Is DC going for the 90's dark age of comics on film?

[Hordakfan]

evity and maturity go hand in hand. The harder you try to force maturity and "seriousness" the more immature and juvenile your work appears. Human beings use humor even in the most dire of situations to deal with bad things, when a person is at their lowest they want nothing more than to laugh again.

When someone here compared Batman vs Superman to some humorless 90's grim gritty comics, Some of those '90s comics trying to be so dark to look "grown up" make me think of what it was like to be a teen-ager. Every teen tries to do their imitation of how they think an adult should be--wearing dark clothing, brooding, treating others like they're crap, posturing. Usually by the time you hit twenty you figure out that's not what being grown up is really about. If you don't, you're going to have miserable life when reality finally does hit you. And they are right, some did took the wrong lessons from Kevin Eastman's Ninja Turtles with Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Alan Moore and Frank Miller without understanding what made them successful comics in the 80s.

Even Nolan Batman had humor from Alfred and Watchmen in both comic/film had Comedian who maybe a rapist murderer but he told jokes too, DC/WB took the wrong lessons from those movies even to V for Vendetta which they thought grim/gritty would work/sell but V For Vendetta had jokes too.

Marvel is going for the silver/bronze/iron (60s 70s and 80s) age of comics, DC seems set to go for the Dark Age of comics of the 90s?

They do remember what happened to all that right?

*Advances with rolled-up newspaper*

NO! Bad movie execs! No biscuit!

Don't go digging up the rotting corpse that is the 90's Dark Age of comics! That poisonous tripe was killed and buried for a reason!

 

[Victarion]

I got more nostalgia from it than maturity tbh. I cut my teeth on Spawn back in 3rd grade, so I have the same sort of soft spot for that as some do for their Adam West Batman, their golden age heroes etc. Plus, its downright fun.

edit - I'm still waiting on that dark, though. We haven't really got there. I mean, we got to see Captain Boomerang trick Slipknot into setting off his nanite, Harley calling Deadshot/the others *****es for not wanting to face down a demon. The humor's there.

Ah, forgot Griggs ****ting his pants when it was revealed that the gun Deadshot pointed at him had live ammo. Also, some of Alfred's remarks about Bruce's being single in BvS.

 

[MbJ]

evity and maturity go hand in hand. The harder you try to force maturity and "seriousness" the more immature and juvenile your work appears. Human beings use humor even in the most dire of situations to deal with bad things, when a person is at their lowest they want nothing more than to laugh again.

When someone here compared Batman vs Superman to some humorless 90's grim gritty comics, Some of those '90s comics trying to be so dark to look "grown up" make me think of what it was like to be a teen-ager. Every teen tries to do their imitation of how they think an adult should be--wearing dark clothing, brooding, treating others like they're crap, posturing. Usually by the time you hit twenty you figure out that's not what being grown up is really about. If you don't, you're going to have miserable life when reality finally does hit you. And they are right, some did took the wrong lessons from Kevin Eastman's Ninja Turtles with Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Alan Moore and Frank Miller without understanding what made them successful comics in the 80s.

Even Nolan Batman had humor from Alfred and Watchmen in both comic/film had Comedian who maybe a rapist murderer but he told jokes too, DC/WB took the wrong lessons from those movies even to V for Vendetta which they thought grim/gritty would work/sell but V For Vendetta had jokes too.

Marvel is going for the silver/bronze/iron (60s 70s and 80s) age of comics, DC seems set to go for the Dark Age of comics of the 90s?

They do remember what happened to all that right?

*Advances with rolled-up newspaper*

NO! Bad movie execs! No biscuit!

Don't go digging up the rotting corpse that is the 90's Dark Age of comics! That poisonous tripe was killed and buried for a reason!

The basic argument is the same, but it seems more like Snyder's primary influences seem to be late 80's stuff like Watchmen or his huge throbbing ***** for Frank Miller's Batman.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Plenty of good stories and characters came from the 90s. Every decade has a few duds. Nolan's Batman Trilogy was influenced the Knightfall and The Long Halloween and yet it wasn't accused of having the clunky elements of 90s DC comics.

I don't think WB is specifically going for a 90s vibe in their films. Doomsday is obviously a product of the 90s and Aquaman has at least a visual influence from that time period, but MOS, BvS, and SS seemed to draw from multiple time periods.

 

[Hordakfan]

The basic argument is the same, but it seems more like Snyder's primary influences seem to be late 80's stuff like Watchmen or his huge throbbing ***** for Frank Miller's Batman.

Do you agree some took the wrong lessons from Watchmen and Miller's Batman?

 

[TheVileOne]

Knightfall only really influenced The Dark Knight Rises. Batman: Year One was obviously a much greater influence on Batman Begins.

 

[TheVileOne]

Do you agree some took the wrong lessons from Watchmen and Miller's Batman?

I would say he did. Until recently, there's been a lot of tone deafness with Snyder in his execution of these characters.

 

[Batmannerism]

The term "dark ages" also refers to an era of european history marked by cultural and economic deterioration - a time of restricted knowledge and great suffering.

So in that sense describing the era of Batman v Superman as a "dark age" is completely spot on.

Sorry, that's melodramatic, but it ain't completely wrong.

 

[MbJ]

Do you agree some took the wrong lessons from Watchmen and Miller's Batman?

He did, as many comic writers did. The writer of Watchmen has expressed regret several times for writing the book, as a whole generation of superhero writers looked at it and The Dark Knight Returns and mistakenly got the idea that they were successful because they were bleak and gritty and upsetting.

When in reality they were two excellently written and plotted stories that just happened to have bleak and gritty tones.

 

[Hordakfan]

He did, as many comic writers did. The writer of Watchmen has expressed regret several times for writing the book, as a whole generation of superhero writers looked at it and The Dark Knight Returns and mistakenly got the idea that they were successful because they were bleak and gritty and upsetting.

When in reality they were two excellently written and plotted stories that just happened to have bleak and gritty tones.

Alan Moore lost his mind and should not regret making a brilliant story. Frank Miller also wanted to get away from the grimdark stuff he spawned he stated but he lost his mind after 9/11 from PTSD

It be like if Kubrick regret making a Clockwork Orange for spawning a crime that happened in the UK.

Afterall Moore is comics's Kubrick you know.

 

[Victarion]

At this point, I'd hesitate to say Snyder's tone deaf where the Trinity's concerned. BvS felt like a feasible look at a man who's let his obsession override his life (Batman) and a man who, for all his superpowers (Supes), still can't find a place in the world where he fits. In Batman's development, you see someone who believes violence is the way out (branding), but ultimately it only begets violence (criminals shanked in prison). Their arcs are hard ones for the characters. Supes in particular really did a great job of breaking down that barrier of invincibility that had turned me off from the character, making him feel more relatable. Its ultimately what makes me care for these people, even though one's a barely-restrained killer and the other's too obsessed with what the world thinks about him to appreciate the people that do care for him.

I'll give you Lex's mania. I'm not sure if that's a throwback from the 90's era of comics, but I could take or leave it. I did like his backstory, but the mania was more off-putting than not.