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A spoiler-free discussion.

The release of the DC: The World Needs Heroes trailer during the Superbowl Halftime Show sent shockwaves throughout the fandom, as many an eager fan took to Twitter to express their excitement at the prospect of receiving not one but four DC Comics films this year. However, in a sudden turn of events, the studio behind the projects has since reshuffled the release dates of these films, moving them around in a shocking twist that has upset the once elated fandom.

Save for The Batman, which was released on its promised date, the remaining three films: Black Adam, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, have all seen their release dates revised under the most strangest of circumstances. The new release dates for the films are as follows: Black Adam, which was originally scheduled to release on July 29th, 2022, has now been rescheduled for October 21st, 2022. The Flash initially had a release date of November 4th, 2022, but is now being reported to have been pushed back all the way to June 23rd, 2023. Finally, the Aquaman sequel, which was scheduled to release on December 16th, 2022, has now been relocated to a March 17th, 2023 date.

INSANE BATMAN COMIC COVER WALL STICKER COLLECTION

The reason given by the studio in regards to the reshuffling of these release dates is due to Covid-19 delays, leaving much of the CGI effects incomplete and therefore causing the films not to be able to meet their original deadlines. Despite the studio confirming this to be their reasoning, there have been plenty of fan theories floating about that seem to believe that there is another reason to be explored as to why these delays are happening.

According to online scoopers, this reason is none other than to add “reshoots” to the films. Although we cannot confirm or deny the details from these scoopers, their theories are still worth investing time in.

The reason this theory of reshoots cropped up is that the fandom believes that the ongoing Discovery and Warner Bros. merger might be having an effect on the DCEU as a whole. The theory is that Discovery are not too pleased with the direction that the current DCEU is taking, as it is moving away from the vision ultimately created by Zack Snyder, and with the monumental success that is Zack Snyder’s Justice League, scoopers believe that these reshoots to the three films are being made in order to make the films fall in line with what Snyder had envisioned.

If this theory is to believed, then it is an exciting one at that, as it finally gives us Snyder fans the necessary hope that the Snyderverse will be restored very soon. Until that time comes, we shall wait with bated breath to see if the scoopers are right.

Major spoilers to follow.

John Cena as the titular Peacemaker

To the surprise of no one, James Gunn’s Peacemaker television show on HBO MAX is a massive hit among fans and critics alike. Utilizing Gunn’s talented writing and directing skills, the show is one that is full of heart, comedy, violence, and just the right amount of drama to keep things from spiraling out of control. However, despite the shows overwhelming success among audiences that tuned in for its eight-episode runtime, there was one scene in the finale that got the internet riled up, and not in a good way.

To recap the moments of the finale: Christopher Smith, a.k.a. Peacemaker and his ragtag team of handlers successfully infiltrate the Butterflies compound, and after a long battle filled with Gunn’s signature “beautiful” violence as seen in The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker kills the alien “cow” and thus ends the Butterflies’ ability to sustain themselves and take over planet Earth. As the titular character and his team then walk through the blood-soaked battlefield, the team is surprised to see the arrival of the Justice League, late to the party, but very evidently missing a few members.

These missing members are that of Cyborg and Batman. As integral members of the Justice League, viewers found it odd that the two superheroes were left out of the cameo that featured Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller reprising their roles as Aquaman and The Flash, while the roles of Superman and Wonder Woman were played by stunt doubles.

The late arrival of an incomplete Justice League

Of course, there is certainly an easy way for the showrunners to use to simply explain away the missing Batman and Cyborg characters. Maybe they were just busy on other crime-fighting endeavors, or perhaps they were not necessarily needed to combat the likes of the Butterflies, but it still strikes us as odd that the two characters missing from the line-up are the ones that the studio is having the most problem dealing with at the moment.

As we all know, there is no love lost between the studio and Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in 2017’s Justice League and 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The actor has accused the studio of unfair treatment towards him on numerous occasions, causing the studio to issue a rebuttal and remove him from any future films.

Then, there is the matter of Batman, or more specifically, Batfleck. With the actor no longer interested in playing the role, the Justice League’s appearance in Peacemaker only more than certifies his departure from the DCEU, which is frankly quite disappointing if at all true.

Maybe we are overthinking it. Maybe we are not. But there certainly seems to be enough evidence to speculate on why such important members of the Justice League would be left out of the cameo by the showrunners of Peacemaker.

