To ensure we don’t continually focus on the same properties and characters each selected fan film will be from a different comic company. We will look at the narrative of each film and explain what makes them special.

2000AD – Rogue Trooper: The Quartz Massacre

When Genetic Infantrymen (artificial soldiers) are airdropped onto Nu-Earth they are ambushed by an army of Norts. Only one GI remains with his body intact, Rogue. Can he escape the ambush alive? 

This brief adaptation of a 2000AD staple makes up for its short length with amazing action and effective economic storytelling. Within five minutes the narration and visuals demonstrate the conflict’s scale and why we should root for Rogue, as he navigates the hostile battlefield which killed many of his comrades. The use of interesting sci-fi ideas such as storing the personalities of fallen GIs on microchips that can be stored on army items adds humour and uniqueness to the story. But it’s the exciting well-staged, nicely shot, and superbly edited action that provides the reason to watch this short. If you want a must-see action fan film, watch this.

DC – New Wings: A Batgirl Fan-Film

After fighting Clayface, Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) is visited by Bruce Wayne. Bruce tells Barbara she must stop being Batgirl. However, both must put their differences aside when a part of Clayface that Barbara brought home comes to life. Can they fix the problem without Barbara’s father, Jim Gordon, finding out?

New Wings is incredibly fun. The dialogue between the characters is hilarious and the cast perfectly fit their roles, with their chemistry making them a joy to watch. Emma Catharine effortlessly captures Barbara Gordon’s youthful eagerness; Anthony Paderewski pulls off a terrific balancing act as a Bruce Wayne that pivots between dark and humorous, and David H. Horne is charming as the oblivious Jim Gordon. Couple that with some wonderful direction, impressive effects work, and perfectly timed editing, and New Wings becomes, to date, the best live-action Batgirl interpretation. 

Image – Spawn: The Recall

After young Michael disappears in a supermarket his mother tries to find him but discovers dark forces at work around her. What do they want with her and her child? 

The Recall is not just a great Spawn adaptation but a moody, horror tale that succeeds thanks to the acting of the central cast. Johanna Genet as the mother really sells her desperation as she searches for her child. Tom Maurice also does a pretty good job as the innocent Michael and Gregory Paris is a terrifying Spawn. Apart from the cast, it is also helped along by its use of dark atmospheric visuals (with mostly well-done CGI helping to realise some creative spooky images) and an eerie score that enhances the film’s tone.

Marvel – Truth in Journalism

Journalist Eddie Brock takes a documentary film crew on a tour of his life but gradually the crew realise that life around Brock is more dangerous than they anticipated. Especially considering the secret he is hiding.

Clearly inspired by Man Bites Dog, Truth in Journalism makes the Marvel universe feel disturbingly grounded through its pseudo-documentary framing. Which combined with the grainy black and white, cinema verité style presentation makes the grim story hit much harder. And Ryan Kwanten’s central performance makes Eddie Brock into an equal parts sleazily watchable and horrifying presence.  

Vertigo – Fabletown

Deputy Mayor of Fabletown Snow White and former sheriff Bigby Wolf must reunite when someone from the real world sees the Beast’s (from Beauty and the Beast) true form. Can Bigby and Snow solve the problem?

Fabletown feels like a quality network TV show. The series’ visuals are very professional. In addition, the narrative is engaging and well-paced. With a fantastic mixture of wit, mystery, action, and heart always keeping viewers invested. But the diverse characters are Fabletown’s biggest strength. All the actors do superb work and the writing gives everyone a nice amount of depth. Above all special mention must go to Emma Van Lare as the commanding Snow White, Holly Day as the sarcastic Cindy, and Jordan O’Neal as the anti-heroic Bigby Wolf. All of whom bring enthusiasm and humanity to their roles. Fabletown deserves to be your next binge-watch.

So ends our list of must-see comic book fan films. Let us know your thoughts and please tell us any comic fan films you would recommend.

Also Read: Holy Fan Films, Batman

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The Lost Forty Minutes

The Ayer Cut comes hot on the heels of the Snyder Cut of Justice League, the DC film originally directed by Zack Snyder who was replaced by Joss Whedon after a family tragedy for Snyder. Fans campaigned for a version they believed was closer to what Snyder had envisioned and were successful. Ayer now wants the same for Suicide Squad. Ayer has said forty minutes of his film was cut by the studio which would surely have an impact on any film. Studios insisting on their own edits of films is nothing new – sci-fi classic Blade Runner had voiceover added that completely changed central parts of the film, leading to a slew of other “cuts” that better represented what director Ridley Scott had in mind.

What was wrong with Suicide Squad?

Suicide Squad was unpopular with both critics and fans (but there are those who champion the film, or at least parts of it) and the film had many problems.

• The Joker – while not a pivotal character in the film Jared Leto’s portrayal still managed to attract a lot of disdain with few people enjoying it. While I didn’t care for it I didn’t judge Leto or Ayer too harshly, following in the footsteps of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s legendary performances they needed to make a distinctive Joker – it didn’t work but at least they tried.
• The Characters – When you have a large ensemble cast you run the risk of no character having enough time and this certainly felt true of Suicide Squad. The introduction of every character felt rushed and bare bones and I didn’t really care about any of the characters. There were characters like Katana who just seemed to be there – another person to fill out the cast without serving any purpose (despite having an interesting character premise).
• The Villain -I am a firm believer in that the secret of success for many comic book films is the villain. The Dark Knight had Heath Ledger’s Joker, Black Panther had Michael B. Jordan’s Eric Killmonger, after a lacklustre villain in Red Skull having Robert Redford play Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a stroke of genius. Suicide Squad had a witch…or her brother, and her brother? The film was always going to be in a tricky place with a villain as the whole point is they’re the villains but undoubtedly the forgettable villain they had wasn’t good enough.

