Tag Archives: Green Lantern

James Gunn? Nope, not here.

This all started yesterday. There were two events that got me there. The first was Colin Jost making a reference to the Man of Steal, this of course made me wonder how much Scarlett Johansson has howling with laughter on the sofa watching Colin say things Michael Che was feeding him, with the Halloween event making Colin burst out “You’re evil” being an absolute number one. The second one was something I had heard before, somehow it got back into my mindset. “Which Superheroes could be black?” It was a questions I had heard around the relaunch of the Fantastic Four. I am a traditional kind of guy, I feel uneasy watching any hero switch race. This does work both ways. As such Lucas Cage could never be caucasian, neither could Cloak from cloak and dagger. It might be me, it might be to keep things how the cartoonist designed them to be. Yet, the question remains valid. As such my mind started to ponder. And in light of the animated series I think that the Green Lantern could be black, then two more ‘heroes’ entered the frame. The first one was Ghost Rider, the second one was a lot darker and based on what some would regard a farce. You see Blacula was a weird setting and I never saw it in the cinema, I saw it much later. Yet consider two creatures with links to the occult. Which reminded me of a print I saw decades ago. A Nazi high table that was investigating the occult. What if there was a story where these (however members there were) and we reconsidered the first Indiana Jones, as well as other supernatural items and we have two movies with links to each other, but not overlapping (in the beginning). The Ghost Rider we need to drop because it is not DC, but we still have Green Lantern, Deadman and optionally Blacula. Yet, now Blacula is not some joke. How about we make that vampire dark, I mean really dark so that we consider the House on haunted Hill a weak comedy. The darkest of dark with a matching storyline. This line will not appeal to all, I get that, but a movie that appeals to all will in the end be praised by no-one. And as the story unfolds and we see more of these very dark pages we introduce a horror group into the DC fold, and I am no James Gunn, as such I am entertaining the utterly bizarre. We see in the the comics that Yellow is the Kryptonite of the Green Lantern, as such sulphur would equally do and we could get a link to the realm of Mephistopheles (he sends his regards). A set of movies that are separate enough and only in the fifth movie we start seeing connections with the stage that the fifth is less watchable unless you saw at least one of the previous four. We lose out on Constantine and Ghost Rider as Marvel was ahead of its time, but there are other avenues to tap into and even DC has its rankings and not all are of the occult (and need not be), but what happens when Green Lantern, Blacula and Deadman connect? There are all kinds of issues and all kinds of twists that could make a good storyline. The story wasn’t too bad and the idea of a African prince Mamuwalde in modern times where we still have human trafficking and slave trade could make for an interesting twist, that is beside the stage that African Shaman magic has never been explored to the degree it could have which gives us more than merely the supernatural. The nice side here is that with the ancient African sides optional sides to Egypt and Mesopotamia open up. The same could be said for the other choices in other directions. All venues that Marvel never touched on and even as they have their own stallions in the stable, there is nothing against having another stable that make a black stable look mediocre bland. This is possible, remember Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in no country for old man? Setting the stage of evil is merely a stage that makes the person darker the more we believe it is closer to reality. If that wasn’t true we would merely giggle at the side of Hannibal the Cannibal, but we do not, even as we realise that it is mostly the actor giving it live and we have plenty of non caucasian great actors (including Asians here). So consider a massively dark role and now we get a person like Jamie Foxx to put on the vampire shroud. How dark can the story become? As an alternative we could consider Chiwetel Ejiofor or Idris Elba both great actors in their own way, as such they will give a different spin to the character, optionally really great spins. As such it is clear that I am no James Gunn, I never intended to be a copy of him, but I reckon that I see the potential of great DC heroes or anti heroes and they could all be black, as such the question “Which Superheroes could be black” is answered, I still have some ‘conservative’ feels about it, as such my imagination doesn’t take me to the Man of Steal (sorry Michael Che), but there are plenty of options in the DC Universe and dare I say the Marvel Universe as well.

Enjoy the day, Monday is almost here.

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Rescue James Gunn!

Yes, that is quite the order and lets be clear, there is no indication the man needs saving. Yet there is the case that he and his compadre (Peter Safran) need to create an entire DC universe. And for some reason something triggered. Not sure what triggered it, or how it got triggered. Yet the creative mind in me started to mull things over. In the first it was merely about the Green Lantern (not Ryan Reynolds shining moment), but then my mind wandered a little further. It went to the 70’s when I read some of those comics, a friend had them. And I remember a moment when there was someone else. I had to look it up, because it was decades ago and it was the character John Stewart. I remember one image (Black and White) and the phrase ‘Beware my light!’ 

It is all I had, but it was enough for my imaginative brain, the images of a darker, grittier Green lantern started to evolve. A story about human slavery and smuggling. You see, on a planet like this where people are abundant, one could assume that smuggling the ones no one cares about would be well established. We see this in episode Anne (Buffy season 3 episode 1) and that was not the first instance. But to set in motion a complete human trafficking ‘solution’ that also has a way to resolve it all over the place Green Lantern way is not the easiest task. There remains the ‘realism’ part of course. Yet the stage where Green Lantern needs to shine it light becomes a much larger task, and lets be clear If the two Black Panther movies clearly set out is that there is a market for African American super heroes. In this my initial vote goes to Donnell Whittenburg. He has the physique, he has the agility to do the stunts that a Green Lantern needs to do and he could pull them off without breaking a sweat. There are more people who can equal it, but that is up to the casting teams. I am merely fuelling the idea for a new DC avenue. I cannot say whether Donny is up to the task, or if he has skeletons in his closet (just going by the issues that DC faces with Ezra Miller), but one has to start somewhere. In all we might get to see a cameo with Saint Lively less saintly husband to hand over the torch, we all have to start somewhere and it fits the rules of continuation. 

From there we have the ’formulated’ parts, but I believe that throwing a ‘hero’ of the deep end in a place where he has no hope of resolving anything, to a stage where he could get into his own trouble. I remember a comic where Hal Jordan gets exposed to Venom (what makes Bane strong), what if it opens up the imagination of the new Green Lantern, after he has to do serious battle with himself? I also just learned that there was supposed (or will be) a series based on this Green Lantern. So I am not sure where that is, but as some say. Great minds work alike. In the age of contracting economies, we need to find fuel for all kettles to avoid the rapids, which will sink any ship. As such the idea has merit, but there are a few issues all over the place. No matter how we see it, sometimes we hope that there is a thought that gives someone else the idea that they could use it, entire economies grew on the idea of others. Tesla (screw Edison), Marconi, Martin Cooper, Tim Berners-Lee and the dapper duo of Sergey Brin and Larry Page to name but a few. Oh right, I forgot about the Zuckerberg dude. Still good ideas are where you find them and the focal point on the idea. The world is full of them if you only listen and look in the right direction.

Well, I leave it up to you to create the other 173 DC fiends and villains. Have a great Friday and enjoy the holiday season.

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