It's so strange to think that 15 years ago there was NO Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before 2008, the general audience had little to no idea who Iron Man, Falcon, Black Widow or Captain Marvel even were, let alone be willing to pay money to see them on the big screen. The Hulk, Captain America and maybe Thor had a bit more name recognition, but again there was no clamour for films with them in them. Ang Lee had made a Hulk movie in 2003, but it didn't launch a cinematic universe.
I would argue that Blade is the first real success for Marvel and that without it, none of the MCU juggernaut would have happened, but I digress.
Thanks to Marvel's late 20th Century financial woes, their X-Men characters and Spider-Man characters were now (movie wise) in the hands of Fox and Sony, respectively. Both studios managed to make money on the characters but neither launched anything like the MCU.
What's doubly surprising is that before any of that stuff, Warner Brothers had DC Comics in their pocket and could have and should have launched a DC Comics interconnected film universe. They had a couple of successful Batman movies, a history of a couple of great Superman movies and a host of other heroic personalities that even back in the day could have been turned into huge financial, critical and fan success stories. Nobody saw the potential and the opportunity went unfulfilled.
Fast forward to 2013. DC sees that Marvel is having success with super heroes despite not having nearly the brand recognition that Batman and Superman have. They reboot Superman with Man of Steel and an eye to creating an interconnected universe of their own.
So how'd they do?
What's sad is that for me, Man of Steel is a great movie that somehow divided fans, possibly forever, on what a Superman movie should be. I know that is not the consensus but I love it. It's big, bold, frantic, gritty and pretty much everything I want in a Superman movie. Plus, Henry Cavill is a BEAST and actually looks like someone who could bench press a moon. The other side of the fan base hates it on ice.
The next instalment, Batman V Superman - The Dawn of Justice, was less a movie and more of a launch platform for that interconnected universe. Despite taking 3 years and brilliantly casting Ben Affleck as an older, more seasoned Batman and relative unknown Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, they tanked this one with a crappy CGI Doomsday and a messy, silly "good guys fight each other before teaming up" story. There's about 20 minutes of watchable and the rest is a miss unless you're a super-fan like me.
In a weird, off the beaten path choice, the next DCU movie was 2016's Suicide Squad that same year. We got Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, a mostly hated Joker from Jared Leto that I'm a minority fan of and little else of note. A terrible villain, another messy plot and generally disappointing.
The following year, they paid off the disappointing Batman V Superman with a full movie for Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. Just a great film. Easily my favourite of the interconnected universe era.
And that same year, Justice League. Sigh. Zack Snyder got his due and more with the recent release of the Snyder Cut, but honestly, this was just too rushed. Marvel did three character movies and a sequel before assembling the Avengers. DC would have been better served to wait until after an Affleck led Batman and maybe Aquaman and even a sequel before trying this. Disappointing.
DC caught a second wind the next year with the billion dollar Aquaman movie. Love me some Jason Mamoa and love this film.
The same year we got Shazam and even though it wasn't a billion dollar movie, it was fun and light and everything a comic book movie should be. And yes, I know I profess a love for the dark and gritty, even in Superman, but I can like more than one thing at a time.
Margot Robbie came back as Harley Quinn soon after and had a light, forgettable romp. Better than Suicide Squad, but not great.
Sadly, the next entry was Wonder Woman 1984. Multiple issues here, not the least being the questionable morality of having the heroine jump Steve Trevor's bones while his spirit is occupying (non-consentually, one can only assume) another man's body. Disappointing, but not a total fail.
At this point, enter James Gunn and The Suicide Squad. It's an odd choice to just add "The" to the sequel for a title and I think that choice didn't help the marketing. Then again, not many folks were lined up for a sequel in the first place. It's a decent film that spawned the only TV show in the "DCEU" universe, Peacemaker. I recently rewatched Peacemaker and enjoyed it more the second time, mostly for the supporting characters.
So my question to him is:
Finally, this summer's Black Adam. For me, it's a good movie about a character I love and starring the guy I would have picked for the role. Left to me, I would have brought the character in as a villain in a Shazam sequel and then made this movie, but that didn't happen and I think that the value of the Black Adam brand was way overestimated, thus the underwhelming financial result. The Joker made a billion because everyone knows The Joker. Comic book fans know Black Adam.
So the total? 11 films and 1 tv show. Compare that to 30+ for Marvel, plus a whole whack of tv shows.
Obviously, quality is more important than quantity but with only 4, maybe 5 movies that I'd call better than average, it's not looking good on that front either.
Is the future bright? Shazam 2 looks okay, but sequels are hard to get right. Aquaman 2, same. I hope like hell for both, but I'll be surprised if both are successful. The Flash? It'd be a miracle if this movie works, given the state of the star, the reshoots, the delays and now new management. There's also a Blue Beetle movie that could be great and sorta counts as part of the DCEU based on its timing, since it pretty much wrapped before Gunn and Safran took over and didn't suffer the same fate as Batgirl in the post merger carnage.
I'd say beyond that, it's a whole new ballgame. If WBD really has let Patty Jenkins walk on the Wonder Woman three-quel, I'd say that's an indication that they've cleared the deck and all bets are off going forward.
The next year or two are going to be interesting in ways I could never have imagined as a young comic book fan dreaming of how cool it would be if someone ever made a film about heroes other than Superman and Batman.
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