While everyone — myself included — was distracted by the thought of a Joker origin movie, there was another piece of news in Tuesday’s story that Todd Phillips is working on a movie about the Batman villain. Warner Bros. is creating a new label for movies featuring DC characters outside of its main shared universe.
The notion of a boutique DC films imprint that allows filmmakers to play with characters from the comic publisher without having to deal with the continuity (or cast) of other movies is certainly something that fits in with the history of the company, which has told stories outside of its central timeline for decades under a variety of conceits and publishing initiatives. How else to explain stories from the 1950s where Superman and Lois Lane were a married couple, from the 1970s where Superman and Batman’s teenage sons tried — and, for the most part, failed — to be rebellious, or from the 1990s, where irresponsible superheroes almost caused the end of the world? (Well, okay, the Lois and Superman one was really just a dream; it’d happen for real in 1996, of course.)
Those comic book stories — and countless other “imaginary tales,” Elseworld stories or whatever other branding they wore at the time — demonstrate the value in the idea of pulling characters outside the larger shared universe and giving them a chance to exist independently, following a particular artistic vision and being allowed the closure that would otherwise be denied them. As a concept in and of itself, there’s a lot of potential in giving creators the chance to create…
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