Memorial Day Musings #1: This Is Why DC Sucks At Movies

(NOTE: Based on time elapsed since the posting of this entry, the BS-o-meter calculates this is 13.266% likely to be something that Ferrett now regrets.)

This is what David S. Goyer, the guy who’s writing the DC movies, had to say about Justice League stalwart The Martian Manhunter:

How many people in the audience have heard of Martian Manhunter?” After hearing some light applause and cheers, he added, “How many people that raised their hands have ever been laid?

And then goes on to explain that the Martian Manhunter is lame, and they’d have to rework him from the ground up.  And the focus of Goyer’s comments has largely been on his nerd-shaming, but I think the real issue here is the underlying attitude of DC:
You haven’t heard of the Martian Manhunter?  Well, fuck him, he must not be important.
Whereas Marvel went, “Oh, you haven’t heard of Hawkeye and the Black Widow?  Oh my God, you guys, you’ve got to get to know these people, they’re awesome.  Here, let’s make a movie where they stand next to the heroes you already know and love, and show them doing awesome things!”
DC’s attitude?  “You don’t know this guy?  How embarrassing, that must mean he’s not very interesting.  Who do we have that you’ve heard of?”
Meanwhile, there’s a whole generation of moviegoers who are clamoring for a Black Widow movie and a thousand folks who hadn’t heard of Hawkeye in 2011 but fucking love him now.
Marvel, proud of their characters, is expanding the love.  DC, shamed of their geeky origins, is contracting, contracting, contracting.

2 Comments

  1. Jim
    May 26, 2014

    That’s really pathetic. I had no idea who the Martian Manhunter was until I got sucked into reading JL8 (webcomic premise: a bunch of DC characters as 8-year olds, with the attendant elementary school hijinks). I’m interested now, but not thanks to DC’s efforts…

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