As a lifelong DC fan, I’ve loved a lot of the DC Animated movies and looking forward to seeing their latest release Superman: Red Son coming out in two weeks. Also this week we saw the first official trailer of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.
This would make it two of the three released movies with Superman: Man of Tomorrow coming up in the autumn/winter.
I’ve enjoyed the style of these stories being told and the plan of releasing three movies a year, two set in the New 52 world they’ve created and one Elseworlds story.
After year’s of multiple Batman animated films, it’s nice to see Superman get more in recent years with the release of the wonderful two-parter The Death of Superman/Reign of the Superman and now two more movies this year.
However, in the DCA we’ve always gotten either a Batman, Superman or Justice League movie and while I again like them, it does get a bit boring seeing the same character. It makes it more exciting to see Wonder Woman get a showcase (even though she should be in double digits now).
My favourite movie isn’t even feature-length, it was a short film as part of the extras on the DVD/Blu-ray called DC Showcase. This one was part of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, and it’s called Death and thought it was a beautiful story believing director Sam Liu should be given a chance to make a series of Death short films.
Apart from the rare Wonder Woman, Titans, Justice League Dark and Suicide Squad, no other characters seem to get a look. So here are five DC characters that deserve their own animated movie.
The Flash
In live-action, The Flash is doing pretty well. He’s got a successful TV series and a movie that’ll at some point happen. However, in the animated world, he gets sidelined.
The only movie they’ve focused on him is with Flashpoint, and even then that was understandably turned into a brilliant Justice League film, but it’s a shame.
Barry Allen is an iconic character and having at least one solo adventure is deserving.
The story would be the most classic Flash story, Flash of Two Worlds.
This could be an Elseworlds story, or it’d likely be part of the continuity of the current DCA universe as we can be introduced to the multiverse as Allen meets Jay Garrick. Still, like most animated adaptations I’d change a couple of things.
Instead of the criminal trio of The Fiddler, The Shade and The Thinker, I’d change them for better-known villains like Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold and Heat Wave.
Green Lantern
It’s been almost a decade since the last Green Lantern feature animated film. The character has been lucky enough to have First Flight and Emerald Knights but has since, like The Flash, been a member of the Justice League.
However, it does the character a disservice as he became a must-read when Geoff Johns came on board. One of the stories highly praised was the Sinestro Corps War.
While the Parallax and Blackest Night storylines are still on the table, I’d have they saved for later as an Elseworlds story with Sinestro Corps War based within the DCA continuity but only loosely.
Like all DCA New 52 based universe films, it’d follow the comic story but with a few changes. Like Hal Jordan is the one captured with John Stewart, Gary Gardner and Jessica Cruz trying to rescue Hal and there’s no Cyborg Superman and Superman-Prime.
It’d give fans of the Justice League animated series joy of watching Stewart lead the GL Corp into war and provide a chance for everyone to meet Gardner and Cruz.
It would also follow The Dark Knight Returns and Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen being a two-part film.
Birds of Prey
Besides Wonder Woman, and even then she’s only had two movies, female lead DCA films don’t exist, which is crazy.
One female-led property that comes to mind is Birds of Prey. Not only for the recent live-action movie but because of Gail Simone joined the comic and made it hugely popular and would do a mixture of her comic run with some other changes.
It would be Batgirl and Black Canary duo with Huntress joining the team as they Savant and Creote and build towards Barbara Gordon becoming Oracle, or you start the film with Oracle already put of the universe.
Agent Grayson
This is a left-field choice and could be suited to a DC Showcase release or trial, but as an Elseworlds story, it could be great fun.
It would be a James Bond/spy movie in the DCA as we see Dick Grayson infiltrate a spy organisation called Spyral. We get to see a different side of Helena Bertinelli (Huntress), and with it being an Elseworlds story, I’d play more with it.
It would be an original movie, similar to Justice League: Gods and Monsters, and include known characters in a different light and have Grayson/Bertinelli go against Bane.
Green Arrow
With this inclusion, I’m hoping you know where I’m going with it.
If not, over a decade ago David S Goyer was coming off the back of successfully co-writing Batman Begins to work on a Green Arrow script called Escape From Super Max.
The plot was Oliver Queen was incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, the assassination of a high-ranking government official. He was locked up in the high-security prison, Super Max.
The same prison he’s locked up plenty of villains, but with the help of his fellow inmates, they try to escape.
The animated film would’ve been Goyer’s attempt but with the script updated and I think it would be a great Elseworlds story and this would be the first time Green Arrow had a feature film following the decent DC showcase a decade ago.
The Bear Cave 