This time last year, on #theNERDIES2018, I championed one show above all others. 'Titans'. ..
For me 'Titans' was the winds of change blowing the Marvel comic pages out of everyone's grip. It was the first solid step in the right direction. It correctly got the mix of dark and gritty, and humour, that DC had been juggling like a couple of burning hot plates in the hands of an ill judged servant, since 'MAN OF STEEL' first premiered. This team-up television dish was brought steaming hot with action, well developed characters, and a story that had you spooning every morsel in your mouth (great, I'm hungry now). Even though it had been mired in bad press and no real hype behind it, it prevailed. Robin stabbing bad guys in the nuts and yelling "Fuck Batman" was great TV, believe it or not.
For Gaz however, it was our Aquaman viewing that garnered his attention towards the oncoming DC train. Not only did Gaz thoroughly enjoy the film, he saw the trailer for 'SHAZAM!' that preceeded it as a foreshadowing of the tone of the properties to come. Sitting down with him afterwards Gaz said some words that really stuck with me, "What if this is when we see DC 'out-marvel' Marvel?"
Recalling this has got me thinking about what I watched this year. What were my eyes glued to? What was I nerding out on? And the answer kept coming back to the same place.
For Gaz however, it was our Aquaman viewing that garnered his attention towards the oncoming DC train. Not only did Gaz thoroughly enjoy the film, he saw the trailer for 'SHAZAM!' that preceeded it as a foreshadowing of the tone of the properties to come. Sitting down with him afterwards Gaz said some words that really stuck with me, "What if this is when we see DC 'out-marvel' Marvel?"
Recalling this has got me thinking about what I watched this year. What were my eyes glued to? What was I nerding out on? And the answer kept coming back to the same place.
DC has never been on steady ground in the TALK NERDY HQ grounds. As much as we love their past endeavours, our site debuted on the release of 'BATMAN v SUPERMAN' and they just haven't had their shit together since. Let's be honest, that isn't just our opinion either. DC has been the Tom to Marvel's Jerry in the TV and film side of things for the past 5 years, so much so the mainstream doesn't really even acknowledge DC that much either. Well I think that a light needs to be shone on DC for all their nerdy work they've done this year:
January
The beginning of the year, as I just stated, began with Aquaman tearing up the cinemas. As much as the internet wanted to hate 'Wet Thor', it just didn't happen. The movie was well shot, gorgeous looking, had intense action scenes and had layers of Lord of the Rings, Sword in the Stone and other fantasy stories rather than stepping on the toes of 'Thor' or 'Black Panther'. In fact some people would actually say 'Black Panther' did step on those norse toes, but that's none of my business...
'Aquaman' may have technically been a product of 2018, but we saw it truly ripple well into the beginning of 2019. It went on to make $1.1 Billion worldwide and suprised a lot of critics, including Gaz and I.
February
February and we get the meta, barrier stretching, 'DOOM PATROL' TV series debut. This show truly did whatever it wanted, following a comic that's every bit as trippy and zany as one of Jimi Hendrix's psychadelic shits. We had donkey's farting clouds of dialogue, giant rats fighting, sentient streets on the run from the police, and a villain who knew this was all a TV show. Personally, it was easily the most original thing that I have ever watched since I first got to see 'THE YOUNG ONES'. It was amoral, apolitical, and just a bloody funny ride into the minds of 5 unstable misfits who just want stability. Artistic creativity is like cooking. God bless the creative minds out there that still take these chances because they fire out some amazing main courses, and damn anyone who plays it safe and serves dry roast beef shows like INHUMANS (just have a snack JB, yeesh).
January
The beginning of the year, as I just stated, began with Aquaman tearing up the cinemas. As much as the internet wanted to hate 'Wet Thor', it just didn't happen. The movie was well shot, gorgeous looking, had intense action scenes and had layers of Lord of the Rings, Sword in the Stone and other fantasy stories rather than stepping on the toes of 'Thor' or 'Black Panther'. In fact some people would actually say 'Black Panther' did step on those norse toes, but that's none of my business...
