Tonight This Felon Skydances For Joy

October 7th, 2026

Sweet liberation at last, this coming from a body who's written on the menace of monopolies as their victim. Unopposed vendors exploit me, my convicted brethren, and our supporters and it is dreadful, so I encourage a diverse free market. Til in a year a pack of tie-clad tards with law degrees bungled my beloved Bat- and Supergirl both, then any means are justified. Celebrated Superheroes got handed joint custody from wicked step-daddy Warner/Discovery as the megalithic merger with Paramount produced Skydance, which like Obi Wan Kenobi in a rare commodity this beast DON'T own, might be DC Entertainment's only hope.

Recalling the halcyon days slightly post-"Iron Man", word from upstairs was with wrapping Potter-mania the new tent-pole was to be the OG Superhero joint and architects of such. Cheating off your neighbor's homework is acceptable when they yank in billions, any common slob can piece together. Warner/Discovery chose a maverick approach, eliminating virtually everything successful about the Marvel films for a boring, monotonous set of forgettable fare without Windex in the budget for their lenses.

Making this nonsensical-est is DC was the original FUN superhero company. Marvel was the dark sister: gritty, gory, and when Wolverine was the maiden murdering mask-eteer spawning clones and derivatives to death, literally, Marvel went bankrupt. Ugly, exaggerated, and needlessly busy art/design without a pixel for the eye to breathe in and hundreds of concurrent subplots involving a universe of mounting mutants had me drop the mainstream of the early 1989-1991 favoring drugs and partying. 1992 brought "Batman the Animated Series" and a cannonade of comics with classical elements resembling the independent cape-less "comix" whose artfulness seduced the sensibilities of my early 20's. Therefore I got a higher paying gig so I could enjoy drugs AND Wednesday comic-shop junkets. Tonal variation, relatable characters like "Starman" - a legacy series about a man inheriting both mantle and instruments of an iconic 1940's super-dude was a great instance. Knight was the boy next door to ME: into weird music, collectables, and underground/indie scenes, the flying folk's Darlene Connor (1990's, not that abortion airing on ABC today). No, he wasnt gay but his blue-skinned buddy, the alien Starman was bi. Diversity without beating the audience up in showy fashion like so much current crap (see: the prior parentheses).

What happened was Warner dropped in Diane Nelson, a bean-counter whose relationship to comic books rivals mine to inspirational sports films, to control DC. Spending 6 months around the house she misinterpreted everything, her having no nuance and rebooted the entire line as a joyless blood-soaked whorehouse with everybody under 23, like anybody wants to be OLDER than Batman. She based this on the popularity of a few random titles and events. Her brainchild, the "New 52" lasted 5 years, precisely the number I prophesied. Predictable when the product comes from the blueprint of a competitions "Chapter 11" era.

This was the same range of time spawning "Man of Steel," (my favorite of a group of movies I'll not watch ever again), "Dawn of Justice", with "Justice League" - sinfully bad as what should've been the supreme super-film of forever. Honestly I've not been able to see Snyder's cut, so I'll reserve judgement on it but if it requires that exhaustive needless setup I'm likely straight. That pic from WWI (why not II like nobody'd enjoy watching Wonder Woman whip up on Nazis in this Russian Doll of dumb, really), the video from the convenience store, and all that other jazz? Along came James Gunn with "The Suicide Squad" - a dozen cool characters from all eras introduced inside ten minutes, comedy, sex, romance, horror, violence, heroics, drama, and Starro, the Starfish Conquerer - Justice League's premiere comic book baddie deemed too dumb here in wide-screen cinematic glory, terrifying, thrilling. Welcome back, joyful entertainment. Fanboy me was throbbing with excitement imagining a DC Omniverse on film with Wonder Woman showing cheering crowds of little girls how it's done in bright colors with Amazonian technology, a new JL joint with stretchy sleuth Elongated Man, Red Tornado the robot, a nifty noir-styled Black Canary, and maybe 10 others fighting somebody great like brain-swapping super-ape Ultra Humanite, or Justice Society delivering on the promise from Black Adam of the 1940's pioneer superteam. Then came was "Superman" by new CEO Gunn, famous for the Marvel "Guardians" series becoming my favorite one ever, I've sat through 5 times now. Daring, iconoclastic direction having Kal-El be the Boy Scout and inspiration with others including the first correct live Luthor besides "Smallville". Up, up, and away indeed. Plus that ending with the Girl of Steel? Sheeeeeit, its on. For a week then snatched from movie houses in embarrassment, I mean...

Warner as many times before cheaped out and used lame virtue signals adapting Tom King and Elquis Evely's "Woman of Tomorrow" miniseries. Not long before they narrowly avoided making Leslie Grace a greater gag than Halle Barry's Catwoman, having the talented Brown chick doll up as freckled redheaded Honkey Babs Gordon in a scrapped 90M "Batgirl" insurance claim.

Para-Merger could herald good tidings for the former National Comics. From where I stand, "Yellowstone" is evidence. Not nominated for a single Emmy®, but generates gobs of millions and spin-offs. No statuettes for Tyler Sheridan, but who cares? They're holistically vacant. See: Steven Colbert waving his posthumous one for a ratings disaster show that demonized 1/2 or more of our country nightly, yet is seen as a "victim" with its erasure. Carson, the immortal warned against exactly the lame, (once) safe, gutless, repetitive tripe he was slinging. Now he can carry a figurine forgotten as his name in 5 years to a 12-year old: this is celeb-death.

Sheridan's shows invite the entire crowd, everybody on any side of any aisle. Transparently, I watched "Yellowstone" until suddenly I said to me "nobody speaks like this and somebody ought to go their car, get a rifle, and blow Beth's head off over how she talks to people". Then I turned it off not looking back. Still, it's what all the screens are on in a dorm wing of 50. From upper middle class sex-criminals to Nazis to Appalachian dope dealers, the peoples put the vote on Sheridan.

In 2026, smart money and better entertainment follows the bold. Spend money to make it: Marvel didn't skimp on the budget with the last Spider-Man movie debuting beside Supergirl" but still theatrical-only and past a billion. Had Warner adapted "Tomorrow", they'd have the same fortune and King would be scripting a sequel of two in a trilogy. Now to drop this message in a dwarf-droid and hope DC's new daddies do a Jedi and save the day.