DC Cinematic Universe ( The James Gunn era)

[Kai "the spy"]

Just watched the finale of Creature Commandos. It ends with a bang, not the epic action kind, but with an emotional gutpunch and a satisfying ending. It's nice to see Gunn play in this format where he doesn't need to put the big action piece at the end. Looking forward to season 2.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

If you'll deny Batman is more grounded than Superman you'll deny anything.

Indeed.

Such a denial is puerile at its core. Its an attempt to remove Batman from his foundation: a violent vigilante forever in the grip of the worst childhood trauma imaginable--watching his parents murdered before his eyes. That is the origin of the character and his grounded, brutal reaction to it served as the unquestioned greatest periods / arcs for the character in print, and adaptations for film (the Nolan Batman trilogy and the DCEU Batman).

Superman has changed with the times, so he's not that Weisinger joke DC worked hard to move beyond in the Bronze Age-forward (though inconsistent), but anyone trying to argue that Batman is only slightly more grounded or serious, must be doing a line from the long-ridiculed dust of the 1966 TV Batman series, the Super Friends or that horrible Legends of the Superheroes TV special from 1979--all versions of Batman rejected by most producers of superhero content in their collective wake.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Just watched the finale of Creature Commandos. It ends with a bang, not the epic action kind, but with an emotional gutpunch and a satisfying ending. It's nice to see Gunn play in this format where he doesn't need to put the big action piece at the end. Looking forward to season 2.

James Gunn just posted an interview with Rotten Tomatoes TV on YouTube and he gave some details about the new members of the team including one carry over from his 'Suicide Squad' movie and who will be doing the voice.
Edit to add.
Gunn also confirmed that Frank Grillo, who voices Rick Flagg Sr., will be appearing in a major role as a live action version of Rick in the upcoming Superman.

 

[JD]

THeoretically if a person had enough money and training they could become a real life Batman, but no amount of money is going to turn a person into a character like Superman or Wonder Woman.

 

[BillJ]

THeoretically if a person had enough money and training they could become a real life Batman, but no amount of money is going to turn a person into a character like Superman or Wonder Woman.

I’m skeptical. Someone like Musk or Zuckerberg would have tried it, if it was remotely feasible.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

One of the nice bits of Geoff Johns' Batman: Earth One was that on his first night, Batman got the shit beaten out of him because in reality, dressing up in a bat-themed suit with mask and cape would not scare professional gangsters.

In reality, Batman would be dead by night three at the latest, simply because you can't dodge hundreds of bullets, at some point one of them is gonna hit. And also because exhaustion is a thing in reality.

 

[Tosk]

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[dahj]

I’m skeptical. Someone like Musk or Zuckerberg would have tried it,

I dunno, you kinda have to care about other people at least a little bit to wanna try that...

 

[The Realist]

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With bonus Amy Adams!

 

[JD]

Yeah, it probably wouldn't go as well as it does in the comics, but it's not as impossible as the super powered characters are.

I’m skeptical. Someone like Musk or Zuckerberg would have tried it, if it was remotely feasible.

I can't really see either of them caring about other people enough to try something like that.

 

[BillJ]

I dunno, you kinda have to care about other people at least a little bit to wanna try that...

I can't really see either of them caring about other people enough to try something like that.

I don't think it would be about helping or caring about other people. It would just be something that would put them above rank-and-file humans.

 

[Christopher]

One of the nice bits of Geoff Johns' Batman: Earth One was that on his first night, Batman got the shit beaten out of him because in reality, dressing up in a bat-themed suit with mask and cape would not scare professional gangsters.

I get so tired of people trotting out these "in reality" arguments about Batman. It's not in reality. Batman lives in a universe where costumed crimefighters are an established, effective phenomenon, so there's no reason people wouldn't take him seriously there.

That argument also ignores what Batman Begins demonstrated marvelously: The bad guys don't necessarily even see Batman clearly. He's a mysterious dark figure who comes at them in the dark and beats them up before they know what hit them. If they get an impression of a dark form with pointed ears or horns and some kind of cloak or wings or something, their imaginations will fill in the rest.

In reality, Batman would be dead by night three at the latest, simply because you can't dodge hundreds of bullets, at some point one of them is gonna hit. And also because exhaustion is a thing in reality.

You could say that about any action hero -- James Bond, Indiana Jones, Jim Rockford, whoever. Anyone who gets hit on the head and knocked out as regularly as your typical TV private eye is going to develop serious brain damage very quickly. Anyone who gets shot in the shoulder even once is probably going to have lifelong mobility issues. But adventure heroes shake it off, because the audience doesn't want to see them suffer permanent disability, they want to see ongoing adventure stories.