'Aquaman' may have technically been a product of 2018, but we saw it truly ripple well into the beginning of 2019. It went on to make $1.1 Billion worldwide and suprised a lot of critics, including Gaz and I.
February
February and we get the meta, barrier stretching, 'DOOM PATROL' TV series debut. This show truly did whatever it wanted, following a comic that's every bit as trippy and zany as one of Jimi Hendrix's psychadelic shits. We had donkey's farting clouds of dialogue, giant rats fighting, sentient streets on the run from the police, and a villain who knew this was all a TV show. Personally, it was easily the most original thing that I have ever watched since I first got to see 'THE YOUNG ONES'. It was amoral, apolitical, and just a bloody funny ride into the minds of 5 unstable misfits who just want stability. Artistic creativity is like cooking. God bless the creative minds out there that still take these chances because they fire out some amazing main courses, and damn anyone who plays it safe and serves dry roast beef shows like INHUMANS (just have a snack JB, yeesh).
March
March, and the caped crusader himself turned 80 years old. Batman fans worldwide rejoiced and celebrated in various ways (brooding atop buildings and what not). Also 'BATMAN vs TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES' the animated movie, came out and became, hands down, one of the best films of the year. Seriously, it's insane how perfect a film it is. It still has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for God's sake! The animated side of DC can truly be hit and miss and that studio has definitely let me down with a few recent releases (Wonder Woman - Bloodlines is hilariously bad). But this just reached out the screen, grabbed my inner child and flung it headfirst into a house of pizza, ninjas and Batman!
April
April rolls around and 'SHAZAM!' hits the big screen with lightning fast humour. It is a movie with a clear vision of staying true to the comics and an immediate likeability in Zachery Levi, who excels at making you feel like a child again watching a superhero for the first time. The script takes the piss out of the superhero genre in a clever, childlike way and the way it's shot elevates SHAZAM!'s audience up to him. I saw kids definitely connect with onscreen Zachery, and that's something that gets lost in the MCU. I mean do you think any kids relate to Stephen Strange? It's April and 'SHAZAM!' was a box office smash, DC have been banging out the hits monthly and then disaster...
March, and the caped crusader himself turned 80 years old. Batman fans worldwide rejoiced and celebrated in various ways (brooding atop buildings and what not). Also 'BATMAN vs TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES' the animated movie, came out and became, hands down, one of the best films of the year. Seriously, it's insane how perfect a film it is. It still has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for God's sake! The animated side of DC can truly be hit and miss and that studio has definitely let me down with a few recent releases (Wonder Woman - Bloodlines is hilariously bad). But this just reached out the screen, grabbed my inner child and flung it headfirst into a house of pizza, ninjas and Batman!
April
April rolls around and 'SHAZAM!' hits the big screen with lightning fast humour. It is a movie with a clear vision of staying true to the comics and an immediate likeability in Zachery Levi, who excels at making you feel like a child again watching a superhero for the first time. The script takes the piss out of the superhero genre in a clever, childlike way and the way it's shot elevates SHAZAM!'s audience up to him. I saw kids definitely connect with onscreen Zachery, and that's something that gets lost in the MCU. I mean do you think any kids relate to Stephen Strange? It's April and 'SHAZAM!' was a box office smash, DC have been banging out the hits monthly and then disaster...
May
'Swamp Thing' was a show dripping in the troubles that only a room full of suits can cause. Critically admired and receiving great reviews didn't stop legal issues killing this monster horror hit before the entire series had even aired in May. A changing of the guards somewhere in Warner Bros meant that 'Swamp Thing' wasn't their 'Thing', which was met with much protest from both crew and audience. One of the fallen shows of 2019, but it went down fighting and will probably go on to become a cult classic. If you haven't already, definitely check it out, but what I'm getting at is that the show wasn't cancelled because it was as bad as a dry, lacklustre INHUMAN beef roast (STOP!), it was cancelled because of shareholders and CEO's. But Warner Bros cancelling the eco warrior may have been the paper, recycleable straw that broke the camels back, as a DC uprising began...
