One of the more frustrating elements of the modern superhero movie milieu is its refusal, in the long term, to establish a stable canon. The Avengers series has been good about this, but with films like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a new Spider-Man film, and Deadpool, we live in a world where several versions of certain superhero characters exist simultaneously. Which one is the “real” one? I suppose it’s now left to the viewer.
DC Comics, however, rather than try to strip down their universe to a single canon, has instead opened the door for any and all filmmakers to do whatever they want with their characters, expanding their universe into whatever a resourceful fan might want. Although carefully operating under altered names (hence bypassing any serious legal action), a new low-budget Argentinian film called Kryptonite has more or less recast the famous Justice League characters as criminals and vigilantes in Buenos Aires.
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In Kryptonite, Superman has become Super Gasoline (a man who is hurt by green glass), The Joker has become Corona (a comic intermediary between cops and criminals), Wonder Woman has become a transvestite named Lady Di, and The Martian Manhunter has become a grunting thug named John Weird, played by Argentine pop star Carca.
Kryptonite was released in Argentina in December of 2015, but has yet to find a theatrical release in the U.S. Resourceful people may be able to find bootlegs and downloads of it. The rest of us may have a chance to see the type of superhero film that the genre needs: A low-budget, dialogue-heavy crime film that only happens to feature recognizable DC characters.
Top Image: Crudo Films
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
