It’s time to do it, Warner Bros. It’s time to finally, definitively, stomp your superhero-boot-wearing foot down hard in response to all of the Marvel fans gloating over the success of The Avengers. It’s time to declare how serious you are about making a proper Justice League of America work with the parts that you currently have in place. It’s time to take back the buzz that routinely swirls around comic-book properties.
It’s time to put Christian Bale’s Batman in the end credits of Man of Steel.
The biggest story on the JLA front broke when Latino-Review attached Christopher Nolan and Bale’s name to the eternally-developing JLA movie. It’s the first bit of good news for a high-profile, high-concept superhero project mired in screenplay debacles and casting issues. Awhile back, I wrote a column laying out the reasons I thought JLA would never hit the 2015 release date Warner has circled.
And yet, the pairing of Bale and Nolan behind a JLA movie is the type of game changer that would wipe all uncertainty (OK, “most” of the uncertainty) off the map.
Remember how excited this scene made you?
“I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.” With those simple words, the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was poured, and so many great films have been built on it since then.
DC and Warner need that moment. Superman (Henry Cavill) approaching a retired Batman (Bale) during the end credits of Man of Steel could be that moment. It instantly would shift a modicum of momentum back into JLA’s favor, proving that the powers behind the massively successful Dark Knight trilogy were on board with what until now is only a speculative Justice League movie. The project, for the first time, would feel real … instead of a fantasy film that’s somehow able to generate Twitter buzz and SEO-grabbing articles on movie web sites every few weeks.
The timing, more than anything, feels right. L-R breaking this news means plans could be underway for Bale and Cavill to at least film their cut scene, buying time for the studio to map out the logistics of this mighty superhero team up. The scene could be attached to Man of Steel much the same way the shawarma joke was tacked on to the end of The Avengers after a last-second shoot. If handled properly, this could be the message to DC fans seeing Man of Steel: that the studio is listening, and they are making sure the right pieces are in place to make the JLA movie happen.
It’s entirely possible, at the same time, that NONE of this is true. Latino’s scoop could be off, and Nolan and Bale might want nothing to do with Batman or the Justice League anymore. But if the Dark Knight does show up in Man of Steel, serving as a metaphorical Bat-signal to DC Comics’ fans that JLA is moving in the right direction under the guidance of Nolan and his creative team, then I think it’s safe to say that the JLA movie would bite a big chunk out of Marvel and The Avengers’ dominance over the fanboy community. Not only that, but the anticipation for 2015 – when JLA, The Avengers 2 and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars are due to drop – would melt the Internet.
