James Gunn has barely started to work on his Superman: Legacy script, so it’s safe to presume that The Brave and the Bold film featuring Bruce Wayne and his estranged son Damian is a little ways off. That’s hardly going to stop the DC fandom, however, who are now getting into a debate about the story’s villain.
These days, genre projects are at the whim of their fandoms. If you create high-enough expectations, everyone will turn on you the moment you stray a tiny bit from them. That’s probably what happened to Gunn, too, who has had to deal with a flood of criticism ever since being handed the reins to the DCU.
The community isn’t going to learn from its mistakes, and even if Warner Bros. is content with announcing these projects and leaving it at that, the fans are going to keep speculating and coming up with perfect ways to execute each project. The latest instance of this involves The Brave and the Bold, which is supposed to introduce the DCU’s new Batman next to his canonical son, Damian Wayne.
If the movie follows the comic book’s storyline, the two are going to get off on the wrong foot and then work hard to improve that relationship. That’s going to take up the bulk of the story, but what about its villain?
A lot of people feel like the first movie shouldn’t start with a League of Assassins antagonist and save that for a sequel.
What about Poison Ivy? It has been a minute since we saw her last.
A monster would fit the “Gods and Monsters” arc well.
Here’s an idea: The Brave and the Bold should avoid doing what literally every flick before it has done, and actually center the plot around Bruce and Wayne without a secondary villain that they need to team up against at the last minute. I mean, to say that is a tired trope would be a major understatement.
The possibilities are frankly endless, so head over to Reddit if you wish to see the expansive roster. Some picks are even quite contentious among fans, but since this is a hard reboot, there can be no wrong choices when all is said and done.