Lessons Un-learned

Age of the Geek Column: It's safe to say that Warner Bros. had a pretty good Comic-Con this year.
Without Marvel Studios there to hog the spotlight, all eyes were on "Aquaman" and "Shazam!" It's probably safe to say that relatively few people were excited for either movie a couple weeks ago considering the lower profile of the characters and Warner Bros.' track record, but the two trailers released during Comic-Con will hopefully starting bringing people around.
"Aquaman" looks like an epic adventure where Jason Momoa's bro-tastic Atlantian outcast fights for the throne of a secret kingdom. Like "Black Panther," but underwater.
Meanwhile, "Shazam!" is the role Zachary Levi was born to play as kid who transforms into an adult superhero. Like "Big," but if Tom Hanks could lift a school bus.
After years of Warner Bros. swinging and missing with their grim and gritty adaptations of the world's most popular four-color characters, it looks like they've finally figured out that nobody wants to see Superman breaking people's necks or Batman shooting at people with guns.
Or not.
At the same time "Aquaman" and "Shazam!" were exciting audiences, Warner Bros. also released the first trailer for "Titans," the live-action Teen Titans adaptation meant to draw subscribers to their upcoming DC Universe streaming service. The show centers on everybody's favorite side-kick turned full-fledged hero, Dick Grayson, as he transitions from Robin to Nightwing.
He's a character beloved by generations of comic book fans and even Batman fans that have only ever experienced the franchise through cartoons, video games, and movies. He's just as capable a vigilante crime fighter as Batman is, but without the grim personality.
So of course our introduction to him in the "Titans" trailer has him breaking people's necks and shooting at people with guns.
Robin is far from the only one acting brutally either. The trailer also shows Starfire, everybody's favorite alien princess, melting people in the street while Dove maims nameless foes with knives and claws. For those not familiar with the Hawk and Dove duo, the entire point of the characters is that Hawk is the aggressive one and Dove is supposed to be a pacifist.
You could almost feel the collective sigh across downtown San Diego when the trailer hit the internet.
When will Warner Bros. learn?
It's not that there isn't a place for the grim and gritty in comic book universes. Marvel Studio's Netflix offerings prove that you can be plenty successful with mature rated super-hero stories. The difference is that Warner Bros. seems to be stuck on Zack Snyder's adolescent definition of "mature," which mostly just means gratuitous violence and swearing.
It's the "Mortal Kombat" kind of maturity which only really appeals to teenagers, either our inner-teenager or actual teens.
And there's nothing wrong with that either. There are certain properties where I would absolutely expect such an approach. The Deadpool movies, for instance, fully embrace that immature maturity to great effect. Ryan Reynolds filled two movies with dirty jokes and gratuitous violence and ended up with what is arguably the most successful X-Men adaptation Fox has produced.
If Warner Bros. ever gets a Lobo movie off the ground I would expect it to take a similar approach. In fact, basically any comic book property that rose to prominence in the 90s would be well suited for such over-the-top content.
But the Teen Titans? Who wants that? Who are they trying to appeal to here?
It took five years to convince Warner Bros. that the Zack Snyder approach wasn't the road to success for their film franchises. Hopefully the course correction for DC Universe happens faster.
If only Warner Bros. had another adaptation of the Teen Titans that has been all-but universally praised that they could look to for guidance. Oh wait, they do. It's called "Young Justice: Outsiders" and it's premiering on DC Universe too.
Which, yes, means that Warner Bros. is ultimately going to get my $8 a month anyway. At least for a little while. Still, it'll be interesting to see how the two shows fare against each other. So rarely do you get an opportunity to see such a direct comparison.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and is always amazed at Warner Bros. inability to learn from their own mistakes.

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