But really, a Batman series without Batman? I mean can anyone say 'Birds of Prey'? Please someone say it and then tell me how dirty you felt afterwards.
So Deadline dropped the news that Fox has announced they will pick up a series called Gotham, following Commissioner Jim Gordon in his 'early years', and while Batman will not be featured because, well he didn't really exist yet, there will be some major villains featured?
I smell the beginning season of Arrow. And before everyone gets up in arms about how good Arrow is, I'm talking about a major lack of added ingredient.
In Arrow it was super powers and the producers figured that out, hence the addition of Flash. Now you have Gotham city and some of its famous villains WITHOUT Batman? How the hell is anyone supposed to take these guys down if the city got so bad that someone like Batman had to be created?
From this view the series will just be about how shitty Gotham City got until Batman came along, and there's the end of your series. Or you go the Arrow route and have DC-based villains that are just watered down versions of the famous feature foes we all know and love.
Does anyone remember the old Spider-man live action series? He only ever fought cronies and never any real SUPER villains.
I feel like this is a reach, even for Warner Bros, who, let's face it, aren't doing too well in the superhero department recently anyways. Hey DC maybe you should just sell your rights to Disney as well and all the Superheroes can live in one happy universe.
I think after I said that every comic fanboy crapped themselves in rage.
As a fanboy myself I feel like the superhero hype is being forcibly moved to Television and this is how a trend dies, when execs try to force new aspects of the trend to just happen. When will you fat cats realize you don't have us all under mind control...yet. You can't force us to want to watch this dribble.
And this isn't new. There's been a number of times where studio execs have tried to force the superheroes on TV trend to happen. It's not working, you don't have the budget to bring in the big boys, and no one cares about small potatoes, at least not to have the entire spotlight on.
I'm very concerned for what they are doing with Flash as well, with the Justice League still apparently on yonder horizon, are you casting an entirely different actor for him? And at that point are you now saying that the universe you created and filled with a fanbase for Green Arrow doesn't actually exist in the universe you create for Justice League?
I'm going off on a different tangent already. Bottom line, this isn't going to work, especially with a chancy network like Fox attached which goes through one season shows like a college freshman goes through...uh...underwear. Unless by some godsend chance Gary Oldman decides he wants to slap on some make up to magically make him look 20 years younger and oh yeah move into a TV career and away from his booming film career. You know because everyone hates the idea of rolling on a pile of money naked.
Stick with CW Warner, you're much better off there, don't whore yourself out to other networks just to try to get a competitive edge on the massive cash cow that is the Disney brand.
And when Star Wars comes out none of this will matter anymore because J.J. Abrams.
By: James Bowler