CHRISTIAN’S COMIC BOOK MOVIE WISH LIST!
Article By Christian Navarrete
Summer is almost here and for the comic book geek in all of us, that means the latest slew of comic book-centric movies are just over the horizon. And while I can’t wait to sample the likes of WONDER WOMAN and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2, my inner mega geek yearns for comic book movies that, more than likely, will probably never happen. The following comic book properties, while more dark in content, would satiate my appetite for my many comic book movie desires.
I, JOKER
It’s no secret that story arcs such as “No Man’s Land,” “Knight Fall,” and “The Killing Joke,” inspired Christopher Nolan’s magnificent BATMAN trilogy. And while other more popular storylines have been teased about in the past, (I’m looking at you, “Batman Beyond”), there is a more obscure “Batman” tale that would be a complete game changer for Hollywood.
The year is 2083 and Gotham City is under an abusive dictatorship by a descendant of Bruce Wayne; This descendant leads a cult that worships The Batman. Every winter solstice, “criminals” are brainwashed and surgically altered to look like random Batman villains, and then hunted and killed by the Dark Knight and numerous crazed Gothamites. It’s basically BATMAN meets THE RUNNING MAN with a dash of MAD MAX in this post-apocalyptical story written by Bob Hall. The piece is cleverly presented through the eyes of Joe Collins, one of the so-called “criminals” who has been programmed to act like the Joker, but who constantly fights his conditioning in the hope that he might break the evil cycle The Batman represents in this dark tale. Circumstances escalate when it is revealed that Joe Collins is, in fact, a direct descendant of the Joker.
Turn this into a movie, please!!
MIDNIGHT NATION
When Los Angeles detective David Grey stumbles upon a grisly murder he is brutally attacked by an arcane humanoid creature known as a Walker. David wakes up in a hospital shortly after and discovers that he has “fallen through the cracks.” Now trapped in a limbo-like state and Earth, David embarks on a road trip of self-discovery and self-preservation with a mysterious woman named Laurel as his guide. Laurel trains David to fight the forces of evil so he can reclaim his soul, or risk losing his mind and becoming a heartless bloodthirsty Walker during the process.
Michael Straczynski knows how to write antiheroes who are easily relatable because his characters have very human flaws. Furthermore, Straczynski weaves slight biblical themes throughout this piece with a very elegant touch. . While “Midnight Nation” would do well with getting the “Preacher” treatment, since it is a 12 issue maxi-series, under the right development team this could be the Odyssey of road trip films
WANTED
I’m well aware that there already is a WANTED movie, and for all intents and purposes it was… okay. It’s easy to understand, from a budget standpoint, why they could never truly adapt what legendary scribe smith Mark Miller packed into six graphically rendered issues. Director Timur Bekmambetov and his screenwriting team tried but barely scratched the surface with their hyper-stylized (and all too tepid) take on the highly respected source material.
In “Wanted,” Wesley Gibson is a young, “I-don’t-know-what-I-am-doing-with-my-life” loser who is constantly abused by those around him. From his boss at his cubicle job to his whiny (and needy) girlfriend, who, subsequently, does a horrible job hiding the fact that she’s cheating on Wesley with his best friend on a regular basis. While eating at a sandwich shop one day, Wesley is approached by The Fox, a femme fatale claiming to know his long lost father. As it happens, dear old dad walked out on Wesley and his mother when he was just a baby. We learn that dad was a notorious super villain known as the Killer and that he was recently murdered. Fox is part of the Fraternity, a powerful organization of Supervillains that secretly rule the world, and they’d like nothing more than for Wesley to join them and train to replace his deceased father.
Honestly this all sounds pretty humdrum and dull until the biggest bombshell drops; Superheroes actually existed in this world at one time, but the fiercest of super-villains finally smartened up and worked in unison successfully destroying all noteworthy superheroes and their families. These villains then take their plan a step further by erasing any shred of superhero existence all while wiping the memory of these superheroes from the minds of everyone.
While it is thrilling to observe Wesley’s metamorphosis into a cold-hearted killer like his father before him, I’d love to visually experience the crazy out-of-this-world evil doers that were inspired by super-villains from Marvel and DC comics. It would be a spectacle to see Wesley’s travels through different timelines and dimensions where heroes still exist, not to mention the epic battle that follows pitting villain against villain. And who in their right mind wouldn’t love to see Wesley battle a giant poop monster?
The chances of any of these properties being adapted to the big screen (or in the case of WANTED, re-adapted) aren’t very likely but as an avid comic book geek, I will continue to be hopeful. In fact, as soon as I become a big shot producer with some clout, maybe I’ll take a crack at it and adapt these properties myself! While we’re on that topic, watch for a follow article in which I re-examine this wish list and fill you in on who I’d cast and who I’d bring on board to shoot these projects!
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