The above may be one of the most awesomerest pictures in all of history.
So I was informed that the series Smallville was originally supposed to be called ‘Bruce Wayne’. The pitch was apparently to follow young master Wayne as he travels the world and learns the secrets and techniques he would someday use when he dons the cowl of the Dark Knight. I would have been ONE HUNDRED PERCENT behind this show. A lot more then the Superman concept that followed it, a hell of a lot more actually…’Meh’ was in fact my original reaction to hearing about Smallville.
I find the idea of watching the ultimate boy scout of the DC universe boring to say the least. However, a lot of people I know seem to really dig the show. So, despite my misgivings, I tried it out anyway. Low and behold, I was right.
It’s a gimmick, an advertisement where we are supposed to act awed and surprised when his powers are revealed one by one. Meeting his future allies and enemies isn’t any better either.
Featuring other comic heroes in Smallville actually serves to discredit them, it robs them of their stories. All of a sudden, their own interesting and diverse back stories are stripped away as they now all of a sudden revolve around Kent. It turns them from free agents with common ideals that will someday align to form the Justice League into followers who just went along with what Superman did. That second dynamic being totally retarded in my mind, not interesting or intriguing in the slightest.
Now, while I’m certain show execs would have very likely turned the Bruce Wayne show into something very similar, it had a lot more potential. I think it had a far greater chance of, if they did (and probably would), introduce other DC heroes: they would have had a much higher chance of maintaining that ‘free agents’ thing. Batman was never a great leader, though he did admittedly start to attract a lot of followers by the power of his ideals. Batman’s force of personality would have definitely influenced and maybe inspired the others, but other heroes wouldn’t have become ‘followers’ like it seems Smallville has turned them into.
Bruce Wayne also would have had the potential of being darker then Smallville can ever be. Superman is an unwavering moral compass. He sees the world in black and white the same way Ma & Pa Kettle brought him up to. Batman always walked in the gray, of all the heroes that stood to fall from grace, he has walked that Sherlock Holems / Moriarty line closer than anyone.
That chance of him turning into the very evil he fights would be great fodder for writers.
On a slightly more irreverent note: A daily dose of awesome. I came across this: a combination of two of the things I hold most dear. Porn and D&D.
No comments:
Post a Comment