Ever since I saw Man of Steel, I've been trying to figure out why Marvel has been having such great success with bringing their heroes to the big screen, and DC, well lets face it, aside from Nolan's Dark Knight series, has really just been falling flat. Yup, this is the kind of stuff I think about. After much internal debate, and some fabulous conversing with The Boy, I've come to the conclusion that the super heroes being brought to us upon the big screen from DC just aren't as relateable as the Marvel characters.
Before you start arguing with me that The Avenger's fought of an entire alien race, or that the X-Men are made up of mutants, let me explain. Let's start by breaking down The Avengers. We'll start with Tony Stark. Tony Stark is basically The Marvel equivalent of DC's Bruce Wayne, except instead of a tricked out utility belt, he has a tricked out suit. Both are essentially genius, billionaire, playboys, who decide, for various reasons, to use their abilities for the good of humanity. Most importantly, they are both humans, who have used their intellect and abilities to fight crime/evil.
Black Widow, also human. Natasha Romanoff is a former Russian spy. She is trained in various forms of combat and has no "magical" abilities, thus making her a fairly "believable" character.
Hawkeye, again human. Clint Barton is a ridiculously skilled marksmen with a bow and arrow, sure he was smart enough to create some awesome trick arrows, but again no other worldly powers. He's just a really talented man.
Now we get to the more "fantastical" creatures of the Avengers line up. Let's start with Captain America. The interesting thing about Steve Rogers is, he started off human. He still has all the human emotions, he's just been altered into a super soldier. And if we really think about it, it's not so unbelievable. I mean we've seen the effects drugs can have on the human body, steroids, meth, who knows with the right cocktail who's to say our government couldn't create a super solider?
Same principle applies to The Hulk, I mean he is basically a government super solider serum gone wrong. So who's to say something like that is so far out of our grasp.
Then there is Thor. Ok Norse God of Thunder may be a little far fetched a concept. However Thor, and to some degree Loki, are just part of a larger picture. They are not the full focus of the movie, and lets face it the stand alone Thor movie was ok, but not nearly as good as the more believable heroes who had stand alones.
The Boy and I were having a discussion the other day as to why it is easier to believe in The X-Men, as opposed to Superman, and he came up with the suggestion that it has to do with believability. It is easier to believe that there is perhaps a race of mutants that have evolved in society, because you have so many different characters to choose from, where as Superman is the only one of his kind, if we're are not counting in Super Girl or General Zod. He is pretty much an all power alien being come to Earth to basically judge us. Sure he grew up upon Earth, which makes him more inclined to side with earthlings and yet, he remains different from us, "better" than us.
So the other day while I was catching up, on my DVRed programs from the fall, I realized the next perfect DC comic book character to introduce to the big screen is, none other than Mr. Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow. Now, I know what you're thinking, Oliver Queen is just a more obscure version of Bruce Wayne. I will grant you that there are similarities between the two men. Both are spurn to their vigilantly tactics by the death of a parent, or in Bruce's case parents. Both are considered criminals by their respected cities police forces, at least for a time. Both are gorgeous, rich, billionaire playboys. Still this does not make them the same person, in fact I think it is their similarities that will help make a Green Arrow movie a success. DC's best success in recent years has definitely been The Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan took great pains to keep that universe as "real" as he possibly could.
Green Arrow, being a lesser known DC superhero would allow for a wider interpretation with less backlash. I will fully admit to the fact that having a Green Arrow movie would more likely than not allow the introduction of Black Canary, and lets face it, I would be giddy upon the introduction of a female superhero upon the big screen. I could go on and on about how ridiculous the lack of female superheroes in our current pop culture universe is, but I feel that is a rant for another post.
Until then I suppose I will just have to get my fill watching the CW's Arrow, which is not such a bad deal I suppose.
