10 comic book takeaways from James Gunn's DC announcements

Co-CEO of DC Studios James Gunn finally made his long-awaited announcement of a portion of the new slate of DC movies, streaming series, and animated projects planned for the next few years this week.

Titled 'Gods and Monsters,' the first chapter of Gunn and his fellow co-CEO Peter Safran's plans for DC include projects for Batman, Superman, Supergirl, Booster Gold, Green Lantern, and more.

With such a huge amount of news coming out of DC Films, we've broken down 10 big comic book takeaways from James Gunn's announcements.

10. Flashpoint

One of the first announcements of Gunn's video reveals that the upcoming Flash movie will "reset the entire DC Universe" - which would be far from the first time Barry Allen has been involved in rebooting the DCU (on the comics side, at least). 

Since his death in the original 1985 story Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the entire DC comic reality, Barry Allen and the legacy of the Flash have played a crucial role in several reboots and reimaginings of the DCU. 

Most notably the 2011 story Flashpoint, which rebooted the entirety of DC continuity again, centered on the conflict between Barry Allen and his nemesis, the evil speedster Zoom. Indeed, the upcoming Flash movie was once titled 'Flashpoint' itself before some changes were made.

9. Booster and Beetle

If you've been a fan of DC long enough, you know that best buds forever Blue Beetle and Booster Gold have been notable super-friends since the early '80s when they were on the Justice League together.

Though the Blue Beetle in the upcoming DC film is Jaime Reyes, and it's his comic predecessor Ted Kord who is best friends with Booster Gold, we can't help but note that both Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are going to exist side-by-side in DC movies and TV - so maybe we'll get some version of their comic book friendship in a screen-friendly form.

8. DC Horror

Two of James Gunn's announcements tie into the horror wing of the DC Universe - Creature Commandos (which features DC's rendition of Frankenstein, who Newsarama picked as one of our top choices for DC characters we want to see Gunn take on when he was announced as co-CEO of DC Studios), and Swamp Thing, which Gunn specifically stated would be a full-on horror property.

That begs the question of where Justice League Dark might be, as the supernatural Justice League team has been kicked around as the subject of an adaptation for some time with nothing concrete yet to show for it.

For that matter, there's no Justice League movie of any kind yet on the schedule, not counting The Authority, who are DC offshoot Wildstorm's alt-reality version of the League. Speaking of which…

7. The Authority

The Authority are the ruthless, edgelord alt-universe Justice League-style team of the Wildstorm reality, a separate comic book universe that has often crossed over into the DCU proper - which Gunn says will be the case when they come to film sometime in the near future.

Perhaps the most famous members of The Authority, Midnighter and Apollo, are sort of the team's equivalents of Batman and Superman. But more than just being best friends and teammates, the pair are actually a romantic couple.

The Authority also has an interesting recent history in which the team was reformed in the core DCU by Superman in a flash-forward future tale by writer Grant Morrison, whose fingerprints are all over the new DC Films announcements (more on that in a moment).

Could there be a crossover in the works between the rebooted Man of Steel and The Authority?

6. All-Star Superman?

Speaking of Grant Morrison, their seminal 2005-2008 comic All-Star Superman, created alongside artist Frank Quitely, seems to be coming up a lot in relation to Gunn's announced Superman: Legacy film, including using Quitely's artwork from the story alongside the announcement of the movie in the reveal video.

If All-Star Superman provides some inspiration for Superman: Legacy, fans could be in for a huge treat with a story that spans almost the entire DC Universe with appearances from most of Superman's most famous villains and supporting characters - and which has a reputation as one of the best Superman stories of all time.

5. Batman and Robin

And while we're on the topic of Grant Morrison's greatest hits, their co-creation Damian Wayne will debut as the DC movie Robin in The Brave and the Bold, Batman's classic team up comic which shared its name with his cult favorite team-up cartoon show.

Morrison co-created Damian Wayne with artist Andy Kubert, and wrote the comic Batman and Robin, in which Damian - Bruce Wayne's son with Talia al Ghul, the daughter of his archnemesis Ra's al Ghul - first became Robin.

The Brave and the Bold will also mark the introduction of the new DC Studios 'Bat-Family' overall, so there could be more comic heroes with legacies tied to Batman waiting in the wings, including Batgirl, Nightwing, and many others.

4. The Batman

Of course, there's another Batman in the movies -- Robert Pattinson's version of the character in The Batman -- which is officially getting a sequel in 2025. 

But that movie won't be part of the overarching DC Universe. And Joker 2 won't either. Instead, both of those movies will bear the Elseworlds label, a classic comic book designation which once denoted stories which took place in alt-realities and timelines.

The comic book Elseworlds label was discontinued several years ago, but it'll now be revived for transmedia properties. Interestingly, the original comic book Elseworlds label also debuted with a Batman story, 1989's Batman: Gotham By Gaslight by writer Brian Augustyn and artist Mike Mignola.

3. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was specifically namechecked in Gunn's announcement video as the direct inspiration for an upcoming film, and according to reports from Variety, King himself is in the writers room.

Along with showing that the new DC Studios isn't shying away from Superman-related projects and spin-offs (and giving Supergirl some much deserved love on the big screen), the inclusion of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in the slate shows that the company isn't afraid of direct adaptations of comic book stories either.

2. Wonder Woman

Though Supergirl was of course named as the star of her own upcoming movie, DC's biggest and best known female hero Wonder Woman didn't have her own starring project added to the DC Films slate.

However, James Gunn did announce plans to expand on Wonder Woman's corner of the DC Universe with a series titled Paradise Lost, described as something like Game of Thrones on Themyscira, which will delve into the history and complex politics of 'Paradise Island.'

That topic has been a big focus in recent years in Wonder Woman, where Hippolyta, the classic queen of Themyscira, was murdered, with longtime Wonder Woman supporting character Nubia now ruling Paradise Island.

1. Green Lantern

If there's one comic book property fans have been asking about for years now, it's undoubtedly Green Lantern. In his announcements, James Gunn confirmed that the Green Lantern streaming series that's been in the works for HBO Max for years now will indeed move forward, albeit in a slightly different format than when fans were last updated on its progress.

Now, the series will simply be titled Lanterns, will feature Hal Jordan and John Stewart as lead characters, and will focus on Earth and its Green Lantern sector.

It's interesting to note that the show's title is now 'Lanterns' - meaning 'Green' has been dropped. Does this indicate that Lanterns of other colors of the Emotional Spectrum, like the yellow Sinestro Corps or rageful Red Lantern Corps could appear?

While we're waiting for these movie and TV projects, now is a perfect time to check out the best DC Comics stories ever.