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad

Of course, this battle is yet to be resolved on the horizon is the release of The Suicide Squad. How will The Ayer Cut effect this? I doubt it will at all. It seems most people have simply written off Suicide Squad as a mistake, the Ayer Cut is at most a chance to show there was a good film there. The success or failure of The Ayer Cut will not matter and I doubt would have any impact on the already inconsistent DCEU.

Will It Happen?

If the fans get behind the idea it probably will. The Snyder Cut really did show that fans have the power to get alternate cuts released and there’s no reason to give up that power. Whilst in this instance it’s being done under the impetus of the director, it’s important to remember that fans don’t always know best, for years there was a Kickstarter campaign to edit Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, specifically to digitally remove the rat that appears in the final scene. Whether or not you feel this was a bad decision by Scorsese I think you need to essentially trust a director on their decisions.

Before we all start clamouring for new cuts of films we feel could have been improved, remember Star Wars is a prime example of that sometimes it’s just better to leave things alone and that you can never please all of the fans.

Also Read: Flashpoint: The Defining Film of the DCEU

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Divided Society

This leads me to what may be the most important and bitter divide in society today: Marvel Vs DC. On average Marvel films are better but the high point is Nolan’s work (which technically doesn’t belong to DC’s Extended Universe). It is certainly true that each has their own style. Marvel adopting a more fun and light-hearted take whereas just about every review of DC films uses the words “gritty” and “dark”.

Both have competed in making their own universes – Avengers: Infinity War has around thirty characters that could be called “superheroes” and just trying to keep track of them makes me dizzy. Again, of the two I think Marvel has been more successful in managing their own universe. The DC Justice League films have been widely panned by critics so much so that conspiracy theories exist that critics are all on Disney’s payroll. Rotten Tomatoes critic score for the first Avengers film is 92% compared to Justice League’s dire 40%. Personally, I not a big fan of interconnected universes as I think it becomes very convoluted and the weight of all the characters and storylines is crushing but admittedly seeing all the characters together can be really fun.

Successes

DC’s big success has been Wonder Woman; a film so good that I put aside my vendetta against Chris Pine. Gal Gadot is sensational as Diana who took one of the least plausible superhero origins and made the film work. Wonder Woman was not just good as a superhero film but dealt with the tragedy of the First World War surprisingly well (even touching on a character dealing with PTSD), the horror of war, even the inevitability of humankind’s own destructive tendencies. These are big things for any film to deal with. Diana’s charge across No Man’s Lead was an unforgettable scene and I cannot praise it enough.

Marvel’s high point for me is probably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol I. My knowledge of comic-books is not very deep and I had never heard of this before the film and I remember watching the trailer for the first time thinking “this is going to be a disaster”. It has a talking racoon. And a talking tree. And a professional wrestler playing one of the main parts. I thought not even Chris Pratt’s innate and irresistible likeability could save it. And what happened? Rocket and Groot are amazing characters and despite a limited vocabulary, Groot is surprisingly emotional. Dave Batista, the professional wrestler, was hilarious. I think Guardians of the Galaxy’s strength was in its emotional side, Peter/Star Lord has an amazing journey from scared child to well…a guardian of the galaxy. Perhaps this gives away my age but how can you not be charmed by a film that centres around lovingly put together mixtape?

Failures

So, those are the high-points, what are the disasters? Personally, I don’t think Marvel has really made a bad film, not all of them are great but all the ones I’ve seen I’ve enjoyed. The same cannot be said for DC. Man of Steel is that most frustrating of films in that parts of it are great but it ended in the obligatory but increasingly dull city smashing. Batman Vs Superman failed completely despite using whole sections from the fantastic graphic novel and animated film The Dark Knight Returns (which if you want to see a proper fight between Superman and Batman watch this).

But the award surely goes to the Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was the film’s only redeeming feature but even then DC did not get a good handle on the admittedly very problematic Harley Quinn-Joker relationship. What every superhero film needs is a good villain, it’s perhaps more important than a good hero. I can’t tell you the name of the villain in Suicide Squad or even what they were trying to achieve or what they wanted. Captain America: The First Avenger is one of the poorer Marvel films but I remember Red Skull and what he was trying to do. Why is The Dark Knight so great? A huge part of that is Heath Ledger’s performance.

So In Conclusion…

Overall I think I have divided loyalties between DC and Marvel but I know what both could do better. First, too many films come down to the bad guy wants to destroy the whole world, so obviously they’re bad and anyone fighting them is good. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a great film in part because it was actually about something – order versus freedom, there were discussions about how far you can go to protect people and the bad guys could put their case forward. Secondly, the tone of the film should match the character and not the branding of the whole universe. The TV show Daredevil is one of the very few dark Marvel properties and benefits from that enormously; DC should be able to make fun films and Marvel can make dark films. Marvel next has the very promising looking “dark” and “gritty” Captain Marvel and DC has the very light-hearted Shazam so maybe they have already taken my advice.

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