Tag Archives: dc comics

Comic Zombie Podcast #32: The Future of the DCU?

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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

Posted by comiczombie on
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!)

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

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Top 15 Rivalries

Posted by comiczombie on

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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

Posted by comiczombie on
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!

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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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Top 100 Villains 80-71

Posted by comiczombie on

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!)

Continue reading →

Chris’ Top 15 DC Movies (So Far!)

Posted by comiczombie on

These days there are hardly any human beings on the planet who don’t know about Marvel and their characters thanks to the insane success of the MCU. Characters that hardly anyone knew when I was growing up- Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Shang Chi, Black Widow, etc are practically household names across the globe. But what about Marvel’s ‘competition’, DC? They’ve been at this since before Marvel, and for decades had bragging rights over Marvel on both the small and big screens. What the hell happened?

It’s not like DC has been churning out crap for years and years (…actually…), and they have three of the biggest names in all of fiction, forget comic books, in Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And that’s the real head scratcher here; I was going to make this a top 25 list but to be honest I could BARELY make it to 15. I know Warner Bros is a garbage studio in a lot of areas, but damn…

Maybe it’s because forever they only thought to make Superman or Batman movies, but you would think that a studio like WB that has been making movies of these characters to some degree or another since the late 1970’s would have a large, glorious back catalog of films to select from, but I would say Marvel has far, FAR more good-to-great films in their library and they’ve only been at this since 2008!! (Obviously I’m discounting third party studios leasing out the IP of Marvel characters, although between Blade, the X-Men films and the Spider-Man films there are some great ones).

The good news is that there seem to be a lot of films coming up for DC that cover a lot more of their universe besides just three characters. We’ve got Black Adam, Aquaman 2, Shazam 2, Batgirl, Blue Beetle, and… hmm. Is that it? Well, crawl before you walk, I suppose. Each of these has the potential to supplant one of the entries on today’s list; hopefully in a few years I’ll laugh at this list the way I do this one!

 

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Top 100 Villains 90-81

Posted by comiczombie on
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.

(Check out part 1 of our list here!)

(Click here for our Top 100 Heroes List!)

Continue reading →

5 Coolest Moments From… Death and Return of Superman

Posted by comiczombie on

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Easily one of the most famous Superman- hell, comic book- stories ever, the Death of Superman was a cultural phenomenon that re-shaped (for better or worse) mainstream comics forever. It’s been adapted into two (well, technically three) DC animated movies: Superman: Doomsday, The Death of Superman, and Reign of the Supermen, and kinda/sorta on the big screen in Zack Snyder’s Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (ugh that title). There was a pretty decent video game adaptation and more merchandise than you could shake a dead Superman at. But somewhat lost in all of the hype around the story is the fact that it’s actually pretty damn good!

So, sit back, put on your nostalgia glasses, and enjoy remembering the story about the world’s greatest hero being beaten to death. Good times. Here are 5 of the coolest moments from the Death and Return of Superman.

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