Or perhaps, the showrunners just did not want to take the spotlight away from the Peacemaker himself.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, seen here in full costume

There is certainly a lot to be excited about when it comes to the Black Adam film. First of all, it will be the character’s debut into the DCEU, one that has been teased since as early as 2014 and looks to be inching closer towards materializing in July of this year. The introduction of Black Adam will also mark the increased potential for a Shazam versus Black Adam film in the near future as well, something the fans have been clamoring on for a long time, as the two characters are known rivals in the comics and video games.

With all that excitement out of the way, there is a point to ponder on that could very well potentially hint at where the DCEU is heading towards: the inclusion of the Justice Society of America in the Black Adam movie.

For the uninitiated, the Justice Society of America, often styled as JSA, is the first superhero team ever created in comic history, even before the Justice League. While the team has been through various updates and cancellations and revivals in the comics over the years, much of its core group members have remained the same, in particular Doctor Fate, Hawkman, and Atom Smasher.

The sudden introduction of the JSA into the Black Adam film is a worrying addition to the hopes of ever seeing the Justice League on screen again. As of the time of writing, there has been no certifiable word that a Justice League 2 is in the works, and it certainly looks like the JSA has been added to the DCEU to act as a sort of surrogate superhero team while the studio figures out what to do next with the Justice League.

Of course, this is not to say that the JSA is not an exciting superhero team to root for, far from it. The JSA is more than capable of having their own spinoff film or limited TV show on HBO MAX should the Black Adam film be a total success. However, it is a little sad to note that the studio has opted to create a whole new superhero team for the fans instead of giving them a continuation to a team that they are already familiar with.

Still, we would like to think that the JSA is in no way set to replace the Justice League in the DCEU. After all, it would be a silly move on the studio’s part to drop the Justice League from its line-up of potential sequels, given the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. There is still plenty of stories to tell, and one only hopes that the Justice Society of America would not impede the efforts of the creative team intending to tell the next Justice League story.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman in the DCEU

It is rather hard to imagine that in a mythology filled with such rich and fantastical characters, a half-man, half-Atlantean ruler of the vast oceans of the world would be anything but a joke to most people. Yet, certain portrayals can have a severely detrimental value to a said character, lasting decades and creating countless running jokes that never seem to tucker out. One such character at the receiving end of this was Aquaman.

Of course, this was in no way the character’s fault that the Ruler of Atlantis was never taken seriously by the geek community until recently. In fact, the actual blame for the silly perception of the character had to do with the way in which Aquaman was portrayed in a long-forgotten kids show titled Superfriends that ran from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s.

It is in this infamous show that we see an almost wimpy side of the character being shown. This is where the joke regarding the character’s only ability being able to talk to fish spawned from. Every time Aquaman would appear in the show, he would always be seen as doing something silly like riding a seahorse or flying fish. Aside from that, the show’s portrayal of the character meant that Aquaman was perceived as a powerless character who could not do anything other than summon fish to do his bidding.

It is this perception of the character that stuck with Aquaman for many decades to come, even though the character enjoyed a much cooler portrayal in the comic books. But as not many people read comic books back in the late 70s and early 80s, they automatically assumed that the portrayal of the character on the Superfriends show was accurate to his character in the comics.

However, it needs to be said that Aquaman is in no way a silly character. In fact, he is one of the coolest members of the Justice League. The character is as powerful as Wonder Woman, with the ability to control every aspect of the sea, which could mean that he could drown the entire earth if he wanted to. Furthermore, the character is nearly impervious to bullets, possesses super strength, and has the ability to command various kinds of sea creatures to fight alongside him when necessary.

Therefore, when one considers the character of Aquaman, it should in no way resemble the portrayal of the character in the Superfriends animated series, but rather, one that resembles the portrayal of the character in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and the standalone Aquaman movie. It is in these portrayals that the character finally is given the justice he deserves, and hopefully, with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom set to come out in December of this year, we can rest assured in knowing that the seahorse riding Atlantean will become a thing of the past.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam

The recent release of the DC: The World Needs Heroes trailer during the Superbowl was chock-full of exciting content for all the upcoming DCEU films for 2022. One of those said exciting moments was a more in-depth look at Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, which has a currently scheduled release date of July 29, 2022. Based on the various snippets shown in the trailer, it would appear that Black Adam is, in fact, not going to be pegged as the main villain of the movie as initially thought, but rather, it most certainly looks like Johnson’s character is set to be a sort of conflicted anti-hero that audiences can empathize with.

