            Personally, I doubt that Batman v. Superman will be anywhere near as huge as Avengers 2.

          • Drew

            I’m not in the minority, and I would argue that it’s a fact that DC has a superior stable of characters. Just look at it this way: 8 years ago, nobody gave two drops of rat piss about Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Loki, etc. They were mostly irrelevant. Now, contrast that with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc. Tell me that if the exact same studio heads, directors, actors, and producers responsible for everything we’ve seen from the MCU at this point would have had the DC stable to work with, that we wouldn’t have witnessed way better films, and that they wouldn’t have made even more money. No way. You can’t. If Marvel worked wonders with second-rate characters, and couldn’t even use their crown jewel (Spider-Man), just think what they would have done with the DC stable.

          • Chris B

            You ARE in the minority Drew, Marvel has always sold more comic books and their movies have made way more money. People like Marvel movies more than DC movies…because most DC movies aren’t very good, and most Marvel movies are. I don’t understand how you can even argue your position. You basically just said “well sure everybody likes these Marvel characters, but if the same people who made the Marvel movies had made the DC movies then people would like those characters to!” Um…ok…we can talk about alternate realities all day but in actuality you are in the MINORITY.

          • Drew

            I don’t even think you read my comment. You offer no evidence that you did. And you offer no analysis. You simply argue back with your original comment. I’m not interested in a “Yes. No. Yes. No.” Argument. DC has a superior stable of characters. The top three selling superhero characters of all time are Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman. DC has two of them. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has zero. Is that a simple enough fact for you?

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            But we’re not talking about comics here, Drew. We’re talking about movies. The last two Superman movies were Superman Returns and Man of Steel, both of which underperformed at the box office compared to expectations for them. Of the two, Man of Steel did better. And yet…

            The Avengers outgrossed Man of Steel.
            Iron Man 3 outgrossed Man of Steel.
            Captain America: The Winter Soldier outgrossed Man of Steel.
            Guardians of the Galaxy outgrossed Man of Steel.

            Movie audiences have decided that they’re more interested in Marvel’s superhero movies than in new Superman movies.

            The only DC movies on comparable footing to Marvel’s movies are The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. But the Christopher Nolan series is done now and it’s not coming back. Whether the success of those two movies will carry over to success for the new Zack Snyder/Ben Affleck movie version of Batman remains to be seen. Maybe it will and maybe it won’t. I don’t think that’s necessarily a foregone conclusion – especially if his first appearance is a pairing with Superman, a character that movie audiences are losing interest in.

          • Drew

            The argument was about which company has a superior stable of CHARACTERS; not which one has better actors, directors, producers, etc. My comment backed up my standpoint that DC has a superior stable of characters, perfectly. On a neutral playing field, and allowing the same filmmakers to use each stable, the DC characters would always make for much better films and films that make more money.

          • Drew

            Josh, I refuse to believe that you are that ignorant, or that your reading comprehension is that poor.

            Read my comment again. Focus in on the part about a NEUTRAL PLAYING FIELD as well as the bit about the SAME FILMMAKERS being given access to each stable of characters.

            If you still think that the money that has already been made by the films from each studio is applicable to the discussion, I’m afraid I can’t help you.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            This “neutral playing field” argument is a straw man that you’ve built just to tear down. It has not happened, it will not happen, and it cannot happen. Therefore, it can never be proven or disproven, and you can make up anything you want about it.

            DC has hired A-List filmmakers like Bryan Singer, Martin Campbell and Zack Snyder and given them vast sums of money to make superhero movies with. That’s about as much of a “neutral playing field” as you could possibly get.

            If anything, DC brought in a better talent pool of directors than Marvel has. By the time they made their DC movies, Singer, Campbell and Snyder all had proven track records for making blockbuster action movies. Meanwhile, Marvel was hiring people like Jon Favreau (a comedy guy), Shane Black (a screenwriter with little directing experience), Alan Taylor and Anthony & Joe Russo (all TV guys), Joss Whedon (another TV guy whose only previous feature film tanked), and James Gunn (a cult filmmaker whose movies have made very little money). Even Kenneth Branagh is more known for small artsy Shakespeare adaptations than big blockbuster movies. (His only attempt at making one, Frankenstein, was a huge flop.) All of these directors were untested at making the type of huge-budget tentpole action movies that Marvel wanted them for.

            The closest thing to a known quantity that Marvel hired was Joe Johnston, and even he’s decidedly a B-Lister.

            And yet, even with these advantages, the DC superhero movies still underperform compared to Marvel’s superhero movies. The results speak for themselves. When it comes to movies, today’s audiences prefer what Marvel is doing.

          • Drew

            Well, Josh, given the fact that you keep talking about films that have already been made, and how much money they made, I’ll have to assume that your reading comprehension is really that poor.

