While Marvel Comics is undoubtedly the first company that pops into your mind when you think “shared comic universe,” DC Comics has been preparing its answer for a couple of years now, with the hopes of stealing some of Marvel’s thunder.
And why not? Although it might not seem like it, the DC Shared Universe actually has some considerable advantages over its rival.
- When it comes to name recognition, DC can wipe the floor with Marvel’s stable of characters. What’s that? You’re about to rest your summer on an Ant-Man solo project? Yeah…we’ve got Batman. And Superman. And Wonder Woman. And the Flash. DC has some heavy hitters that they can lean on.
- DC Owns all their characters. ALL OF THEM. So while Marvel has to twist itself in circles to pretend X-Men and the Fantastic Four do not exist, DC can just include whomever they please. Marvel had to work out a deal and share the profits on Spider-Man–and they’ll still only be sharing creative control. Meanwhile, DC can have the Joker or the Green Lantern just show up whenever they want them to.
- DC is coming off of a movie series so successful, that you could argue that Marvel is actually riding their coat-tails, not the other way around. Yes, Iron Man was huge. But Chris Nolan’s Batman Trilogy was spectacularly successful, both financially and critically. Batman Begins and the Dark Knight made it easier for studios to gamble on superhero films.
So why, then, am I not optimistic about DC’s chances at creating something good? Because every time I read something about their plans, they seem to just have terrible, terrible ideas about what actually make successful movies.
The first error is placing your universe in the hands of a Zack Snyder. Snyder is really good at making impressive visuals. There’s no denying that. But we’ve reached the point where great special effects in films are almost a given–unless you’re Jim “Freaking” Cameron, you’re probably not going to find a new way to impress audiences with special effects these days. What superhero movies require, more than explosions and action sequences, is grounding-through effective stories and relatable characters.
Unfortunately, these are areas at which Snyder is somewhere between bad and awful. Even if you enjoyed his best films to date, 300 and Watchmen, can you claim that any characters from his films have been truly memorable? Do you really even like anyone he’s portrayed? That’s not going to cut it in a superhero film these days.
Next error: DC has reportedly issued a “No Jokes” law for any of their films, apparently in a misguided effort to…actually, I’m not sure what the reasoning was! Maybe they’re gun-shy after the failed attempts at humor (and terribleness) of Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern. Regardless the reason, it’s not only a mistake, it’s a complete misunderstanding of their genre. Superhero movies should be, in part, a joyous experience. As dark as they were, Nolan’s’ Batman films understood this.
Bruce Wayne’s interactions with Alfred and Lucius Fox were snappy and funny. You could often see Bruce’s sense of humor and sense of mischief through his actions—like in The Dark Knight when he took the entire Bolshoi Ballet on vacation to spite Harvey and Rachel.
The most glaring error, though, is that DC seems to not understand their own characters. I look mostly at the recent Man of Steel here, which is meant to be the springboard into the shared DCU, much like Iron Man was the launch of the MCU. The difference, however, is that Iron Man made you want to know more—you wanted to see what happened next. Man of Steel does not accomplish that.
While it’s easy to dive into the many, many, MANY flaws of the film (I suggest you check out io-9’s Excellent and Funny Review if you want to relive all the plot holes and terribleness), the biggest one was that it failed to make the most likable character in popular culture even a little likable. Not just because he committed weird atrocities (like genocide and murder), but because he spent the entire film complaining, moping or sulking.
By the end of the film, it really seemed like the only difference between Zod and Superman was that Zod at least had a purpose.
The original Superman movies had lots wrong with them—the special effects were bad, there were big plot holes and Gene Hackman was campily overacting (OK, well…actually everyone was campily overacting), but they succeeded in perhaps the most important area: they made it fun!
Clark Kent’s intentional bumbling immediately got you on his side. When Lois shares a flight with him for the first time, you felt the joy and awe. To understand why DC failed to capture the magic that Marvel brought to the screen, you need only compare Iron Man’s first flight with Superman’s in Man of Steel.
Robert Downey Jr. brought us excitement, exhilaration and joy as he crashed about his workshop, was doused by his assistant robots, nearly died by testing his limits and ruined his deck and cars with his crash landing. Henry Cavill’s first flight—the first time we see him in the costume and see him as Superman—is so boring and forgettable that it’s a wonder if you even remember it.
And that’s the big problem. DC is building their entire franchise around a film that’s forgettable, sulking and trapped beneath its own baggage and pomp. Their intent appears to be on repeating those mistakes going forward. And if you can not make seeing Superman for the first time fun, exciting or memorable, how can you possibly keep the rest of your franchise in the air?