Complaining that fiction isn't like reality is facile and pointless, because it's not supposed to be reality. The audience knows perfectly well that it's not real and doesn't need that explained to them. It would be obnoxious to storm into a magic show and warn the audience that it's all fake. They know it's all fake. They choose to suspend disbelief because they want to be entertained by a well-constructed illusion.

 

[dahj]

I get so tired of people trotting out these "in reality" arguments about Batman. It's not in reality. Batman lives in a universe where costumed crimefighters are an established, effective phenomenon, so there's no reason people wouldn't take him seriously there.

Batman has been around for almost a century. He's lived in many universes, some more reality-ish than others.

 

[BillJ]

Batman has been around for almost a century. He's lived in many universes, some more reality-ish than others.

Any way one slices it, it would still be hell on the body and I couldn't see even the most physically gifted being able to hold up under that workload.

 

[BillJ]

I wonder if there are nights that Bruce Wayne makes Alfred walk the streets of Gotham in the Batman suit, so he can have the night off?

 

[Mudd]

And another slight letdown at the finish - Creature Commandos set up a couple of hooks that they didn't pay off, and what should have been a big reveal at the end was a nothingburger.

But then, I guess the entire mission was something of a macguffin all along.

I still love the show. And at least

Spoiler

G.I. Robot lives!

Brokenhearted about

Spoiler

Nina

though.

 

[Christopher]

Batman has been around for almost a century. He's lived in many universes, some more reality-ish than others.

But that's the point. A fictional universe can work whatever way its creators say it works, so saying "It wouldn't work like that in real life" is a category error. Even "realistic" fiction doesn't truly work like real life; it just tries to create a reasonably persuasive illusion thereof.

I mean, let's face it, if Bruce Wayne existed in real life, he'd probably be a greedy corporate predator like most billionaires, particularly the ones who inherit their wealth. At most, he'd use his fortune to fund crime prevention and civic reform rather than try to clean the city up with fists and batarangs. So a story where Batman exists at all is already a departure from strict realism. But realism doesn't demand actual reality. It just means you surround the unrealities of the story with enough realistic details that it feels real if you don't dig too deeply.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I get so tired of people trotting out these "in reality" arguments about Batman. It's not in reality. Batman lives in a universe where costumed crimefighters are an established, effective phenomenon, so there's no reason people wouldn't take him seriously there.

That argument also ignores what Batman Begins demonstrated marvelously: The bad guys don't necessarily even see Batman clearly. He's a mysterious dark figure who comes at them in the dark and beats them up before they know what hit them. If they get an impression of a dark form with pointed ears or horns and some kind of cloak or wings or something, their imaginations will fill in the rest.




You could say that about any action hero -- James Bond, Indiana Jones, Jim Rockford, whoever. Anyone who gets hit on the head and knocked out as regularly as your typical TV private eye is going to develop serious brain damage very quickly. Anyone who gets shot in the shoulder even once is probably going to have lifelong mobility issues. But adventure heroes shake it off, because the audience doesn't want to see them suffer permanent disability, they want to see ongoing adventure stories.

Complaining that fiction isn't like reality is facile and pointless, because it's not supposed to be reality. The audience knows perfectly well that it's not real and doesn't need that explained to them. It would be obnoxious to storm into a magic show and warn the audience that it's all fake. They know it's all fake. They choose to suspend disbelief because they want to be entertained by a well-constructed illusion.

I'm sorry, were you not looking what discussion was going on? A few people claimed that Batman was more plausible and realistic than Superman, and I took part in the counter-argument, specifically the notion that Batman was anywhere near plausibility or realism.
In fact, Superman only has that one conceit, that he has superpowers and is invulnerable to bullets. Once that implausibility is accepted, it is accepted that bullets bounce off him each and every single time. With Batman, the conceit is that he dodges the bullets shot at him. Which is plausible only up to a point.
Neither of them are realistic, but they're still two of my absolute favorite fictional characters. Superman, in fact, is my #1 favorite character.

And just as a side-note, as it doesn't matter anyway - but then, none of this discussion matters, really - but Batman gets shot at way more than any of the other characters. James Bond only gets shot at sometimes when he's on a mission, Indy when he's on an adventure, Rockford when he's on a case, and so on. Batman, however, puts himself in dangerous situations several times a night, almost every single night. So, it is implausible with all those characters, but Batman is still on another level of implausibility.

 

[Mudd]

The notion that Bats survives three minutes into any fight with a metahuman is preposterous.

(Insert endless jokes about "time to prepare.")

 

[Mudd]

THeoretically if a person had enough money and training they could become a real life Batman,

No.