Is anyone really surprised that the DCEU didn’t turn out to be all that great, and that Warner Bros. is thinking of moving on from this spectacle? As Neeraj Chand of MovieWeb has already stated, the standalone movies, barring Man of Steel, have been performing far better for the DC universe than the collaborations, no matter the box office numbers. It would appear that trying to copy the success of the MCU wasn’t all that great of an idea since despite the love shown to movies like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam, the collaborative attempts at bringing the heroes together has tanked in a big way thus far. Justice League might have drawn people into the theaters but thus far the best thing to say about the movie is that it’s over and won’t be given a sequel any time soon. It might sound heartless and cold to say such things about the DC attempt to win out in the box office, but there is one thing that I could say from a personal stance, and it’s that the DC movies really started to pull away from character with Man of Steel. People can argue all they want and a friendly debate would be welcomed at this point, but Man of Steel showed a re-imagining of Clark Kent and Superman in a way that made little to no sense considering that he was a drifter, an aimless wanderer that was staying that way due to the power he held and the idea that he didn’t want people knowing what he could do. If there’s one thing that can be said, it’s that pulling away from the source material in this manner was NOT a good idea.
Wonder Woman came under fire for Patty Jenkins’ whole idea of female empowerment, which was well-received by many but still managed to irk a few people as it suggested a serious shift in the balance of power when it came to superheroes. In Justice League however it showed that Superman was still insanely dominant as ever and despite her years of experience and own power set, Wonder Woman was woefully inadequate to stop an angered and revived son of Krypton. Aquaman also confused a few people when it was seen that his power and durability was increased to nearly the same level as Superman, as he managed to take an exploding shell that should have immolated him. Fanboys will gladly play up the feats of each hero from the comics, and Shazam would be a part of this as much as any of them, but this is yet another reason why DC is not translating as well onto the big screen. The heroes are simply too powerful to be believed, enough so that it takes a power such as Zod to cause any sense of danger since he’s the equal of Superman and is only taken out when Clark decides to break his own rule of not killing anyone, snapping Zod’s neck in an effort to save a few humans. Again, there’s plenty of room for argument, but the number of possibilities that could have emerged from that moment could have created a very different story.
The decision to pull away from the DCEU has been mostly successful since Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam, and Joker have shown a tremendous amount of improvement to the DC brand as they’ve gone on to make money hand over fist and inspire the fans in a way that Superman, the Batman movies, and Justice League failed to do. With The Batman upcoming, hopefully, it’s a much better plan apparently to pull away from being inclusive within the DC universe so as to allow each hero to establish themselves in their own movies. This of course means that Superman is going to need to be redone eventually, but until the studios are allowed to open back up it’s hard to say what will happen. Wonder Woman and Aquaman might actually have a third movie coming out by the time a Superman movie is on its way to the fans. And as for the MCU, they might even be well into phase 5 or 6, and still outpacing the DC universe. In a big way the DC universe is best represented on TV, while the big screen has belonged to Marvel for over a decade now. Why though?
That’s pretty simple. Marvel has done a better job of adding at least some sense of realism into their narrative. DC fans might want to argue this point until they’re blue in the face, but Marvel heroes and villains have a serious amount of hangups that fans can relate to. From alcoholism to homosexuality to the ideas of racism and dividing lines between different types of human beings, Marvel has managed to embrace a host of differences between people that has managed to grip the attention of the fans. Trying to compete with that has been one of DC’s biggest failings thus far.
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