In tough times, you need a hero. But do you need a superhero? DC Comics’ recent virtual showcase, FanDome, unveiled the trailers for Patty Jenkins’s forthcoming Wonder Woman 1984 and Matt Reeves’s The Batman, which is expected next year. Also featuring was Zack Snyder’s four-hour director’s cut of Justice League, which will air on HBO Max in hour-long instalments.
I’m exhausted just typing that. Surely superheroes and their huge, vaulting, save-the-universe narratives look laughably unimportant at this time? I mean, I love spandex and cosmic plot-fuelling MacGuffins as much as anyone. But this slew of multimillion-dollar super-releases seems obscene. It emphasises the gap between the Hollywood hype machine and the real struggles of pretty much everyone on this pandemic-stricken planet – except a few very rich individuals.