The DC Cinematic Universe Ramps Up

Are you ready for a whole lotta DC Comics characters cavorting around on the big screen? Well, regardless if you are, they're coming. In droves. And in pretty fast succession.

After years of questioning when and how DC Comics would step up to the cinematic plate and attempt to toss a couple home runs over Marvel's already bright and shiny heads, they're getting their act together. Whether they can attempt to offset their decades-old rival at the multiplex remains to be seen, but now that they've officially announced their movie slate from 2016 to 2020, we can be damn sure they are gonna try. But here's the thing, the way they went about announcing this stuff doesn't inspire much hope.

For you see, even though the New York Comic Con just ended, they chose to share their  plans at the Time Warner Investors' Conference instead. While everyone else got this business simple-speak press release. Which is actually about WB properties from Harry Potter to LEGO, as well as DC.

But of course, the movies themselves, what are they... it wasn't hard to take a guess with rumors swirling for months, but here they are:

• "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," directed by Zack Snyder (2016)
• "Suicide Squad," directed by David Ayer (2016)
• "Wonder Woman," starring Gal Gadot (2017)
• "Justice League Part One," directed by Zack Snyder, with Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams reprising their roles (2017)
• "The Flash," starring Ezra Miller (2018)
• "Aquaman," starring Jason Momoa (2018)
• "Shazam" (2019)
• "Justice League Part Two," directed by Zack Snyder (2019)
• "Cyborg," starring Ray Fisher (2020)
• "Green Lantern" (2020)
  

The news to pull from this other than titles, is that Fury's David Ayer is directing Suicide Squad, about a group of super villains on the path to redemption, Ezra Miller (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, We Need To Talk About Kevin) is playing The Flash on the big screen, that Justice League is a two-parter... and perhaps most importantly, that DC is aiming with Wonder Woman and Cyborg, respectively, to be first out of the gate with a solo female super hero film and the first solo super hero film with a person of color in over a decade (we're counting Blade here). So take this as you may. Are you excited for DC's allegedly serious, joke-free big screen super hero universe? Or have we already had enough?

I for one could care less as an audience member, and that all comes down to three little words: Man Of Steel. If that utterly vapid, terrifyingly hollow, completely misguided and misunderstood take on an icon is the blueprint for this universe then I am out. Full stop. I don't think we'll ever hear anyone outside of studio executives' offices utter the words: "In David Goyer we trust."

But that's just wary and weary ol' me. What about you all? Care to instill some hope? What are some stories and angles they could take that would get y'all pumped up?