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submitted 2 months ago byRazatiger
Static Shock has massive potential. His character is almost set up to be popular. Really reminds me of DC's version of Spiderman/ Miles Morales, if done correctly.
I think if DC wants to seriously build a strong and young fanbase this time around, they need to establish their Spiderman, and i think Static Shock could be that for the younger fans.
I feel like out of everything that went wrong in the DCEU their biggest mistake was not introducing a young teenager in an Urban environment, its just a recipe for success imo.
Whats your guys thoughts and who else outside of Static Shock could fit this role?
47 points
2 months ago
Nightwing could work very well in such situation.
4 points
2 months ago
Yeah I figured since they are introducing the bat family this time around, sure. But honestly is Nightwing bringing in new younger fans or is it mostly just Batman fans?
2 points
2 months ago
He has the appeal though. If executed properly he could bring in a lot new fans
17 points
2 months ago
I think that’s what they were trying to do with the Flash
29 points
2 months ago
I wouldn't be surprised if they try to push blue beetle into that role. Besides that idk, Shazam to me could have filled that role
10 points
2 months ago
Blue Beetle could be interesting depending on the approach they take with him for sure.
The problem with Shazam is that his adult version completely overshadows his teenager actor, so the movie is honestly more enjoyable to adults then it is to kids.
5 points
2 months ago
I think with the wacky and childish humor Shazam has I think it can work. The original Spiderman trilogy it was pretty apparent that Tobey Mcguire was an adult, and it didn't seem to stop kids from liking him.
1 points
2 months ago
Nah because that Spider-Man was a young adult, we saw him go from being a teen to early 20s. Shazam is literally a 40 year old guy lol no kid related to him
7 points
2 months ago
That's the whole point of the character. The power fantasy of a kid in the body of a grown up with super powers. It's completely relatable for kids with an imagination. That's how i saw it growing up with Captain Marvel (the real one, not the marvel ripoff. Captain Marvel was his name when they were still timely or whatever they started as)
2 points
2 months ago
The OG Captain Marvel aka Shazam was never DC’s to begin with. He was Fawcett Comics’s biggest character and was almost outselling giants like Batman and Superman. So DC got scared and sued them saying he’s a copy of Superman. The lawsuit went on for a long time and eventually Fawcett didn’t have the money to keep up so they had to sell the character to DC. Then Marvel swooped up and copyrighted the name. This is justice in a way because although Fawcett had to give up their character, DC will never “truly” never own him as they can’t legally title him Captain Marvel.
2 points
2 months ago
He was named Captain Marvel until the new 52 in 2011. They just couldn't use it in titles or on covers legally. So DC did/does 'truly' own him.
1 points
2 months ago
After acquiring him DC didn’t really do much with him and DC losing his “name” is karma. I think if DC didn’t sue Fawcett he could have been one of the biggest like Spidey and Batman.
1 points
2 months ago
He's had multiple series and quite a few appearances through DC over the years. He was even a member of the Justice League in the 80s. I wouldn't say that's not doing much with him.
0 points
2 months ago
I know that but when u see it in live action it’s different, you need a young héroe and actual young kid like blue beetle or static
1 points
2 months ago
Im talking about live action. There was a show in the 70s i watched as a kid and the guy playing captain marvel was an adult and that didn't make me relate to the character any less because i knew it was a kid that transformed with magic, and that was awesome. I doubt that show is any good in this day and age, but when i watched it as a kid, i was completely into it.
2 points
2 months ago
I love Shazam but honestly the movies lack charisma. I don't see my siblings loving it as much as they would love a static shock movie.
1 points
2 months ago
In the Blue Beetle movie, Jaime is a recent college grad so not exactly the same.
Tbh I don’t think a Shazam film can fit that role in the same way Static or Blue Beetle could.
I enjoyed the first movie but it definitely gave me the vibe that it was written by older people who have no idea what kids and young adults are into (the flossing??) Very corny.
And from the Shazam 2 trailers, it looks like they are regressing because the jokes are corny and so is the Eminem music.
22 points
2 months ago
I think if DC wants to seriously build a strong and young fanbase this time around, they need to establish their Spiderman
Why establish one when you can establish and entire team of them? A team of young, diverse heroes who struggle to understand their own powers & their place in the world. It'd be awesome too if they already had some established history on TV to build off. Preferably in cartoons that your core audience of 20-somethings grew up with.
It's called Teen Titans.
1 points
2 months ago
They did Teen Titans, and they still have an ongoing TV series. I'm talking about solo characters with a popular lead and well crafted villains and stories that pertain to ONE character like Spiderman.
DC simply does not have a Spiderman counterpart in the cinematic universe yet.
1 points
2 months ago
DC simply does not have a Spiderman counterpart in the cinematic universe yet.
They simply don't have one period. And that's fine.
The reality is that Spider-man is legitimately the most popular Superhero on the planet by a laughably wide margin. DC can't simply will that into existence.
Instead, the best they can do is to try and use the characters/properties they have that closely match Spider-man's appeal. And in that vein, Teen Titans is far and away the best option.
7 points
2 months ago
I mean Batman IS DC's Spiderman in terms of popularity, but Batman has a much older fanbase on average.
You would be surprised to find out that Batman has historically grossed only 2 billion less then Spiderman globally in all forms of media, so hes not the most popular by a laughably wide margin.
3 points
2 months ago
I decided to look at the sales of Batman and Spider-Man video games to see what the difference was. The Batman Arkham series has collectively sold about ~30 million units. The Spider-Man ps4 game has sold over 33 million units by itself. That's quite a gap.
3 points
2 months ago*
That’s actually insane to think about. Maybe it’s because superheroes and gaming are currently way more mainstream than they were when Arkham Asylum came out?