            Tell me, we’re the Superman movies that you bring up made by the studio heads, directors, producers, actors, etc. that made the MCU films? If they weren’t, your comment is utterly irrelevant. This isn’t an argument about which studio has had more success, or which studio had already made better/more financially successful films. It’s a discussion about which studio has a superior stable of CHARACTERS.

          • Drew

            I’m finished with this. I can already see where it’s headed, and it’s utterly pointless. You’re just going to keep bringing up stats that are irrelevant to the discussion. You’re also just going to keep saying that audiences are losing interest in the DC characters.

            One final comment, in anticipation of the next one that you post: Audiences wouldn’t be losing interest in Superman if the character would have been used properly. The studio heads, directors, … from Marvel would have used the character properly.

          • Chris B

            Wait wait wait….(let’s all take a deep breath) for the record, I side with Josh, he has argued rather convincingly that Marvel films are
            More successful than DC’s. To add to that I’d like to point out that in the list of the top ten highest grossing films of all time, Marvel has two (Iron Man 3 and The Avengers). The highest grossing DC movie (The Dark Knight Rises) came in at number 11, not even cracking the top 10. All me and Josh are saying that up to this point-and perhaps in the future-Marvel has made more successful movies both critically and financially.

            Now, you seem to be arguing a diffrent point.
            You’re arguing that DC has better CHARACTERS than Marvel.. Noone is saying you’re wrong on that. You like Batman more than Iron Man? that’s cool. You like Superman more than Captain America? that’s cool to. To each their own.

            I just took issue with your statement “forget Marvel, DC owns the comic book movie genre”. Which I believe is an inherently false statement based on both companies’ track records up till now. As for which company actually has better characters? It’s completely subjective and everyone is entitled to their own opinion…now…can we all just get along? šŸ™‚

          • Drew

            I can’t even begin to express the fact that you commented exactly as I knew you would. It’s priceless.

            I’m not buying your argument, Josh.

            You know very well that the success of a superhero film has almost nothing to do with the director. The success of a superhero film is dependent on whether or not the property was executed in a way that is pleasing to the masses, while also satisfying the core legion of fans. Disney/Marvel have constructed a nodding and winking combined uinverse that has been able to do this. WB/DC has not. This is no reflection of which comic book studio has a superior stable of CHARACTERS, which has been my one and only argument, all along.

            Perhaps posing it like this will help: Eliminate any movie made by either studio. Eliminate any statistic that has anything to do with box office. Travel back in time to the year 2004, if you need to. Take the 5 most popular DC characters and the 5 most popular Marvel characters (not including Spider-Man). Tell me which five characters you would pick, if you were going into a proverbial pick-up basketball game for box office glory, over the next decade. It’s not even close. DC’s stable of characters blows Marvel’s stable out of the water.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            Drew, I know that you’ll just accuse me of misrepresenting your words, but your argument here basically amounts to this:

            The reason Marvel’s movies do better than DC’s movies is that Marvel makes better movies than DC does.

            Is or is that not a fair summary?

            That being the case, how can you argue that DC “owns the comic movie genre”? Which studio has a theoretically better stable of characters is irrelevant if that studio isn’t making very good movies with those characters.

          • Drew

            Chris,

            By the way, my original comment was nothing more than a play on Josh’s words. I was never literally saying that DC owns the comic book movie genre. I apologize. I thought that was clear. I guess I should have started off by just using my own words, not trying to play on those that Josh had written.

          • Drew

            Read my reply to Chris.

            That was nothing more than a play on the wording of your poll option.

            I believed that was clear, all along.

            I now understand that it wasn’t, and that it was probably responsible for acting as a sticking point/barrier.

          • Drew

            You’re right, Josh.

            My original play on your words was the culprit.

            I was only ever intending to say that DC’s stable of characters is vastly superior, and I believe that if those superior characters would have been used more effectively, WB/DC would have dominated the box office, over the past decade.

        • Josh Zyber
          Author

          This is not a poll about Marvel movies. Therefore, a poll option stating “I don’t like Marvel movies” is not relevant.

          However, because this is a poll about DC movies, a poll option stating “I don’t like DC movies, [Competitor XYZ] is better anyway” is relevant.

          This distinction is very clear to me. Perhaps it’s not coming across.

          I’m with Chris in feeling that any potential the DC comic book characters may have is meaningless when the actual movies derived from those characters have not been very good on the whole. I like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as much as the next guy, but Dark Knight Rises sucked, Green Lantern sucked, Man of Steel was disappointing, and Batfleck v. Superman doesn’t instill me with a lot of confidence if Zack Snyder is directing again and the movie is going to be overstuffed with supporting characters just to set up the inevitable Justice League movie. Why not just call this one Justice League and get it over with? YMMV.

          I think DC has done a pretty good job with its television properties, but has mostly bungled its movie properties.

          • Drew

            I don’t think you can possibly understand how much you just contradicted yourself. This IS a poll about DC MOVIES. Therefore, a poll option for people who PREFER DC movies to Marvel movies, and find Marvel movies lacking is ABSOLUTELY relevant.

