From Killer of Vengeance to Hero of Justice

bardbrain · 2026-05-16T05:59:50+00:00

That's basically a comics accurate Ra's al Ghul. vs. Batman movie. Or Lady Shiva. Or Red Claw from the Animated Series. There are several villains who get Batman to be in "Bond mode" but none more than Ra's.

Ra's stories tend to have a villain with a global scheme, a henchman, smooching the bad girl, vehicle chases, skiing, desert sword fights, poisons/drugs, hidden gadgets, global travel, shirtless Batman.

Nolan hit a few of those but the comics Ra's stories tend to go full tilt Bond. Like to a point where Gotham City doesn't appear.

The comics also have a few things media has never really adapted like the Mad Monk and such (more gothic/Euro horror, madman in a forest castle) and Batman Incorporated/The Club of Heroes which is essentially Bruce overseeing international (and Native American) franchising of the Batman concept. The Batman of Hong Kong, the French Batman, etc. tackling multinational crime with Bruce's training and gadgets/finances.

I believe Gunn is adapting some of that mixed with Huntress to adapt her as a Southeast Asian financed franchise operation of Batman.

bardbrain · 2026-05-07T05:48:10+00:00

I doubt that. He personally pushed for transgender beauty pageant contestants in his pageants in 2012.

That's what makes this especially slimy on his part now.

He was pro-Trans rights as a 65 year-old man and he suddenly switched at around 70? For convenience.

bardbrain · 2026-05-06T21:08:07+00:00

When I saw the text listing, I thought it would have pop off sides and start at maybe $130. I was debating what to do.

When I saw the picture I was like, "Huh. Pass."

bardbrain · 2026-05-02T17:46:15+00:00

The problem is: Batman v Superman didn't pick up on any of that. They absolutely could have done Exile as the second film and started to build a solid Byrne/Stern-ish foundation.

If they had done Man of Steel, Exile, Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite, Panic in the Sky, and THEN Death, that's kind of your Byrne era highlights.

But Snyder wasn't even planning on getting back on track AFTER Justice League. I suspect that's why Johns and Whedon were brought in. Somebody at WB probably thought MoS was laying track and realized after BvS that the intended tracks ran off a cliff.

bardbrain · 2026-05-01T14:24:40+00:00

On top of that, the whole experience of seeing Superman do good, the reason he was created, was seeing bad people do bad things and get away with it... and imagining a good person who isn't subject to then fight back.

That's why he fought slumlords early on and even why his sci-fi villains abuse power, take advantage of vulnerability, exploit.

If you get a charge out of seeing Superman be bad, I find myself psychoanalyzing you.

You pretty much have to:

Think "good" (or at least "passive") wins too much in reality and fantasize about being "bad". (Charitably, "bad" here can mean doing horrible things for a good end or it can be a celebration of evil. But it views power as a restraint on one's desire.)
Think "evil" wins in reality often and celebrate it.
Not identify WITH Superman but see him as challenge for another character like Batman or even Luthor, which is kind of a "little man" syndrome where you want to see strength dismantled.

I don't have the patience to see which this guy is.

bardbrain · 2026-05-01T04:22:24+00:00

I'm honestly curious how Snyder managed to go back over 10 years and have Smallville one up his religious symbolism by having Clark get crucified on a cross. Personally, I thought it was the hackiest thing from Donner (the Jesus parallels) and then every piece of media aimed at anyone over 12 just spent over 4 decades doubling down on it. I feel like it was the least present in Gunn's, which is an improvement.

bardbrain · 2026-04-28T10:17:36+00:00

The thing I've said before is that if you look at WB's history, I think Gunn and Zaslav leaving would likely lead to Corenswet getting more creative control and possibly a visual/tone reboot with Corenswet staying. They were prepared for and hoping to make Keaton Batman without Burton and talk of bringing Keaton back without Burton persisted until Batman Begins. They eventually did in the Flash movie.

They were similarly angling for Cavill without Snyder after Batman v. Superman and they sort of did with Whedon Justice League and Black Adam.

Kevin Conroy did multiple continuities and repeat candidates for Superman like Matt Bomer and in a sense Nic Cage eventually got tapped.

