The Four Color Media Monitor

On the surface, you'd think there could be some potential in an Asian Aquaman in a diverse-variant DC cast who's a refugee from North Korea. But here's why that might not work out well:

Super-Man, Wonder-Woman and Bat-Man just might be adding a new member to their Justice League — and yes, all those hyphens are intentional. The North Korean-raised Ahn Kwang-jo seems to be on his way to becoming the Aquaman of China.

Gene Luen Yang’s New Super-Man series for DC has slowly been assembling a new Justice League of China — the series’ name has even recently changed to New Super-Man and the Justice League of China. [...]

If this Asian Aquaman is working for China, as these other heroes-with-hyphens apparently are, then he's still working for a commie-run country, and that doesn't bode well. If this whole series by Yang whitewashes China's wrongdoings, then what's the use of having a north Korean refugee become the new Aquaman when under China, he'd be working for a government process that's only slightly better?

While we're talking about the Sea King in any form, Forbes said the upcoming Aquaman movie, which adapts the real deal, doesn't look like it'll be WB's most important movie this year:

I will argue, by coincidence or design, that Warner Bros.’ big 2018 game plan is to make Aquaman almost irrelevant. That’s not remotely saying that Aquaman will be lousy (I believe in James Wan) or that the Jason Momoa movie won’t be a year-end hit when it opens on Dec. 21. But it will indeed arrive at the end of the year, preceded by 15 films (counting Paddington 2 and 12 Strong) in 2018. If all goes well, Aquaman won't remotely be a sink-or-swim title for the studio. [...]

I have long discussed the extent to which the Dream Factory has been entirely defined by the ups and (mostly) downs of its DC Films franchise, no matter what else was transpiring on the lot. In a year where they took It to $700 million worldwide, made a solid Wonder Woman movie that topped $800m, turned Dunkirk into the biggest World War II movie ever and fought Walt Disney tooth-and-nail for domestic market share dominance, to some (including, I would argue, at the studio itself) WB’s year can be summed up by “Justice League flopped.”

And since Aquaman was part of that film - in contrast to Green Lantern, who was far from it - they must've gotten cold feet, mainly due to Jason Momoa's tasteless joke several years ago, which could taint the film's edge. Honestly, at this point it's clear WB put too many eggs into the DC basket, and they'd be advised to find a better franchise to make use of, because it's clear they long ago screwed the pooch with DC, and not only harmed the comics, they're not doing so well with the film adaptations either.

Update: a reader informed me the Asian team's no longer working for China, so it could be that this'll turn out to be better than expected.

Labels: Aquaman, dc comics, Europe and Asia, Justice League of America, msm propaganda, politics