THE SUMMER OF HYPE SANS WARNER BROS
Admittedly summer was a little quiet on the DC front. Not showing up to high profile events like SDCC, no movies came out (other than some animated films), the mainstream movie-goer didn't get anything. All was quiet, but it normally is before the storm.
The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut really ramped up its campaign this summer and did something that none of us normie DC fans saw coming. They actually did...some 'things'. Going from being some loonies with tinfoil hats on in their parents basements crazily insisting that there is a different version of 'Justice League'/Josstice League, these have a go heroes went to coercing THE Zack Snyder himself into revealing a new frame, image or piece of information about his cut of 'Justice League' every week. I hold my hands up, I wasn't on board at all. I got sick of hearing people yelling that there was a full finished post production film, completely different from the one released, with little to no evidence to back up these claims. But can you blame me? I'm by no means a man of faith. But they banged on.
This summer those same damn nerds managed to get the entire Justice League cast and their celebrity friends to tweet #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, bring the "movement" into the mainstream, reveal that 80 pages of the script was re-written by Joss Whedon, and that the final finished film is 3.5 hours long AFTER editing, confirming that it is definitely a whole different movie, and (more importantly) it exists. That's impressive. I may still not like it, it may be a 210 minute ill judged servant metaphor, but I can't help but be dazzled by their work, tireless effort and for making the impossible now seem inevitable. HBO Max...that's all I'm saying.
'Swamp Thing' was a show dripping in the troubles that only a room full of suits can cause. Critically admired and receiving great reviews didn't stop legal issues killing this monster horror hit before the entire series had even aired in May. A changing of the guards somewhere in Warner Bros meant that 'Swamp Thing' wasn't their 'Thing', which was met with much protest from both crew and audience. One of the fallen shows of 2019, but it went down fighting and will probably go on to become a cult classic. If you haven't already, definitely check it out, but what I'm getting at is that the show wasn't cancelled because it was as bad as a dry, lacklustre INHUMAN beef roast (STOP!), it was cancelled because of shareholders and CEO's. But Warner Bros cancelling the eco warrior may have been the paper, recycleable straw that broke the camels back, as a DC uprising began...
THE SUMMER OF HYPE SANS WARNER BROS
Admittedly summer was a little quiet on the DC front. Not showing up to high profile events like SDCC, no movies came out (other than some animated films), the mainstream movie-goer didn't get anything. All was quiet, but it normally is before the storm.
The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut really ramped up its campaign this summer and did something that none of us normie DC fans saw coming. They actually did...some 'things'. Going from being some loonies with tinfoil hats on in their parents basements crazily insisting that there is a different version of 'Justice League'/Josstice League, these have a go heroes went to coercing THE Zack Snyder himself into revealing a new frame, image or piece of information about his cut of 'Justice League' every week. I hold my hands up, I wasn't on board at all. I got sick of hearing people yelling that there was a full finished post production film, completely different from the one released, with little to no evidence to back up these claims. But can you blame me? I'm by no means a man of faith. But they banged on.
This summer those same damn nerds managed to get the entire Justice League cast and their celebrity friends to tweet #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, bring the "movement" into the mainstream, reveal that 80 pages of the script was re-written by Joss Whedon, and that the final finished film is 3.5 hours long AFTER editing, confirming that it is definitely a whole different movie, and (more importantly) it exists. That's impressive. I may still not like it, it may be a 210 minute ill judged servant metaphor, but I can't help but be dazzled by their work, tireless effort and for making the impossible now seem inevitable. HBO Max...that's all I'm saying.
