Tag Archives: DC

2025 entertainment to remember

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Who doesn’t love a good year-in-review? Well, plenty of people. But here’s one anyway.

2025 was a shitshow for a lot of people, and I hope 2026 is an improvement. For me, 2025 was the year I self-published my 1984-set high school crime novel THAT OCTOBER, saw a bunch of short fiction and pop culture pieces published and joined with some friends in Constellate Creatives, where we’ll offer help to writers in the form of editing, publishing and marketing.

But like Milhouse from “The Simpsons,” you might be asking, “When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?” Or in this case, when is he gonna talk about something fun, like pop culture? Movies, TV shows, books.

I won’t try to tackle books here and I’ll note that some of my favorite books I read in 2025 haven’t been published yet. So that’ll wait.

In the meantime:

MOVIES: I don’t see a ton of movies in theaters. I catch a lot of movies on streaming services. So far this year, probably my favorite and best movie I saw, first in theaters and then on streaming, was SINNERS, Ryan Coogler’s story of race and vampires in Depression-era Mississippi. Just an absorbing, exemplary film and one that proves Hollywood can reach moviegoers/viewers with something daring and origiinal.

I think SUPERMAN should carry that definition too. Yes, we’ve seen sooo many takes on the classic superhero by now. But James Gunn’s SUPERMAN gave us one of the best, most original and fully-fleshed-out comic book worlds ever.

On the Marvel side, I really enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THUNDERBOLTS* and FANTASTIC FOUR. The latter seemed really safe and un-ambitious but was the best-by-far adaptation of my favorite comic book heroes ever.

Among streaming series, I think PLURIBUS was the best I saw, maybe tied with THE PITT. The two series couldn’t be more different, but PLURIBUS was thoughtful and funny and THE PITT was like a shot of adrenalin.

IT: WELCOME TO DERRY was also outstanding, I thought, with some of the best scares and characters and most authentic Stephen King atmosphere of any screen translation and expansion in years.

PARADISE was a good end-of-the-world contrast to PLURIBUS. BALLARD was a very good continuation of BOSCH. LONG BRIGHT RIVER was also quite good, moody and solemn and endearing. MURDERBOT was brutally funny. TASK was somber and intense. THE HUNTING WIVES was looney fun. THE BETTER SISTER was grim and affecting.

I wanted more of most of these series but admit I felt a little cheated of a proper conclusion when they ended with another season clearly in mind (or hoped for). I really want more DERRY and PLURIBUS and don’t mind feeling used and teased.

‘Superman and Lois’ and goodbye to the Arrowverse

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At the time of this writing, only one episode remains for “Superman & Lois,” the CW series, and even as I type those words, it feels like I’m reaching back into the distant past.

That’s not the case, but it feels like it. The CW series “Arrow” began in October 2012 and, while it had some low points, did what no TV series has been able to accomplish before or is likely to accomplish again: Take a core group of DC Comics characters – Green Arrow and his supporting cast, and later the Flash and Supergirl and eventually Superman and many others – and make a vast, interconnect set of series and storylines about them. Though the aforementioned series and others like “Batwoman,” “Legends of Tomorrow” and “Black Lightning,” the producers called up some of the greatest and some of the most obscure supporting characters from DC comic books, cast them well and gave them not only their standalone adventures but crossovers, so many crossovers.

Every one of the 700 or so episodes – a staggering number – wasn’t all that it could have been, but most were perfectly entertaining stuff and had some moments that comic book geeks thought they would never see in a live-action form:

A race around the world between the Flash and, in this case, Supergirl

The League of Shadows/League of Assassins, Batman villains repurposed for Green Arrow, who became something of the Batman of this universe

Serious-minded stories and mostly-comic-book-authentic plots that even depicted the Crisis on Infinite Earths stories

Costumes that were a little bashful at first but that became flat-out geekgasmic comic-book-authentic eventually. (You know, it took a long time for Marvel to get Wolverine in that yellow outfit.)

The appearance of characters that we may never see in live action again – at least not done with this much integrity.

I’m giving short shrift to “Superman & Lois” here and I don’t mean to, but with the final episode of the final season set for December 2, we’re not sure how the series will play out, eventually. I can guess that it will end well; “Superman & Lois” has been, literally and figuratively, set apart for its entire run since 2021. Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch got their start in their roles on Arrowverse shows, but once “Superman & Lois” began airing, the 50-plus episodes over four seasons took place on an alternate Earth from the rest of the heroes. It probably made it easier, this holding the series at arms length from where it began, as the other series were ending. I did miss some interaction with the other heroes, however.

There’s a lot to like about “Superman & Lois,” from the leads to the consistency of the (undoubtedly less expensive to shoot than Metropolis) Smallville setting to final-season portrayal of Lex Luthor by Michael Cudlitz, best remembered from “The Walking Dead.”

There’s been some very good live action DC Comics moments in the past few years, notably the Arrowverse series and the Titans series. “Superman & Lois” ranks up, up and away among the best.

Will we ever see a ‘Justice League’ movie?

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I watched “Captain America” on DVD last night and really enjoyed the movie, which brought Marvel’s World War II-era hero to the screen this past summer, all over again. The little sneak peek at next May’s “The Avengers” movie was fun. To say I’m looking forward to “The Avengers” is an understatement. The fourth issue of the “Avengers” comic, the one in which the heroes thawed Captain America and he joined the team, was the first comic book I ever owned, kindly given to me by an older friend.

