There are About To Be Too Many Comic Book Movies. by Kyle Johannessen

I know what you're thinking. This is Ace of Geeks! There can never be too many comic book movies! Well allow me to politely disagree with you, my friends. Don't get me wrong, I love comic book movies. One of my favorite movies of all time is a comic book movie (The Crow) and Marvel's films ever since the original Iron Man have been, at worst, entertaining and, at their best, wonderful to watch and instant classics.

But now DC Comics is revving up its Cinematic Universe. Most of you already know about Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice coming out in 2016, but more information has leaked that will see the number of super hero movies climb astronomically through 2018, with a whopping three DC titles a year. If you haven't seen it yet, here is the lineup:


2016 - Batman V. Superman
         - Shazam
         - Sandman
2017 - Justice League
         - Wonder Woman
         - Flash and Green Lantern Team up
2018 - Man of Steel 2

Now, this is in addition to whatever films Marvel has lined up through this time. We could have a whopping five or six big budget comic book movies a year for the next four years!

So many, that these guys will try and do a parody again. -Ed

I think DC is making a bit of a mistake shoehorning everything in this much. That is a lot of superhero movies in not a lot of time. Marvel and DC could find themselves over-saturating the market and sending the whole genre back into the abyss from which it came. They are already directly competing for your hard earned dollars, as Captain America 3 is coming out the same day as Batman V. Superman. ONE of those movies are going to suffer at the box office because of it, and I'm going to guess that its not Cap 3.

The other reality is that DC films, outside of the Nolan Bat-Verse, haven't been very good. The Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern was a train wreck of a film, and although Man of Steel had its moments, it certainly did not live up to the hype generated by the fantastic trailers, or the legacy of the character.  Although I am actually excited to see what Ben Affleck does with Batman/Bruce Wayne, you will notice a distinct lack of a stand alone Batman film on that list. If Batman is the best part of Dawn of Justice, then we are all shit out of luck until DC wises up and gives us more Batman.

The only beacon of hope in the DC lineup is that we could FINALLY get a Wonder Woman movie. But by the time that rolls around, I'm guessing we're going to get really sick of super heroes. I'm also not thrilled with Gal Gadot, as I simply don't think she looks right for the part, but maybe she won't be afraid to put on some pounds of muscle now that she doesn't have to be just a super model anymore. Another good thing that may come from a Wonder Woman film is that Marvel might give us a Black Widow movie in response.

I'm skeptical at this point, not only about the DC lineup but about the fate of the comic book movie in general. It is all going to depend on the quality of films we get. If Snyder and company can somehow make us forget how disappointing Man of Steel was by making Dawn of Justice great, then there's a shot that this whole thing might work and we may all benefit from it.

Kyle Johannessen has really got to learn to write a bio to his articles. He enjoys long walks on the beach, writing movies in which people die, and doing backflips on the moon. Also, his father was a hamster and his mother smelled of elderberries. You can check out his filmmaking work here.

Did you enjoy this article? Follow us on Facebook to get more great content! We have a weekly podcast you can find on our main site. Also follow us on Twitter and Tumblr!