SDCC 2017: 8 Reasons Why DC Just Beat Marvel

8. DC Animation Has Some Amazing Things Planned

Batman and Harley Quinn Film
Warner Bros.

If you go as far back as 1992 then you'll see that DC have been the proverbial kings of animation for a while. Leading with groundbreaking and genre-defining shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League, Warner Bros. constructed an animated universe that produced some of the best comic book stories of all time, often surpassing DC's own source material in the process.

In 2007, the company took this mantra one step further with the release of Superman: Doomsday, an adaptation of the infamous 'Death of Superman' storyline released at the turn of the nineties. Soon, their slate of Animated Original Movies blossomed into a string of faithful and beautifully animated adaptations of the company's most famous comic book story-arcs, with notable highlights including Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier and the indelible Under the Red Hood. Things peaked with 2013's Flashpoint, with the next few adaptations failing to capture the essence of what made Warner's earlier animated efforts so enjoyable.

Both The Killing Joke and the Judas Contract definitely weren't the films that fans were hoping for, but the company's future plans - buoyed by an impressive looking Harley-Batman crossover - make for encouraging reading. Indeed, Thursday's anniversary panel - comprised of figures like Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett (now the recipient of a shiny Ink Pot award), Kevin Conroy and Tara Strong - discussed some really exciting potential projects, including a Justice League: Unlimited film (YES), stuff involving Batman Beyond and, most excitingly of all, an idea involving some of Vertigo's most iconic characters.

Seriously, if we somehow get a Swamp Thing film, everything'll be okay.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.