Friday Five: 5 Superhero Movies I'd Like to See
Friday, September 13, 2013
As long as we're making superhero films, I'd like to put in some requests. Here are five more to put on the list:
Nexus
Did anyone else read Nexus? Another one of those weird First Comics titles (like Badger, which no one read) that bounced around between a few different publishers. Nexus was an interstellar superhero with "fusion" powers ("fusion" was the "power cosmic" of this universe, it just did... whatever...). He was tasked by a mysterious alien overlord to hunt down serial killers and kill them. If he refused, he would have terrible headaches, nightmares, etc. If he didn't refuse, he'd go further down a path of madness... Nexus was definitely killing the bad guys, but the bad guys had families, stable governments, loving children, etc. etc. It was dark.
Also, he was a historian, which is kind of cute.
Squadron Supreme
Seriously, find this book - it was as grimdark as superheroes got in the 1980s got before Watchmen slapped the whole industry upside its head. Squadron Supreme were like, DC-analogues, but they were Marvel characters, in a parallel universe from mainstream Marvel stuff. Does that make sense? Basically they were a way to dick around with Batman and Superman, but in the Marvel universe. Whatever. Anyway, they went through their own bizarre dystopian streak which involved the Green Arrow analogue going crazy and brainwashing the Black Canary analogue into loving him and then everyone deciding that brainwashing the whole universe was a really good idea. So Batman analogue joined up with a lot of villain analogues and fought back. In a way, a bit like Civil War, but back when stories could be told in a finite number of issues.
Doctor Strange
So, I'm mixed about this. On one hand, one of my favourite characters and he has some amazingly fun villains and interesting plots and, you know, stuff. On the other: a) has he really ever been written well as a character? I mean the whole "surgeon goes greedy / reclaims soul in Tibet / becomes mystical person" thing is about as Eighties a storyline as you can imagine, b) I don't like ambiguous, limitless powers, and Doctor Strange has a ton of them - he just does, you know, magic and c) they're already apparently making one. BUT, visually, it'd be awesome. And I'd see it just for the whirling colours and crazy monsters. I don't think it'd be good, but, hell, I'd watch it.
Cloak and Dagger
This is a cheat, as I don't really want it to be a movie as much as a new comics series. The original title was a) brilliant - addressing as it did the drug trade, not supervillains, but, you know, actual problems, b) tackling teen angst and c) even trying to do stuff about class and race. But I'm nervous about re-reading it because I suspect that d) it is probably racist as hell (if someone has read these again recently and says "no, they're fine", I'll be relieved. But I suspect that's unlikely). Anyway, in the weird cinema of my mind this is a sort of Gossip Girl/Wire mash-up with Blake Lively and Idris Elba fighting crime and TELL ME THAT WOULDN'T BE AWESOME.
Doctor Doom
I mean, come on - the Fantastic Four are boring and they've already tried. Twice. But Doom is interesting. He's a surprisingly well-developed character and could very, very easily become an anti-hero with a film of his own. Smart kid from a horrible family. Sent off to smart kid school, where he doesn't fit in - and meets his unbelievably annoying/pretentious rivals in Reed Richards and/or Tony Stark or/whomever. Horrible things happen to him. Scarred for life. Vows revenge. Also realises that he has awesome powers and he can, like, free his mom's soul from hell or something... One of those cases where we can pit a badass bad guy against other badass bad guys and cheer for the former 'cause he's a touch more human. A bit, I dunno, Pitch Black. In fact, let's cast Vin Diesel right now, because, wouldn't you?
Ok, your turn - what superhero movies would you like to see?