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)

Continue reading

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. 

 

Continue reading

Comic Zombie Podcast #27: “BLACK ADAM” Review! (Spoiler Alert)

Issue 27: “BLACK ADAM” Review!

“I’m no hero…” – Black Adam

Erik and Chris got together to see the latest DC movie, “Black Adam”, and decided to record a quick impromptu episode on their initial thoughts of the film, where they think the DCEU could be heading next, how the movie compares to the JSA / Black Adam comics, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, how Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson fills in the iconic role of Teth-Adam himself, and of course that reveal in the post-credits scene… (Spoilers Ahead!)

Check out our blog at ComicZombie.net for more, including Erik’s recent reviews of Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels!

(Episode edited by Erik Slader)

Continue reading

Chris’ Top 15 DC Movies (So Far!)

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!

 

Continue reading

Erik’s TOP (bottom?) 15 WORST DC MOVIES!

With the latest news that the seemingly cursed “The Flash” movie has been delayed a year (once again), and the future of the DCEU remains uncertain with the recent Discovery acquisition of WB, I figured it would be an appropriate time to take a look back at some of the more turbulent entries of DC movies past…

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Top 15 DC Movie list here!

Continue reading

Erik’s TOP 15 DC MOVIES (so far)!

With several new DC movies coming out this year, including: Matt Reeves’s “The Batman”, “The Flash” (starring Ezra Miller, with Michael Keaton returning as Batman), “Black Adam” (starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, and “Batgirl” (plus James Gunn’s “Peacemaker” on HBO Max and an upcoming “Green Lantern Corps” series), as well as next year’s “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”, I thought I’d take a look back and *try* to rank my favorite DC movies so far…

Continue reading

The Zack Snyder DC Trilogy: A “JUSTICE LEAGUE” Review (Part 3 of 3)

With the recent (long-awaited) release of Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” (2021) now on HBO Max and 4K Blu Ray, we now have the fully realized vision that first started in 2013’s “Man of Steel”, and continued with 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”! Considering this is essentially the third chapter of a trilogy, it only feels right to revisit the first two acts of this epic superhero saga before diving into this new (and very different) version of 2017’s “Justice League”

(Click for Part One: “Man of Steel” and Part Two: “Batman v Superman”)

Continue reading

Comic Zombie Podcast #8: “Invincible” *and* “Falcon and the Winter Soldier”!

COMIC ZOMBIE – Issue #8: Invincible and Falcon and the Winter Soldier!

Chris and Erik discuss more Immortal Hulk comics, rumors surrounding the new John Stewart “Green Lantern” film as well as the HBO Max live action ‘Green Lantern Corps’ series, the “New Mutants” movie, the new “Mortal Kombat” movie, and finally we do a deep dive into both “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (Disney +) and the all new “Invincible” animated series (Amazon Prime) based on the comics by Robert Kirkman!

*NOTE: We are painfully aware that Peyton Reed is NOT directing the upcoming MCU Fantastic Four feature film; at one point he was rumored for the position which excited us, but the actual director for the upcoming film is the director of the newest Spider-Man films, Jon Watts. For shame.

(Episode edited by Erik Slader and Chris Carroll)  

For more random shenanigans (like Erik’s Invincible reviews and our recent MK character breakdowns), check out our blog at ComicZombie.net and GeekToGeekMedia! *Also listen to us on Podcasters Assemble: MORTAL PODKAST!

Continue reading