Meanwhile the CW (I don't even know what that means, I think it's a channel), who pump out all the cheesy TV versions of DC characters like 'The Flash', 'Arrow' and 'Supergirl', announced that they were going to do their version of the classic DC storyline 'Crisis on Infinite Earths'. "That's a big announcement", I thought. Every DC CW show crossing over for one TV event? Yeah, that is quite astonishing. But that was just the noisy cricket in Will Smiths hand. Then they got out the big guns. They began rewriting all of DC media history! They then declared that it was going to star The 90's Flash, the original Robin from Batman 66, the Superman from 'Superman Returns', and even fucking Kevin Conroy, THE voice of Batman from Batman the Animated Series! But that wasn't enough, they just went around the internet making everything canon. Smallville? That's in there. Batman 1989? That's in there. Oh, and you're getting Batwoman too. The internet began gushing over the idea of this mad crossover event happening and to be honest it got me watching 'Arrow', a show I'd all but forgotten about. I don't know how it's going to go or if it will even be good but I'm now beginning season 1 of 'The Flash' and should be all caught up and watching 'Crisis...' by the time I'm 35.
September
'Titans' season 2 began and the one thing about this show is you have to admit the writers have some cahones on them. I always thought that Marvel was brave introducing both Spider-Man AND Black Panther in a Captain America film that was trying to tell a version of the 'CIVIL WAR' storyline. 'Titans' season 1 just threw you in at the deep end with multiple characters, most of these heroes don't even know who they really are THEMSELVES, let alone you...and it worked. So for the second season to throw in even more characters, the first televised on screen live-action, adult Bruce Wayne since Batman '66, and Krypto the flying fucking dog...it should, on paper, be a mess, especially as I don't like the concept of Krypto. But you know what? It's been as entertaining and intense as the last season. It's not without its flaws, same goes for season 1, but on the whole it's much more firmly rooted in the ethos of these legendary characters than anything pre 2018. And I really like the dog.
October
Did you get shot in a cinema this year? No? Funny, because according to all the papers, 'JOKER' was going to infect all our soft brains, cause us to go on crazy gun sprees, and become homeland terrorists. Instead we got a dark, grounded, character study of a villain that no DC fan wanted studying. The man behind the smile was always meant to be a mystery, so why make a Joker origin story? Well even after the film, that origin is possibly still a mystery. I don't need to go into 'JOKER' in that much detail, our podcast did enough of that, but this film stole the year. Instead of the predicted fallout of bloodshed and tragedy, DC got people dancing down stairways and giving them the first $1 billion R-RATED movie ever and, at the time of writing this, whispers of an Oscar...
November
This post comic 'Watchmen' TV show had eyebrows raised but has since shattered all expectations and continues to write and build on the award winning comic of the same name. I've mostly found that those that do not understand it have not read the comic. Again, a really bold choice to make this with the full assumption the viewer has read the 1980's comic, but to be fair 'The Watchmen' is probably the most read comic in the world. Why not do that? It leaves so much more room to not have to stand there and explain EVERYTHING. Bold and exciting, I can't wait to see where it ends. I think what has really shocked me about all these DC TV shows is that Marvel was the king of that realm and then just disapperated like a snowman in a sauna after 'Iron Fist'. Other than 'Daredevil', I feel like Marvel made me feel that even with a built up audience, and good characters, that maybe superhero TV shows were just too much. I never finished 'Punisher' season 2 and haven't even scratched 'Jessica Jones'. I even wrote a blog about how all these shows felt like they were diluting the quality of content on TV and it could spell the beginning of mainstream superhero fatigue. 'Watchmen' drops a giant radioactive squid on that argument, showing that, in reality, these shows can be done right. Sooooo right that I actually count down the days until a new episode is out, something I felt I haven't done since 'Breaking Bad'.
Did you get shot in a cinema this year? No? Funny, because according to all the papers, 'JOKER' was going to infect all our soft brains, cause us to go on crazy gun sprees, and become homeland terrorists. Instead we got a dark, grounded, character study of a villain that no DC fan wanted studying. The man behind the smile was always meant to be a mystery, so why make a Joker origin story? Well even after the film, that origin is possibly still a mystery. I don't need to go into 'JOKER' in that much detail, our podcast did enough of that, but this film stole the year. Instead of the predicted fallout of bloodshed and tragedy, DC got people dancing down stairways and giving them the first $1 billion R-RATED movie ever and, at the time of writing this, whispers of an Oscar...
