James Gunn’s DC Studios Announcements!

James Gunn (the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad”) was recently hired (along with Peter Safran) as the new creative director of DC Studios, and just last week announced a whole new slate of DC movies and shows – following the release of “The Flash” and “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom”!

DC – Chapter One: “GODS AND MONSTERS”

  • Superman: Legacy (Hitting theaters July 11th, 2025! – Inspired by Grant Morrison’s “All Star Superman”)
  • Lanterns (Greg Berlanti live-action Green Lantern series!)
  • Creature Commandos (animated series)
  • Waller (‘Peacemaker’ / ‘Suicide Squad’ spin-off about Amanda Waller – starring: Viola Davis)
  • The Authority (based on characters from the Wildstorm comics by Jim Lee)
  • Paradise Lost (live action ‘Wonder Woman’ prequel series about the Amazons of Themyscira)
  • Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (Movie based on the Tom King mini-series, a cosmic fantasy with an edgier take)
  • Booster Gold (HBO Max series)
  • Swamp Thing (A horror movie, most likely taking influence from the Alan Moore comics)
  • The Brave and the Bold (A new Batman movie with the Damian Wayne Robin, inspired by Grant Morrison’s run!)
  • And even more announcements to come…!
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Comic Zombie Podcast #32: The Future of the DCU?

Issue 32: The Future of the DCU?

“Storytelling is always king, that’s all that matters to us.” – James Gunn 

In light of the recent news that James Gunn (director of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad”) and Peter Safran are officially “rebooting” the *entire* DC film franchise (following “The Flash” and “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom”), we decided to break down what each of us would do if we were (somehow) put in charge of the DC Studios reboot! Strap in for two of the craziest, nerdiest, mega-fan pitch meetings of all time as Chris and Erik attempt to construct an entire inter-connected cinematic universe! 

Also On This Episode: 

(Episode edited by Erik Slader)

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Top 100 Villains 60-51

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Everyone knows nothing makes a good hero like a great villain. Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty, G.I. Joe needed Cobra, the rebels needed Darth Vader, etc. Nothing makes a story better quite like an interesting, intriguing, and yet hated adversary. Readers tend to flock to the villains they love to hate. The best villains bring something out of the hero that nobody else does, or force the hero to push themselves further than before to find a way to win.

We wanted to make a top 10 list, but that’s impossible. There are just too many good choices, and we couldn’t agree on any of it. So we increased the list, and increased it, and increased it (honestly we probably could have kept going, too). So, before it gets too out of hand, here are our choices for the 100 best villains in comics.

(Click here for our Top 100 Heroes List!)

(Also click here for parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of our list so far!)

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Top 15 Rivalries

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Comic books are filled with rivalries. Some are friendly, like Archie and Jughead, and some are… not so friendly. While the friendly ones are fine, and can often inject plenty of drama into stories, it’s the really vitriolic ones that grab our attention and are typically the ones we remember the most fondly. With that in mind, below are my top 15 rivalries in comics. Plenty of these rivalries have had backstories fleshed out after the first time we saw them, like our first entry, but for ‘first altercation’ I’m going with the first published fight or confrontation between them, and not the backstories that were later filled in.

Who makes up your favorite rivalry? Did they place on the list? Let us know!

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Top 100 Villains 70-61

4427-wizard_lms_dc_villains_vs_marvel_vi

Everyone knows nothing makes a good hero like a great villain. Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty, G.I. Joe needed Cobra, the rebels needed Darth Vader, etc. Nothing makes a story better quite like an interesting, intriguing, and yet hated adversary. Readers tend to flock to the villains they love to hate. The best villains bring something out of the hero that nobody else does, or force the hero to push themselves further than before to find a way to win.

We wanted to make a top 10 list, but that’s impossible. There are just too many good choices, and we couldn’t agree on any of it. So we increased the list, and increased it, and increased it (honestly, we probably could have kept going, too). So, before it gets too out of hand, here are our choices for the 100 best villains in comics.

(Click here for our Top 100 Heroes List!)

(And be sure to check out Parts 1, 2, and 3 of our countdown!)

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Chris’ Top (Bottom?) 15 WORST DC Movies!

Marvel Studios is about to release Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, which will be the 971st part of their massive mega saga. Meanwhile, DC is… doing stuff. They’re still going to release The Flash, despite its star being straight up coo-coo for coacoa puffs, Batgirl got cancelled, but Blue Beetle, Flash, Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2 are still coming to theaters despite the… reboot?… coming soon now that James Gunn and Peter Safran are running things in an attempt to duplicate what Kevin Feige has done at Marvel. While there’s no denying we have goten some quality out of DC’s attempt at the MCU, and may still with the remaining slate of films, they just have been completely unable to capture the “IT” factor that has defined Marvel Studios since “Iron Man”. 

In fact, even though DC/Warner Bros has been at this whole ‘making studio films out of our comic book properties’ game than Marvel has, all that has really amounted to is a handful of really good movies, a couple of great ones, and a long, long list of terrible movies going back decades that shows that maybe, just maybe, they’ve NEVER known how to really do this whole thing right. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me 59 times, shame on me. 

For every Batman, Superman: The Movie, or Dark Knight there are… these. The worst of the worst. 

 

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Artist Spotlight: Tim Sale (RIP)

We were extremely saddened to hear about the recent passing of renowned comic book artist Tim Sale, so we decided to spotlight his life’s work on the latest podcast (Issue #26).

Books to check out:

  • Superman: For All Seasons
  • Spider-man: Blue
  • Daredevil: Yellow
  • Hulk: Gray
  • Captain America: White
  • Batman: The Long Halloween
  • Batman: Dark Victory
  • Batman: Haunted Knight

Listen to the podcast for more!

Podcasters Assemble – S8: “BATCASTERS ASSEMBLE!” (Episode List)

Season 1 covered the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Iron Man to Endgame, Season 2 reviewed the Star Wars saga, Season 003 tackled all 24 James Bond films, Season 4 was an epic countdown to Godzilla vs Kong, Season 5 reviewed the Mortal Kombat movies / games, Season 6 was all things Ghostbusters, in Season 7 we plugged into The Matrix, and for Season 8 we watched every live-action Batman movie!

  1. Podcasters Disassembled: “BATMAN: The Movie” (1966)
  2. BATMAN (1989)
  3. BATMAN RETURNS (1992)
  4. BATMAN FOREVER (1995)
  5. BATMAN & ROBIN (1997)
  6. BATMAN: Mask of the Phantasm (1992, Animated)
  7. BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
  8. THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
  9. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012)
  10. THE BATMAN (2022)

Bonus Episodes (coming soon to Patreon) :

  • Batman Video Games (4 parter)
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
  • Lego Batman: The Movie (2017)
  • JOKER (2019)
  • The Best / Worst of Animated Batman Movies
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Top 100 Villains 80-71

4427-wizard_lms_dc_villains_vs_marvel_vi

Everyone knows nothing makes a good hero like a great villain. Sherlock Holmes needed Moriarty, G.I. Joe needed Cobra, the rebels needed Darth Vader, etc. Nothing makes a story better quite like an interesting, intriguing, and yet hated adversary. Readers tend to flock to the villains they love to hate. The best villains bring something out of the hero that nobody else does or force the hero to push themselves further than before to find a way to win.

We wanted to make a top 10 list, but that’s impossible. There are just too many good choices, and we couldn’t agree on any of it. So we increased the list, and increased it, and increased it (honestly we probably could have kept going, too). So, before it gets too out of hand, here are our choices for the 100 best villains in comics.

(Click here for our Top 100 Heroes List!)

(If you missed them, read parts 1 and 2 of this list first!)

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