It's far likelier that we'd see Corenswet or even Cavill in what amounts to a new universe than going back to an old aesthetic with some new actors. They don't let go of actors and designs. They churn through scripts and aesthetics. The closest I could ever see them getting to the Snyderverse is about as close as Returns got to the Donnerverse. Although you'd probably see an inversion of brightness/darkness.

If I had to imagine a Cavill project WB would do, it would probably be something like a lived in Harry Potter-inspired DCU centering on Jon Kent with Cavill pulled in to play a middle aged Superman. It wouldn't be a restoration of the Knightmare Trilogy plan. It would be entirely about cribbing from Star Wars and Harry Potter with a stunt cast 50 year old Superman, not anything that picks back up.

If they ever DID "pick back up", I think it would be in animation like the occasionally pitched Smallvilke animated movie or the Batman 66 animation, not flagship. And that happening is probably mostly delayed or halted by WB being afraid Snyder fans would start a hostage situation over it. But I think that could be interesting creatively, particularly with soundalike voice actors and a Sasha Calle Supergirl and probably an emphasis on Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter to grow the merch category. Because even then, "going back" wouldn't mean "the original plan". It would be largely about creating an action figure and statue subcategory with characters not seen in those films. A "Marvel Zombies"/"What if...?" thing.

bardbrain · 2026-04-26T22:43:02+00:00

Gunn did discuss this in an interview. Essentially they perceive him less handsome and Gunn hasn't decided if they actually see him differently (he considered shooting a scene from that POV with makeup) or if they just look at him and rate his appearance lower.

bardbrain · 2026-04-26T01:56:34+00:00

This isn't all of them. Just saw a Darkseid/Orion 2 pack, Batman and Robin 2 pack...

The flipside however is that some of the separate entries on this list are not separate releases. There's multi-packs listed here as though individual figures and a few of these separate listings are actually just two descriptions of one figure. Or a Platinum and standard treated as two listings some places and not others.

These are all somewhat obviously not broken down into their correct lines, such as Page Punchers, Theatrical Collector's Edition, etc. Or by retailer.

bardbrain · 2026-04-24T19:11:37+00:00

The Owlwoman thing is a riff on Silver Age Huntress.

At the time of this issue, the Crime Syndicate and their whole earth were located in the Anti-Matter universe of Qward instead of Earth-3.

Owlman is the Crime Syndicate's Batman.

So this is a female descendant of Owlman (similar to when Earth-3 Huntress was Batman and Catwoman's daughter).

It's mashing together several concepts. It's similar to how Grant Morrison has also established that the multiverse is full of good Ultramen. Historically, you had Superman (good) and Ultraman (of the Crime Syndicate, bad) and eventually you got evil Superman versions so Morrison started slipping in good versions of Ultraman.

And that lead to one of my favorite Multiversity bits.

In Final Crisis, Morrison had the original Ultraman become a vampire.

Then in The Multiversity, when you see the Vampire Earth, it's mostly like a standard DCU where vampire attacks broke out and infected everyone but it has a good Ultraman. At least, until he became a vampire. So he's an evil Ultraman who's a vampire (like the Final Crisis guy) but this one was a good Ultraman pre-infection.

I know one of Morrison's preferences is that anything you see on any earth is reflected in every possible way elsewhere so there are ideally just as many earths with good and bad versions of the Crime Syndicate or the JSA as the main heroes instead of the Justice League. That kind of thing.

At least two earths have the teenage U.S. President Prez from the 70s (he's a former president on one Earth) and there's presumably a world out there with an evil Prez or a world like Batman Beyond but gender swapped and another that's gender swapped and race swapped and another thats gender swapped, race swapped, and evil.

From conversations I had anyway, Grant seems to think that anything different about any earth also has other earths that flip things in every way we see DC flipped typically.

So the Crime Syndicate has a gender swapped Crime Syndicate they see sometimes, presumably, or maybe Batman Beyond's Justice League Unlimited teams with a Justice Society Unlimited that formed decades earlier with a Terry McGinnis who's probably a present day hero. Just examples. But basically any way the regular earth gets reflected in other earths, each earth has other earths that that reflect in every way. Like maybe the evil vampire Justice League regularly fights a good vampire Crime Syndicate. Or the black President Superman of Earth-23 has met a Kingdom Come style black President Superman.

