DC As A Noir Movie

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but what do you think are the noir movie archetypes of the DC characters? Obviously Batman is a private eye. Superman is the reporter with a heart of gold who can see through anyone’s lies. (X-ray vision, get it?) Wonder Woman is the tough-as-nails beat cop.

Thoughts?

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Offhand…

On the Wildstorm side, I’d say Midnighter is the bruiser, enforcer-type who hits first and asks questions second. He and Bogart would get along well.

Lex Luthor is the morally bankrupt public figure who smiles and tells the public one thing, while knowingly lying through his teeth and deceiving said public at the same time, with no care about who he has to crush under his heels to achieve his true goals. This fits several noir characters.

DeSaad is the sniveling, Peter Lorre-esque sycophant.

Cat Grant is akin to a Veronica Lake character. She’s a knockout dame who’d light-up the darkest soul, while having regrets she keeps to herself.

Superboy-Prime reminds me of Fred MacMurray’s character from Double Indemnity: both are supremely confident that their plans are free of any kind of flaw and will go as planned, when in reality their plans were flawed from the start and ultimately came crashing down around them, in part due to their own hubris.

Lastly, The Penguin (in his more modern guises) is the criminal who looks legitimate on the surface, and entertains the public with his swanky nightclub while being dirty as they come underneath, replete with all manner of criminal entanglements.

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All good choices.

To throw two more into the mix, Joker is the regular suspect. The first guy that’s interrogated, the early potential murderer to throw readers (and the detectives) off the scent of the true killer. A guy who’s obviously evil, and has committed many crimes, but not this one, if you know what I mean.

Second, Riddler is the real culprit. Seems kind of harmless and eccentric at first, but soon you realize that all the pieces line up. It was him.

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Dan “Terrible” Turpin is the seasoned police officer who’s seen it all. He’ll snap a guilty perp like a matchstick if it will give him the answers needed to save the day.

He’s also a guy with a heart of gold who’d give you the shirt off his back in a heartbeat.

I could see him and Maggie Sawyer tailing MacMurray in Double Indemnity and other noir stories of that mold.

Roulette puts the “fatale” in “femme fatale”.

Snapper Carr is the enthusiastic guy who discovers what’s up before everyone else, and after all is said and done, he walks the rain-soaked streets of the city at night, subtly snapping his fingers along the way.

Snapper would then walk into the 24/7 diner down the street. He’ll sit at the counter and after being greeted by the waitress, tip his Stetson her way, saying “Coffee, doll. If you please.”. The night will have just begun for these two.

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