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            Let me put it this way: This is a poll about UPCOMING DC MOVIES. If you want to see some of these upcoming DC movies, you can select the poll options for all the upcoming DC movies you want to see. The “Forget DC” option equates to “I don’t want to see any of these upcoming DC movies.”

            This is not a poll about Marvel. If you think that DC is better than Marvel, you should vote for all of the DC movies you want to see.

        • Chris B

          Ok, thanks for being able to admit that DC doesn’t own the comic book movie genre…etc. I think we’ve made some progress šŸ™‚

          As for the character debate, Marvel has way better characters than DC IMHO (With the exception of Batman and -on a good day-Superman) Even if you dig Batman, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman. How do you even compare that to Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Thor, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, The X-men, Captain America, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, The Punisher.the list goes on and on…I respectfully disagree. DC has a few great characters…Marvel has a TON!

          • Drew

            This argument is dead in the water. We’re not discussing characters that Marvel CAN’T USE; only ones that it can. You just named a bunch of characters that Marvel doesn’t have access to. Now, try to comment again with characters that they can use.

            How about a top 5 comparison. I’ll say that the top 5 of each would look like this: Marvel: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, and (pick whatever other second rate character you want to fill out the top 5). DC: Batman (by far the biggest comic book character of all time, by every measure imaginable), Superman (historically, always one of the 1-3 biggest comic book characters), Wonder Woman, Flash, and (pick a second-tier DC character to fill out the top 5).

            C’mon, Chris, if I gave you a choice of these, 10 years ago, and you had to pick one to rule the box office for the next decade, there’s no way you would have went with Marvel. Did you even know who Iron Man was? (Most people seriously didn’t). Were you familiar with Thor? (Again, a lot of people were not).

          • Josh Zyber
            Author

            I believe he’s referring to the fact that Marvel can’t use Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and some others in its official “Cinematic Universe” because the movie rights to those characters were licensed out to other studios before Marvel got its act together.

          • Drew

            No. Why would we? If they can’t use them, they might as well have never been Marvel characters to begin with. Marvel dug their own grave, by selling them off. If Marvel had access to Spider-Man, all of the X-Men characters, and all of the Fantastic Four characters, nobody would ever try to argue that DC has a superior stable of characters.

            BUT THEY DON’T šŸ™‚

            They sold their rights. šŸ™

            We’re not discussing comic books. We’re discussing movies.

            In cinema, none of those characters are Disney/Marvel. They are Sony and Fox characters.

          • Chris B

            I’m a bad example because I collected comics for nearly 20 years and am pretty familiar with Marvel and DC’s lineup….I don’t even know what we’re arguing about anymore. I think Marvel has better superheroes than DC…that is all.

          • Chris B

            Well, clearly they didn’t “dig their own grave” because THEY MAKE WAY MORE FUCKING MONEY AT THE BOX OFFICE THAN DC DOES. AM I SPEAKING CLEARLY ENOUGH FOR YOU DREW?

          • Drew

            So, you’re implying that in reality, Disney/Marvel does have access to Spider-Man, the X-Men characters, and the Fantastic Four characters? And we should include all of them in a discussion about which studio has a superior stable of cinematic characters? Yes, it certainly seems that I’m the one with a skewed view of reality. šŸ™‚

          • Chris B

            But even with the selling off of those rights to Fox etc. they’re still more successful than DC is both critically and commercially. What do you even have left to argue? You’re essentially saying “oh but 10 years ago if DC had made better movies than Marvel than they’d be more successful!” What does that have to do with anything?Marvel movies have been more popular and successful than DC. An infinite number of things COULD have happenned but they didn’t, we’re only talking about what ACTUALLY happenned. I seriously can’t even tell if you believe what you write or you just love to argue with people….

          • Drew

            Hahaha! Comment of the day, Josh.

            Chris, I’m done with you. If you can’t even remember that this was just a simple argument about which studio has a better stable of CINEMATIC CHARACTERS, there’s really no point.

  9. John W

    I opted for ‘Wait for the trailers’…but in reality I’m not interested in any of them, mainly due to Zack Snyder’s (likely) tone deaf treatment of the characters. ‘Man of Steel’ was a tremendous disappointment for myself, and with Snyder on board for Batman v. Superman, as well as the two Justice League movies…he seems to be the one establishing the tone for the overall series. It doesn’t fill me with confidence.

  10. I really didn’t care for Man of Steel so there’s not much for me to get excited about. I’ll still see them, though I’ll probably wait for blu ray and hate-watch them like I still do with the Transformers movies for some reason. Whereas I feel legitimately guilty if I don’t see a Marvel movie opening weekend (and at least once more theatrically before inevitable buying.)

  11. Timcharger

    I’m a nerd, and I want to beat all of you up.

    DC/Marvel, Batman versus Iron Man, comic sales/box office receipts,
    valid survey options???

    Stop it!

    Can’t you see? All the hotties have left our Lamba Lamba Lamba party?

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