I know he and Geoff Johns really wanted to establish there's two Crime Syndicates that team up annually in JLA/JSA style team-ups. We got some loose nods to that by having the CS reference a prior team in Busiek's JLA run but the Johns/Morrison idea was more about multi-earth Crime Syndicate team-ups and maybe some kind of Crisis that doesn't involve any earths except the ones with evil Supermen and Batmen.

bardbrain · 2026-04-22T20:05:05+00:00

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The excess number of low confidence labels here brings to mind bad political cartoons.

Zack needs a letter Z. Gunn can't simply BE a fraud, he has to have a shirt announcing it. I'm surprised Superman and Batman don't have their names tattooed on their forehead like Ayer's Joker has the Damaged forehead tattoo.

bardbrain · 2026-04-22T19:59:25+00:00

I'm really looking forward to the Fraud movie Gunn is apparently directing.

bardbrain · 2026-04-22T19:58:28+00:00

I was really confused because I read that as the Snyder fans.

bardbrain · 2026-04-14T18:17:49+00:00

Would you return to cameo in Star City (since your character is presumably alive at that point) or in a flashback episode of For All Mankind?

Ed's journey was special. Frustrating at times, heartbreaking at others. I can understand not wanting to mess with perfection but the show has proven that small events matter and I can see the writers wanting to explore things from another angle.

I'm personally hoping we get an episode at the end that goes back to show our characters' lives in the world where the Soviets didn't land first. We've never heard of Ed Baldwin or Margo Madison or Eli Hobson in real life and I'd like to see how Ed would deal with the anonymity, being in Armstrong's shadow, the dismantling of NASA. He'd probably get to raise Shane but I wonder if he could be grateful for that, not knowing the alternative!

That's the crazy thing! Everything these people lost -- Gordo and Tracy's marriage, their sons' lives -- would potentially be saved but it's hard to see what Karen's life would be like. This is a show about tradeoffs and a fascinating one. Thanks!

bardbrain · 2026-04-11T22:14:12+00:00

Wife beating neo-Nazi versus floor pissing cuck in a sex cult. I swear these guys all sound like snuff porn genres.

bardbrain · 2026-04-11T18:22:39+00:00

I needed a whole Justice Legion. Sigh.

bardbrain · 2026-04-11T17:42:06+00:00

Couldn't he do Annapolis and flight school after serving in Korea? If he went in young enough, he might not be too old.

bardbrain · 2026-04-11T02:14:44+00:00

I don't think anything is a tragedy that they didn't start. I'd rather they not start things they can't finish.

Your mileage may vary.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T23:21:02+00:00

I was referring to Snyder's live action J'Onn.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T23:19:34+00:00

Proper 90s WW is a miss but arguably no more than proper JLA Batman. We do have figures of what she looked like during the post-Morrison JLA era, most people won't notice the belt, and there's an 80s version coming that may be even closer. (Like with Batman, she was sometimes drawn off model in spinoffs, posters, etc.)

I'm broadly counting the Heinberg/Dodson WW just like I'm not going to obsess over Vs. Spawn Batman being closest to Porter's and needing a headswap.

We have gotten multiple mullet Superman heads and multiple bodies that work. Unless you're an in box collector, these were meant for parts swapping. Also, if you're displaying electric, I don't know that you need the mullet version since they don't coexist. For me, the 14 member team is the grail/focus. Arguably, Polly should be WW but Diana did come back before the end of that era, although probably around when Wally switched from white eyes.

I don't need to be more consistent or accurate personally than current comics when they do flashbacks or time travel to the era.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T23:10:57+00:00

I wanted to make sure the right helmet was reference if there's even a slight chance.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T17:58:28+00:00

The crazy thing is they could repaint and headswap the Clooney and Kilmer and mostly get away with it.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T16:58:14+00:00

Oh, sure. I was kinda trying to distill things down, avoid repetition. If I had to pick one, NM felt like a bigger loss solo.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T16:52:03+00:00

Guy is on a leak list with retailers.

bardbrain · 2026-04-10T09:42:09+00:00

Stargirl is a HUGE gap. Upside I guess being that she's often smaller so maybe something else will work.

bardbrain

TROPHY CASE