Welcome back to We Want Comics, our column discussing various intellectual properties — whether they’re movies, TV shows, novels, video games, or whatever else — that we’d like to see get adapted into comic books. We are once again expanding the scope of the column to discuss potential video games, this time based on DC Comics. Let’s be real: the future looks bleak, with many fans having written off Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (out February 2) for its live service elements, and James Gunn’s apparent plans for games to be part of DC Studios’ universe, even though movie tie-ins stopped happening for a good reason.
In any case, let’s just hope projects like Monolith’s Wonder Woman game are enjoyable, which brings us to our list of other heroes we’d like to see star in games, aside from the now thoroughly overexposed protectors of Gotham City (with some exceptions, whom you’ll see in a moment.) For the record, we won’t discuss the possibility of a future Justice League game, since we’ll be discussing what it would be like to play as various members of the team anyway.
Aquaman
Surprise! No doubt the DC Extended Universe’s most video gamey character would lend himself very well to a PC/console, especially with titles like Subnautica, Abzû, and Beyond Blue realizing the potential in an undersea adventure. It’s a very different world from 2003, when Arthur Curry starred in a disastrous Xbox/GameCube release called Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis, so we’re well overdue for a new take, especially after Spider-Man 2 showed how quickly the character could travel through a current. Aqualad/Jackson Hyde could also be a playable character, which would be groundbreaking given his sexuality.
Black Canary and Green Arrow
I’m going to be upfront: I’m not very interested in the idea of a Green Arrow game, much as I’ve loved some of his comics, and his appearances on Justice League Unlimited. However, if you emphasized Black Canary, who’s far more interesting when it comes to personality and potential gameplay, as co-star, I think you’d have a winner. (Just imagine what the original soundtrack would be like alone.) It could also give developers the opportunity to do a Birds of Prey story, without the baggage of Batgirl or Harley Quinn being a playable character in another game so soon.
Blue Beetle
Jaime Reyes’s movie debut may’ve struggled at the box office because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but there’s clearly a lot of love for the character, who, incidentally, is clearly quite the Final Fantasy fan, judging from the Buster Sword he creates in the film. There are a number of Beetles, some blue, some who aren’t, that you could create a compelling narrative around; it’d also be a good opportunity to feature Jaime’s childhood friends, Brenda and Paco, who didn’t appear in the movie, as well as his original hometown of El Paso.
Catwoman
Constantine
Like Catwoman, John Constantine has only starred in a movie tie-in game, namely for the 2005 Keanu Reeves film. He is such a unique character, and would be a perfect protagonist for a horror mystery game, that could also be a great opportunity for other supernatural DC heroes like Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Deadman, and Etrigan to shine. It would also be another chance for Matt Ryan to reprise the role if he was still interested (and I imagine he would be, especially after he was allegedly forced to vacate it because of J.J. Abrams’s now aborted reboot.)
Continued belowFlash
Ah, the Fastest Man Alive, whose adaptations have been constantly talked about for all the wrong reasons lately. His powers are a tough nut to crack, to make him fun but not too easy to play as (when he’s not fighting other speedsters), but as there is a major, longrunning game franchise revolving around a blue hedgehog with similar powers, it hopefully can’t be as difficult as it seems. In any case, it would be great to have a photorealistic take on the Flash family, the Rogues, and Gorilla City that’s not plagued by the high cast turnover the TV show had, or all the things that made this summer’s film the most awkward solo movie debut of all time.
Green Lantern
Apparently 2011’s film tie-in Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters wasn’t bad, although it’s hardly ever talked up as being a Bad Movie, Good Game the way X-Men Origins: Wolverine always is. Like the Flash, the Green Lanterns are a hard bunch of characters to realize in-game, as they can create anything they can imagine (provided they have enough willpower, and a recharged battery.) Moreso than Batman and Superman, an adventure game may be the ideal way to go, but it’d be a real shame not to be able to patrol the universe the way a Green Lantern would. Perhaps you just give the player a huge range of presets to choose from, and hope for the best?
Jonah Hex
Disfigured bounty hunter Jonah Hex is probably American comics’ most popular western character. Can you think of a Marvel Wild West hero who could sell their own game? Probably not. Red Dead Redemption and its sequel have set the bar ridiculously high for western games, but the presence of supernatural and sci-fi elements in Hex’s world, like time travel, and villains like Vandal Savage, Ra’s al Ghul, and the Court of Owls, could make it feel less like a clone of that series. I know no one likes being reminded of the dreadful Josh Brolin movie, but Hex is a character who should headline more projects, especially for non-superhero fans.
Teen Titans
Gotham Knights is not a game that would’ve been improved if Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven and Starfire had starred with Nightwing instead of Batgirl et al., but it would’ve felt less like a feeble imitation of the Arkham games. Essentially, we can’t let Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s great characters get relegated to releases based on the animated series from the mid-2000s, or Teen Titans Go! browser games on the Cartoon Network website. Beast Boy would probably be an easier character to create than a Green Lantern, since some forms would be harder for him to maintain than others.
The Sandman and Superman
We discussed games based on “The Sandman” and starring Superman in a previous piece suggesting adaptations of ten, mostly non-superhero comics. To briefly revisit, it would be wonderful if Neil Gaiman plotted a Sandman story that he felt would be best suited to a game, and Superman is the World’s Greatest Superhero, so he deserves an action or adventure game that does him and his family justice. (No pun intended, honest! I really walked into that one.)
Shazam!
From the Big Blue Boy Scout to the Big Red Cheese: Billy Batson, the Captain, Shazam, whatever you want to call him, and his siblings are ideal material for a kid-friendly game, one that would hopefully better capture the spirit of their comics than the PG-13 movies. (Two words: Tawky Tawny. And three more: Hoppy the Bunny.) This could employ a more cartoonish art style, and tailor side activities to their alter-egos eg. Darla Dudley’s a very young girl who probably likes drawing, so perhaps she could have missions involving painting city murals.
Continued belowStatic Shock
Unlike Black Lightning and his daughters, having Static star in a game would be a great chance to introduce Milestone’s Dakotaverse to a wider audience. (Which, yes, does make the name of this article a bit of a misnomer.) Virgil Hawkins’s powers are also slightly different from Jefferson Pierce’s, leaning towards the magnetic side of the electromagnetic spectrum, with him using his Static Saucer to fly, and to shield himself, something that would hopefully help distinguish him from Miles Morales‘s gameplay too.
Sequels!
While Batman and Gotham are very overexposed, a third season of Batman: The Telltale Series would be a great way to cap off that particular universe, especially after the second season‘s cliffhanger where (depending on your choice) Bruce quits being the Dark Knight, or Alfred leaves Wayne Manor. It would’ve probably transpired by now if Telltale hadn’t gone bankrupt in 2018; the fact they regained the license to keep the games in circulation hopefully means it’s in-development, even if their current priority is releasing The Wolf Among Us 2 (a non-DCU DC game) next year.
Lastly, why did TT Games develop LEGO DC Super-Villains as a sequel to LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, instead of a LEGO Justice League game? (Or LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes, to use the actual name of the toy line.) Granted, Beyond Gotham is a Justice League game in all but name, and villains are more interesting than heroes, but it’s still peculiar. In any case, hopefully we’ll get a new LEGO DC game someday, even if it’s called LEGO Batman 4: Crisis on Infinite Earths, feat. Justice League!