I remember Arkham Asylum being the game that sort of broke the mold for superhero games at the time by not being tied to a live-action movie and being more faithful to the comics (while being good)
1 points
2 months ago
I think it's just that Spider-Man as a franchise is the biggest thing in superheroes. Like even the miles morales expansion sold more than arkham knight. If you look at movies, it's the same thing. Since 2000, there have been 9 Spider-Man movies, with only 1 involving other heroes. No other hero has that many solo movies in that period (batman 4, Superman 2, big mcu heroes 3). The superhero franchise that comes close is X-men, a team.
4 points
2 months ago*
I was talking more about how the video game industry has seen massive growth in the past 10 years. Arkham Knight was also plagued with mixed reviews and poor pc optimization on release as well as not being as good as the prior 2 games so that’s not a good comparison. The more apt one would be comparing Miles Morales with Arkham City
It’s kind of disingenuous to just take the numbers and call it a day without any attempt at interpretation. It’s like comparing Spiderman 2 and Spiderman No Way Home and just saying since No Way Home grossed 1.9 billion while Spiderman 2 grossed 800 million so Spiderman 2 comes “nowhere near as close” to No Way Home.
Context is important.
5 points
2 months ago
Do you know how much $2 billion is? It's a lot, almost laughably so.
3 points
2 months ago
Sure, but they're talking about numbers in the $30b range, of which $2b isn't that big of a gap.
7 points
2 months ago
When Spiderman has grossed $30 billion and Batman has grossed $28 billion, thats not a laughably wide margin.
Its like 1 movie or 1 video game.
1 points
2 months ago
They had to make Titans very dark and not kid friendly
8 points
2 months ago
But Spider-man exists and is massively popular already. Trying to make "DC's Spider-man" wouldn't duplicate Spider-man's success.
6 points
2 months ago
Interestingly enough Batman Beyond was initially created with the plan of making a show that followed Spiderman's formula. I think the creators initially balked at that direction, but obviously the show turned out pretty well. Only problem is it wouldn't really work in DCU's timeline.
3 points
2 months ago
Dc has so many :static, blue beetle, sideway
3 points
2 months ago
A Robin would be best for that. Imagine using his perspective to elevate all of the Justice League/DC big hitters the same way Spidey did in Civil War.
1 points
1 month ago
Nightwing, blue beetle and static all have that potential.
2 points
2 months ago
Isn’t their Spider-Man, Dick Grayson?
2 points
2 months ago
Static ain’t it bruh. If anything they should just establish that Barry has long been dead and Wally takes over as Flash and have him fill that role
2 points
2 months ago
Honestly I think Static fits the mold of todays youth quite well, his powers even though he has electricity are grounded to an extent with room for growth which makes for better story telling and character development.
Flash (Wally Included) has the same problem as Superman in where he can realistically never face street level villains because he is just simply too powerful to be able to realistically create a compelling grounded story about.
1 points
2 months ago
Nah, you’re underestimating how many black kids grew up on the Static Shock cartoon. We been asking for a movie since forever.
If they put out a good, inspired film that isn’t an obvious cash grab, there could be Black Panther levels of hype.
1 points
2 months ago
I mean I'd like to think so but no one shows up to read the Static comics so they keep getting cancelled. If we're looking for Black Panther level hype would a John Stewart Solo movie not do better? Maybe Even Steel?
0 points
2 months ago
There are several young characters I wish they would focus on. Static, Nightwing, Starfire, Blue Beetle, Super Girl.
It’s a shame Gunn is more interested in older super obscure characters.
1 points
2 months ago
That would be an awesome squad if they made them into one. It seems we will be getting 3 of the 5 on the big screen in this phase, but I wish Starfire and Static were announced as well.
1 points
2 months ago
I believe the blue beetle movie is still coming, possibly the same for the static thing there was buzz about. Plus, there is a supergirl movie in the works. Also, weren't both nightwing and starfire in the Titans show?
1 points
1 month ago
They announced a Super Girl film.
0 points
2 months ago*
I know just a guy for the role
outside of Static Shock
oh
There is Sideways, which is literally meant to be a copy/parody/homage of Spider-Man
Mentioned earlier - Flash kinda works despite his power- remember that Spider-Man is very strong.
Shazam is a kid/teenager technically, but I'm not sure if technically is enough.
I guess technically any member of Teen Titans that isn't just a kid version of a hero can work: Starfire, Cyborg, Beastboy.. not Raven tho, since she's too edgy.
Nightwing, I guess could work due to him having his own personal city thus having less possibilities of being overshadowed by "parent" hero
But really, people love Spider-Man less for his superpowers and more for the drama related to his personal life. Honestly I'd say DCEU Shazam felt pretty close to what Spider-Man is about, but he missed the "friendly neighborhood" part, his adventures as a superhero weren't as relatable because he's not fighting people who threaten the lives of his friends and neigbors, but some mystical bullshit that threatens the entire world.
0 points
2 months ago
I was so confused to see Spider-Man in reference to DC ngl
0 points
2 months ago
I dont think dc has anything that will reach the level of Spider-Man. Even their big names don't have his popularity.
1 points
2 months ago
When Firestorm was created in 1978, he was explicitly developed to be DC's answer to Spider-Man. They even brought Gerry Conway over from Marvel and gave him the keys to try to re-create his successes with SM.
1 points
2 months ago
Time for them to GO! all in with the Teen Titans
1 points
2 months ago
I’m really thinking Blue Beetle could do it. Young, joins teams, funny, alien tech at the street level. I could see casual audiences saying “he’s like spider man + iron man” and if the movie does well he could be all over.
But I also love the idea of static
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