November
This post comic 'Watchmen' TV show had eyebrows raised but has since shattered all expectations and continues to write and build on the award winning comic of the same name. I've mostly found that those that do not understand it have not read the comic. Again, a really bold choice to make this with the full assumption the viewer has read the 1980's comic, but to be fair 'The Watchmen' is probably the most read comic in the world. Why not do that? It leaves so much more room to not have to stand there and explain EVERYTHING. Bold and exciting, I can't wait to see where it ends. I think what has really shocked me about all these DC TV shows is that Marvel was the king of that realm and then just disapperated like a snowman in a sauna after 'Iron Fist'. Other than 'Daredevil', I feel like Marvel made me feel that even with a built up audience, and good characters, that maybe superhero TV shows were just too much. I never finished 'Punisher' season 2 and haven't even scratched 'Jessica Jones'. I even wrote a blog about how all these shows felt like they were diluting the quality of content on TV and it could spell the beginning of mainstream superhero fatigue. 'Watchmen' drops a giant radioactive squid on that argument, showing that, in reality, these shows can be done right. Sooooo right that I actually count down the days until a new episode is out, something I felt I haven't done since 'Breaking Bad'.
December
Marvel had plans to make a R-RATED 'Deadpool' cartoon, and dropped it after Disney acquired Fox. DC clearly had someone to hold their beer, because in stepped 'Harley Quinn', a foul mouthed roasting of Gotham comic lore. And whilst it sticks a giant tongue out at Batman and his rogues gallery, it does a fantabulous job of emancipating one Harley Quinn. Yes, I am predicting now that this is what the 'Birds of Prey' movie WANTS to be. It makes Harley more than the sex symbol she's become. It even explains why her image has changed since the 90's, something that was never really explained in 'Suicide Squad'. Not only is it as funny and on point as 'Teen Titans Go to the Movies', it's got substance behind it as well, something Harley has been lacking in a lot of the creative media surrounding her.
If any of this flew under your radar, it is for the simple reason that DC just aren't part of the mainstream narrative at the moment. If Marvel announce a film it's actually in the news, DC announce their new Batman and it's reported on SOME entertainment sites but not as much as Marvel. Some of this stuff also relies on you having the DC Universe channel, something that isn't available in a lot of countries. But just because it's not been front page, trending stuff, doesn't take away from the quality of the work. In fact, with Marvel being the trendy guys they are right now, DC are literally being 'The Nerds' of the class. And I can't think of a greater accolade to have bestowed in an age of superheroes, that your company is 'The Nerd' amongst the players. Well done DC, just don't fuc-...
Marvel had plans to make a R-RATED 'Deadpool' cartoon, and dropped it after Disney acquired Fox. DC clearly had someone to hold their beer, because in stepped 'Harley Quinn', a foul mouthed roasting of Gotham comic lore. And whilst it sticks a giant tongue out at Batman and his rogues gallery, it does a fantabulous job of emancipating one Harley Quinn. Yes, I am predicting now that this is what the 'Birds of Prey' movie WANTS to be. It makes Harley more than the sex symbol she's become. It even explains why her image has changed since the 90's, something that was never really explained in 'Suicide Squad'. Not only is it as funny and on point as 'Teen Titans Go to the Movies', it's got substance behind it as well, something Harley has been lacking in a lot of the creative media surrounding her.
If any of this flew under your radar, it is for the simple reason that DC just aren't part of the mainstream narrative at the moment. If Marvel announce a film it's actually in the news, DC announce their new Batman and it's reported on SOME entertainment sites but not as much as Marvel. Some of this stuff also relies on you having the DC Universe channel, something that isn't available in a lot of countries. But just because it's not been front page, trending stuff, doesn't take away from the quality of the work. In fact, with Marvel being the trendy guys they are right now, DC are literally being 'The Nerds' of the class. And I can't think of a greater accolade to have bestowed in an age of superheroes, that your company is 'The Nerd' amongst the players. Well done DC, just don't fuc-...
Oh, no.
Disagree? Tweet at me!
@ProJub
-Jay Burdett
Disagree? Tweet at me!
@ProJub
-Jay Burdett