But as much as I’m looking forward to “The Avengers,” I’m puzzled as to why DC — an arm of Warner Bros. — has been unable to get a “Justice League” movie into gear.

It’s not like “Justice League” can’t be translated into other media besides comic books. The “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” series, set in the animated DC universe created with “Batman the Animated Series,” was a faithful adaptation of the comics. The “Unlimited” series expanded the membership of the League to include dozens and dozens of characters, both delightful and obscure (who would have thought of an entire episode built around hapless blowhard Booster Gold? Yet it was one of the best of the entire series).

And DC has also had good luck with “Justice League” animated in longer form, particularly “Justice League New Frontier,” a retro story based on Darwyn Cooke’s great graphic novel that set the hands of the superhero clock back to the 1950s and introduced Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman (not to mention a host of yes, obscure characters). Heck, even TV’s “Smallville” had a version of the League on a TV budget.

So there’s no reason a “Justice League” movie can’t happen, except:

– The Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale “Dark Knight” movies. With the third, “Dark Knight Rises,” coming out next summer, Nolan seems to be ready to wrap up his foray into the character’s world. Much has been made over rumors that Nolan and Bale don’t want their “realistic” Batman to be seen in the same movie with a bunch of other “fantastic” costumed characters. Of course, “Dark Knight Rises” features not only Catwoman and Bane in outfits that would turn heads on most sidewalks. So maybe Nolan is loosening up his standards.

– DC and Warner Bros. can’t seem to get any other characters launched. “Green Lantern” came out this summer and really wasn’t very good. “Wonder Woman” imploded and never got made. “The Flash” has been in the planning stages for years.

– They tried to make a “Justice League” movie a couple of years ago, even picked the cast and began pre-production. Actors like Armie Hammer were fitted for costumes. (Why hasn’t footage or pictures of Hammer in Batman drag shown up online?) But then a writer’s strike happened, production in Australian fell apart and, frankly, I wonder if somebody didn’t lose their nerve. Remember Nolan’s reluctance to have  a bunch of colorful costumed characters in the same room together? Maybe it was catching.

In the time it’s taken for DC and Warner Bros. to make a good “Batman” movie, begin another one, start work on a “Superman” movie and make a mediocre “Green Lantern” movie, Marvel — now part of Disney — has released two “Iron Man” pictures, a good “Hulk” movie, “Thor,” “Captain America” and is putting the finishing touches on “The Avengers.”

Will we ever see the members of the Justice League swooping down from their Watchtower to take on some globe-threatening menace?

 

 

 

 

New ‘Green Lantern’ has a lot to live up to

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For Cartoon Network, Warner Bros and animation producer Bruce Timm, launching a new “Green Lantern” animated series must feel like a tricky thing.

When the computer-animated series went into production, Warner Bros. had a big-screen “Green Lantern” coming, its first attempt to turn WB’s DC Comics stalwart into a big-screen tentpole starring Ryan Reynolds.

The movie probably seemed like a sure thing, another step in establishing a DC franchise in movie theaters much like rival comics publisher Marvel was doing with “Iron Man” and, concurrent to the “Green Lantern” movie, “Thor” and “Captain America.”

But the “Green Lantern” movie, released this summer, was pretty lackluster, while “Thor” and “Captain America” were hits that only built anticipation for next summer’s Marvel team-up movie, “The Avengers.”

All of a sudden, “Green Lantern” — and the Cartoon Network animated series — must have felt a little daunting.

The new show not only had to live down the live-action movie but also live up to “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited,” the Bruce Timm-produced animated series that stand as the pinnacles of comic book animated series.

Yes, I know that Timm and Paul Dini’s “Batman: The Animated Series” is widely regarded as the best animated comic book show. But for me, “Justice League” and especially “Justice League Unlimited” are tops. Really, where else could you get the best — hands down — outside-the-comic-pages adaptation of Superman, Batman and other marquee heroes as well as obscure favorites like Dr. Fate, Black Canary and Bwana Beast, for goodness’ sake?

Cartoon Network previewed the opening episode of “Green Lantern” tonight — the series begins airing regularly next year as part of a DC block — and I have to say that while the show has potential it carries with it more liabilities.

Its computer-animated presentation is workmanlike at best. While a few scenes had some of the visual appeal of “The Incredibles,” for example, more often the show looked like unfinished footage included as a DVD extra. Piggy-looking Green Lantern Kilowog looked plastic. The look of the show needs drastic improvement.

And I’m not sold on the premise of the show either. Remember “Star Trek: Voyager,” the series that pushed a Federation starship to the edge of the galaxy and left it stranded there while the ship and its crew struggled to make their way home?

This is like “Green Lantern: Voyager,” with Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Kilowog stranded millions of miles away from home, facing the Red Lanterns, a cranky group of outlaw ring-wielders.

Maybe it’s an effort to ensure the show and its characters stand on their own, but I’m not digging the idea of a show that will never allow Green Lantern to bump into Superman or Batman. Not to mention the absence of my favorite Green Lantern of all time, John Stewart, the African-American hero who — for all of us who loved “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” — simply is Green Lantern.

When “Green Lantern” comes back next year, I’ll definitely give it a shot. I hope the show has as much imagination as the premise of its title character. It will have to go a long way — and come back from a great distance — to equal previous treatment of the character, however.