5 Great DC Comics Storylines That Would Never Work In the DCU

Up, up, and away! DC Studios CEO James Gunn’s new Superman has proven to be a critical and commercial success. Because of this, fans are understandably excited about future films set in the DCU. Among those are serious comics nerds who are breathlessly excited to see some of their favorite storylines adapted to the big screen.

Unfortunately, reality is going to hit those fans like a cold splash of water (hopefully, it wasn’t one of the Wonder Twins). That’s because some of the greatest DC comics ever told are basically impossible to make part of the DCU. Don’t believe it? Keep reading to discover why some of your favorite stories will never be transformed into live-action adventures.

Classic DC Comics Stories That Will Never Come to the DCU

All-Star Superman

Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman is arguably the greatest Superman story ever told. In this tale, Superman realizes he is dying, and he reveals his secret identity to Lois Lane. Their relationship deepens while Superman completes a series of Herculean labors, but his biggest challenge may prove to be Lex Luthor. Thanks to Luthor’s plans to gain superpowers and his evil alien allies, the Man of Steel must race to save the world before he dies.

It’s an amazing story, and the animated movie adaptation is quite solid. Such a film would never work in the DCU, however, because it involves Superman dying; while some characters (mostly Lois) think he’s coming back, the comic does not show his return, and it is deliberately written to be the last Superman story. Throw in the fact that the entire Daily Planet learns that Clark Kent is Superman and that Lex Luthor has a complete change of heart, and you have a comic that changes the status quo too much to ever be part of the DCU.

The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is generally considered the story that made Batman a serious character after the 1966 Batman show made him into a punchline. While that’s not entirely true (Dennis O’Neil brought the character back to his serious roots back in the 70s), nobody can deny the mainstream appeal of Miller’s tale in which Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement as Batman. He brings law and order back to Gotham City, but everyone from a new police commissioner to Superman himself is ready to put this increasingly ruthless vigilante in his place or in the ground.

Most Batman fans consider The Dark Knight Returns to be the Caped Crusader’s greatest story. But it’s basically impossible to film in live-action because it requires an established Batman to be off the screen for many years before coming back. Warner Bros. tried that by bringing Michael Keaton back for The Flash, which was a box office bomb and didn’t actually focus on Batman. 

For a true Dark Knight Returns story to work, we’d have to get a DCU Batman actor to come back to the big screen after a decade or more. But after spending a decade or more playing the same character, most actors are desperate to play different roles for fear of being typecast. So unless Warner Bros. is willing to bring a dump truck of money to Robert Pattinson (whose The Batman 2 was never part of the DCU plan) or several dump trucks of money to Ben Affleck in a few years, this adaptation just isn’t going to happen.

Kingdom Come

If Kingdom Come isn’t the best Elseworlds comic, it’s certainly the most ambitious. It’s set in a far future where Superman has retired from the hero business after the Joker (who may be coming to the DCU soon) kills Lois Lane and the public supports Magog, a new hero who simply killed the Clown Prince of Crime. Big Blue’s retirement leads to a new generation of brutal young heroes protecting the world, but they cause as much damage as they prevent. And unless the old Justice League can get back together and ride herd on the youngsters, the world may face a reckoning of biblical proportions.

Sadly, there are multiple reasons that Kingdom Come wouldn’t work on the big screen. First and foremost, its overt religiosity (our audience surrogate is a pastor charged with observing the heroes and helping direct God’s righteous wrath) wouldn’t necessarily play well with mainstream audiences. Second, it suffers from the Dark Knight Returns problem: audiences likely won’t show up to see a completely recast Justice League, and it’s hard to get all of the veteran superhero actors (with the possible exception of Henry Cavill) to return to roles they are tired of.

Finally, the budget to do this story justice would be more than any studio wants to spend. All the biggest heroes and villains duking it out, with the climax being a final battle that puts Endgame to shame? Given that the days of superhero movies making over a billion dollars are far behind us, it’s just never going to happen. 

Crisis On Infinite Earths

While DC has returned to the Crisis well a few times over the years, nothing beats the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. In the mid-80s, this comic was DC’s answer to the fact that it had too many multiverses for its various readers to keep track of. Thus, we got a tale about a new villain (the Anti-Monitor) trying to destroy various realities and the heroes and villains who teamed up to stop him. When the smoke cleared, DC was left (for a time, at least) with a single reality, but at the cost of big-time heroes like the original Supergirl and the Flash (Barry Allen).

Honestly, this entire article could be filled with reasons this story wouldn’t work on the big screen. First, James Gunn likely doesn’t want to close the door on multiverses, especially with Superman arguably setting up a future Earth 2 movie. Second, until the DCU is teeming with multiverses, it wouldn’t make much sense to make a movie condensing everything to one universe. Finally, the budget for this would be too much for Warner Bros., who would fear (understandably so) that the public wouldn’t enjoy them killing off beloved heroes after the backlash Marvel Studios got for killing Gamora and Black Widow. 

DC: The New Frontier

DC: The New Frontier is something completely different: a period piece set between 1945-1960 that shows how different Justice League members met and how they reacted to various real-world events, including the Korean War, the Cold War, the Civil Rights era, and more. It’s one of the most fascinating intersections between comics and politics since Watchmen, and the art from the late, great Darwyn Cooke (who was also the writer) is simply breathtaking.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work in the DCU because there’s no easy way to explain why our characters are suddenly in a 70-year-old setting. Plus, some of the politics in the story (including Superman and DCU priority character Wonder Woman debating the ethics of her unleashing captive sex slaves on their jailers) are arguably too hot for a modern movie. Finally, the Big Bad is an unstoppable cosmic horror rather than anything with a personality; after watching Superman match wits with Lex Luthor, audiences wouldn’t find it very exciting to see him just punching something straight out of Lovecraft.