I had joked that the supposed R rated cut of Bats V Sups should be NC-17, like a superhero version of Showgirls. And now I really, really wanna see a superhero version of Showgirls.
Like, Superman is the out of town stripper with dreams of being a dancer, Batman can be the Gina Gershon character, and pays for Wonder Woman to get a lap dance from Sups and oh my god I want this movie to exist so bad.
I Love Crossover Movies Too, But Let's Be Careful Here
This could get dangerous.
So I just saw the Lego Movie yesterday. I actually weirdly kind of loved it? It was real creative, had great animation, and they did an excellent job with the crossover elements of it. For instance, one of the main characters is just randomly Batman, which served the purpose of a) getting me interested in the movie in the first place and b) actually being an extraordinarily thoughtful Batman parody. I found myself thinking "oh wow yeah, Batman totally is just a fantasy of having a tragedy in the past to justify one's brooding and emotional immaturity but also being rich enough to not have to worry about any non-emotional problems other than the ones you create for yourself." Whether you're Grant Morrison or Christopher Nolan, that's always what Batman's been.
So they took what is from a marketing perspective purely a kids movie, and used it to lambaste one of the most popular fictional characters ever with comedy. Great job, creators of the Lego Movie! And then, halfway through the movie, who should show up for a cameo but Han Solo and Lando Calrissian! Two of my favorite fictional characters, hanging out with Batman!
My first thought was wow, why can't all characters come under the Warner Brothers or Disney umbrellas so we can do stuff like this more often!
My second thought of course was: oh right, because that idea is just actually the worst. See, they did this with comic books around the sixties. It started the same way movies are doing it right now, with the two giants gradually absorbing all of the competition. Sure, we still have Dark Horse Comics, but for all intents and purposes there are only two names in the comic book business. And people forget this, but that killed the industry.
Comic books used to be a mass media. There's a reason that some of the most iconic fictional characters ever created were able to get so famous -- people loved buying and reading comic books. There was money there. And I'm not going to say that there aren't other factors in this, but that just isn't the case any more. Comic shops are going out of business every day, and reading comics is a niche hobby now. It's rare to meet someone, even a superhero fan, who is an active purchaser and follower of comic books. I know I'm certainly not. The two-headed monopoly on the industry has strangled it (duopoly? Is that a thing?)
I'm talking, of course, about Marvel and Capcom.
What? Not a comic book company, got it. Shit, I'll be right back.
Better.
And don't get me wrong, some great stories come out of these companies to this day, but for the most part they're the same stories, told again and again with different flourishes. I'm not saying Long Halloween is bad, I'm just saying you can only tell the Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face story so many times before it goes stale. And this is why comic books aren't a mass medium anymore.
But how did we let this happen in the first place? Well, crossovers. Batman, Superman, Wonder-Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, they were all separate characters made by separate authors, they just happened to be published through the same company. And because comic book companies are crooks, the authors almost without exception were screwed out of the rights to their characters. On the downside, that's terrible, and on the upside, it's what led to the Justice League. It's what led to the Avengers. It's the reason that unless he's Stan Lee, you probably can't name the author who created your favorite superhero.
Anyway, what I'm getting at here is that it's not anyone's fault, really. Comic creators are a group of people who for the most part love what they do and want to make the best work they can. And who wouldn't want to see Batman fight Superman, or Hawkeye exchange witty banter with Tony Stark? Crossovers are awesome! So if we tell them with our wallets that we want crossovers, there is going to be a demand for crossovers. And to fulfill a demand for crossovers, a company has to buy other companies.
So now Disney owns Star Wars. And Marvel Comics. And Pixar. And Touchstone. And ESPN I guess? And Time Warner owns Warner Bros. And DC Comics. And New Line Cinemas. And HBO. And Castle Rock.
When I put it like that it sounds bad, but I could also put it like this: there is no substantial legal barrier to an animated miniseries called "Game of Thrones vs. Lord of the Rings". Or to Wolverine, in his next comic series, going on a time traveling adventure where he teams up with Jack Sparrow and Indiana Jones.
I'd pay money for both of those things. And I'd be fueling a monopoly-building process that could potentially strangle the creativity out of film the same way it did comic books.
We all dream of a world where because Bob Kane is dead, anyone who wants to can make a Batman movie, and we can have a new one every year by a different director, some weird and artsy and some bold and blockbustrous. And when we complain that Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Avengers should be able to be in a movie together, it can feel like we're trying to push toward that world. But we're not. We're pushing away from it.
So crossovers are great. But so is the production efficiency that comes with a single steel company making all of the railroads in the country. Doesn't mean we should do it.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is the public domain is great, go watch Sherlock or read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