This evidence can be seen from his interactions with the members of the Justice Society of America, specifically with Hawkman, where Johnson’s character delivers a monologue about losing his son, and another scene with Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate, the latter of whom offers Teth-Adam a place with the JSA. If Black Adam is to be a part of the JSA in the film, it would definitely be a complete deviation from his comic book storyline, which often refers to Black Adam as the villain rather than a hero.

Perhaps this particular narrative was purposely tailored to suit Dwayne Johnson’s charismatic and good-guy persona, that way allowing him to channel his characteristics into Black Adam in order to make him a more likable character in the film. This, of course, does have its good and bad points, as the more avid fans of the character might feel that making Black Adam a protagonist rather than an antagonist might just cheapen his entire story arc.

But speculation aside, we do hope that there is no bait and switch when it comes to the character of Black Adam. Fans have already expressed their reservations regarding the character’s look, as he does not possess the hair nor the pointy ears that comic book readers have come to associate with the character of Teth-Adam.

That being said, if Johnson’s Black Adam is to be a sympathetic anti-hero in his debut film, then it could only mean that there will be a secondary villain that will be put in place for him to battle his way through alongside the Justice Society of America. This could be the only likely scenario that would lend proper credence to the idea of Black Adam ever doing anything heroic, and whether or not this is to be true remains to be seen.

Still, 2022 looks like it is going to be a very bold year for the DCEU; with four movies lined up for theatrical release, it would be interesting to see if the films can deliver and finally give the DCEU the necessary break it needs to be taken seriously as an interconnected universe.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Robert Pattinson as The Batman

“I’m vengeance.” - The Batman

Among the many gadgets and tricks that The Caped Crusader employs to put the literal fear of god into his enemies, one particular trait stands out as what we believe is the most important of them all: his voice.

Throughout the many years that Batman has appeared on screen, there existed a pressure on the actor who would eventually don the cape and cowl to not only exhibit the physically menacing presence of The Dark Knight but also communicate that said presence through his voice. After all, Batman would not be Batman if his voice did not reflect his image. The “bat voice”, while unique to each individual interpretation of The Caped Crusader over the years, is essential to the kind of superhero that he is.

To put it simply, Batman is a character that often relies on intimidation, whether to extract information out of a low-level thug or to espouse a stoic monologue that would send chills down the spines of most of his Rogues Gallery and subsequently send fans cheering at how cool the character is.

Ever since the Keaton era Batman, it is an accepted truth that the bat voice often used in the films is one that is a combination of a whisper and a gravelly low-register tone. This gives the Batman the right amount of grim appeal that makes his foes instantly take him seriously.

That being said, the most widely recognized Batman voice associated with the character is Kevin Conroy’s voice from the animated series and video games. Unlike the films, Conroy’s voice presents a clear and commanding tone, one that presents him as a leader and a serious individual that should not be messed around with.

Then, of course, there came Christian Bale’s Batman, who utilized a more coarse sort of speech that received mixed reviews from fans. While it did suit the version of the Batman that Bale portrayed, it would ultimately go on to be a running joke that Bale’s Batman suffered from a sore throat and hence developed the voice.

With Batfleck, however, his portrayal of The Caped Crusader presented him as using a voice modulator to give him a more robotic and low-register, completely masking his voice and concealing his identity while also sounding threatening enough to do the character justice.

With that being said, it would appear that the Robert Pattinson Batman appears to be applying a style of bat voice that is a mix between the Keaton era Batman and the coarser Bale Batman voice. This could make the character appear grimmer and ultra-serious to audiences. We would certainly be interested to see if the actor manages to convince us with his interpretation of the character because the Batman is not truly the Batman without his voice.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Every so often, a new story concept would emerge that subsequently impacts the comic book world quite significantly. One such momentous occasion, probably the most shocking and memorable of them all, was the heroic death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday in 1992. Of course, it has to be mentioned that this epic moment in pop culture was not a meticulously crafted pre-planned affair. In fact, as the writer, Jerry Ordway, candidly noted after the massive success of the story arc, the entire concept of having the Man of Steel meet his end began as a joke. In actuality, the writers had been working on a marriage story arc between Clark Kent and Lois Lane before it was postponed by the publisher in order to coincide with a similar story arc for the Lois & Clark television show.

