DC Universe: Latest Developments

FLASH!  Ahhhaaahhh!!!!  Oh wait, wrong one.  Not Flash Gordon, but rather, Flash the Fastest Man Alive is getting his own TV series, spun out of Arrow season 2.  At some point during season two, everyone’s favorite bow-wielding vigilante will meet Barry Allen forensic scientist for the police department of Central City.
From there, many of the show runners for Arrow including producers Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg as well as director David Nutter will be getting Flash’s own series off the ground after Allen’s origin story is complete.
Naturally, questions have arisen as to how this affects plans for the Flash movie tentatively planned for 2016.  At present, it looks like these are two separate entities but I’m not so sure.  I’ve written before about how I think Arrow should be incorporated into the shared movie universe and that remains a possibility.  I should say though that the case isn’t as strong as I thought, since I had confused where League of Shadows and League of Assassins are used.  Contrary to what I thought, it is the latter that is used in the comics and this is what will be referenced in Arrow as opposed to League of Shadows from the Nolan films.  That said, I still think that the possibility of crossing over the two worlds exists.  And there is a good reason to do this so as to avoid audience confusion by having two versions of a character on the screen at the same time.

We also have developments on the Batman/Superman front.  So far, it looks like Chris Nolan will again be executive producing, David Goyer will again be writing and Zack Snyder returning to direct.  So we can expect much the same flavor we got with Man of Steel.  It has also been reported that Snyder is meeting with Frank Miller, creator of the legendary graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns.  Now, I remind you that Snyder already said that they aren’t adapting that story, only that it is informing what they are doing.  However, Batman on Film is also reporting that Warner is looking cast an older Batman.  How much older?  Based on casting rumors which include Josh Brolin and Jim Caviezel, we aren’t talking DKR old, but very mature and has been around the block a couple times.
So what does this tell us?  While nothing is certain, it does allow for the incorporation of the Nolan Batman films as Bruce Wayne had spent a good ten years or so as Batman before faking his death and going into retirement.  But what could bring him out of retirement?  My guess is the death of John Blake, his chosen heir to the Mantle of the Bat.  And not just the death, but the murder of Blake.
And of course, we need to get Batman and Superman together so…how will that work?  This is pure conjecture here but stay with me.
After the events of Dark Knight Rises, the president looks totally incompetent as he let a major American city get taken over by terrorists and then sat by while a vigilante saved it.  In the next election, he gets trounced by Lex Luthor who runs a platform of strong defense and not relying on so-called “heroes” to save us.  It is Luthor who is president at the time of Man of Steel and he doesn’t really like being upstaged by Superman.  Nor does he take kindly to Supes destroying the drones he sends after him.  So, he starts trying to figure out a way to get rid of both Batman and Superman.  It could be that he plans to get rid of them separately and has Blake/Batman killed in a way that it looks like Superman does it, simply  as a way of undermining trust in the big blue alien, which will make it easier for him to take out Superman without dealing with a major PR backlash.  But how does he do that?  We need someone who could do it, while also being someone who would take orders from Luthor. Enter John Corben, a mercenary/special ops guy recruited by Luthor to take out Superman.  With the help of some technology developed by Emil Hamilton of Star Labs and some Kryptonite, Corben just might manage it.
However, Luthor didn’t know about Bruce Wayne who comes out of retirement to avenge Blake’s death.  Wayne’s investigation leads to an altercation with Superman (involving Kryptonite) but ends with them joining forces to figure out what is really going on.  The two together defeat Corben’s forces.  At the end we are given a scene of a pissed of President Luthor storming into STAR Labs only to find Corben getting upgraded – into the Kryptonite powered cyborg known as Metallo.
Obviously, this is pure conjecture but it’s my best guess as to what we might see based on the information we have.  Do have another idea?  Sound off in the comments below!