Why The Death of Superman story arc worked in 1992

The iconic image of Superman dead

Superman #75 sold six million copies making it the highest-selling single-issue comic book in 1992. What began as a joke proved to achieve the level of success it had intended to as interest in Superman comics began to increase from then on. The worry of dwindling sales was now negated, as the story arc captured the Man of Steel in an entirely new light, one where the long-thought-of-as immortal Kryptonian had finally met his match and perished in a blaze of glory. The biggest attribute the comic had going for it was the familiarity that comic readers around the world had with Superman. After all, the Man of Steel had already been around for nearly six decades at that point. Hence, shaking things up a little was the next best thing for the character’s popularity.

Why The Death of Superman story arc failed in Batman v Superman

Superman’s death scene in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Like many aspects of this film, Batman v Superman was chock full of moments that, while appearing to achieve narrative plausibility on the page, did not successfully translate as well on the big screen (at least, on first viewing). Arguably the biggest letdown in the movie was Superman’s death. The easiest reason to point out as to why the scene itself took a kryptonite spear to the chest simply boils down to character establishment. Unlike Superman in the comics, with nearly 60 years of established rapport among comic readers under his belt, the Man of Steel in the DCEU had only ever appeared in one other movie, which was his origin film back in 2013.

Unfortunately, this relatively fresh Superman was not allocated the adequate amount of time (or movies) to make his death resonate strongly with viewers. To put it simply, how can one genuinely empathize with the death of a significant character if one has not spent enough time with them? It would be akin to Ned Stark being beheaded in episode two of Game of Thrones instead of episode nine or Iron Man sacrificing himself in his sophomore film as opposed to Avengers: Endgame.

In short, Superman’s death in Batman v Superman received the polar opposite reception from the one the character got in the comic books simply because it carried no weight. It is the time spent with a character that gives them this weight with audiences, and sadly, Batman v Superman simply forgot about this most crucial element of storytelling – and the rest, as they say, is history.

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A spoiler-free discussion.

Where Hollywood is concerned, Dwayne Johnson is arguably its biggest star and, therefore, its biggest cash cow. The professional wrestler turned actor known for the heaps of charisma he exudes both on and off-screen makes him an individual that would be extremely difficult to dislike. Thus, it was only a matter of time before Johnson would inevitably be approached to star in a superhero film. After all, charisma aside, the man certainly has the build to accurately translate a muscle-bound comic book hero onto the live-action big screen.

Known for his heroic portrayals in various films, it came as no surprise when DC Comics initially offered the role of Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Shazam, to Johnson, which would have given the actor the perfect role to showcase his heroic prowess further. However, Johnson would eventually turn the role down, opting instead to portray Shazam’s primary antagonist, Black Adam. Fast forward to today, Black Adam has since wrapped filming and is in the post-production stage, with a release date slated for July 29th, 2022.

As excited as we are to see Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, we would be lying if we said that we were not at all hesitant about his casting as the villain. This simply boils down to the fact that Johnson has not really played a truly villainous role throughout his career. Of course, this is not to say that he has never played an antagonist at all: far from it. But in all the roles that Johnson has been in that made him out to be the antagonist, his immediate likeability became his biggest flaw. This often made it difficult to see Johnson as a true villain, one that would be taken seriously enough to justify the character as a true baddy.

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, seen here in a sneak peek of a scene from the upcoming film

Black Adam, on the other hand, is an example of a true baddy. His immortality and imprisonment for over a millennia by the wizard Shazam have rendered him cold and indifferent to all that exists around him. He is a man of few words, leaving only death and destruction in his wake, possessing absolute power and a skewed view of how the world should be. Therefore, in comparison to Dwayne Johnson’s other villainous roles, Black Adam is sure to be the actor’s darkest one yet. In order to nail the part, Johnson would have to trade in his now-iconic brow-lift, illuminating smile, and kind nature to embody a convincing all-powerful, god-like villain.

Whether or not the actor is able to achieve this darker feat remains to be seen. That being said, if Johnson does manage to pull off the character of Black Adam, it would certainly not have been the first time that we, as audiences, were pleasantly surprised by such an achievement in DC Comics film history.

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