(Originally posted on September 19, 2018)

I’m far from the only one to point out the weaknesses of the DC Comics Extended Universe.  I do, however, have a modest proposal on what the filmmakers might do to help remedy the situation.

I think most of us can admit that the DCEU hasn’t exactly had a great track record.  I’d go so far as to say most of the entries have been barely watchable drivel (with the exception of Wonder Woman).  There are a myriad of reasons for this, but I think the heart of the matter starts with how DC/Warner Brothers decided to approach the franchise at its outset.

The Marvel Method

Marvel assembled their universe with a slow burn.  They gave pieces of it in every film they released, and didn’t rush it.  Methodical and lovingly, they put the building blocks together until it became the world’s most lucrative movie franchise.  Have all the movies been great?  No.  I think the nadir was Thor: The Dark World.  Even that wasn’t a terrible movie.  It maintained a certain level of quality and helped establish the universe.  Everything built on what came before and nothing happened in a vacuum. 

The movies were all stand-alone stories, but expanded into so much more when combined with the other movies.  The whole became greater than the sum of the parts.

Moreover, these movies give deep character insight into four of the main characters (even though The Hulk changed actors) and some development to two more.  When you go into The Avengers, you’ve been primed.  You care about these characters.

The DC Method

On the surface, it looks like DC tried to do the same thing as Marvel.  After all, Marvel had five movies before Avengers (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor) and DC had four (Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman, Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman).

But that’s only on the surface.  Two movies give (presumably) character development to Superman and half a movie gives character development to Batman. Thing is, Superman in the DCEU is an enigmatic, cold character.  I don’t know if this is because of Henry Cavill‘s performance or Zack Snyder‘s writing, but we don’t get much insight.  It isn’t helped by him being the most powerful character.

Batman, who we might have gotten the most character development, only gets half a movie.  We do have one solid movie in Wonder Woman, which is probably why she’s the only enjoyable character.  She gets more development than both Superman and Batman together.

Suicide Squad adds effectively zero to Justice League. 

This means you have three movies for six characters, three of whom aren’t even seen until Justice League and two of those three are underdeveloped.  This is a bad formula.

My Modest Proposal

Look, I don’t think you can salvage this mess at this point.  You’re about to lose your actors and it’s going to collapse.  Stop.  Take stock.  Look at a different approach.

Marvel came out of the gate with a character only known to comic book geeks.  Iron Man certainly wasn’t an everyday character before the movie, but it certainly is now. (I always loved the character, but if you’d told me he’d be a cinematic superstar one day, I wouldn’t have believed you.)

Look at that example.  Take a less-well-known DC character and craft a movie around them.  You had the right idea with Green Lantern, but the execution was…well, you know how the execution was.  Try a Green Lantern with John Stewart instead of Hal Jordan.  The DC Animated Universe made him a more interesting character anyway.

You don’t even have to have a traditional member of the Justice League.  You could go for Young Justice, perhaps.  Hell, it doesn’t even have to be something “mainstream”.

Why not contrast with Marvel’s formula?  Instead of the technological characters as the mainstay, go with the mystic ones.  DC has a large number of weird, mystical characters to choose from.  Try a Doctor Fate movie.  Or Zatanna.  Or (my preference) The Demon.  If you can tie in the character with Neil Gaiman‘s phenomenally successful Sandman run/characters, you tap into a ready-made fanbase.  There are a lot of goth types out there that got introduced into comics through Sandman.

Then once you’ve decided on your first “building block” character, expand from there.  Get young, fresh faces to play the characters and expand over a decade.  Then–and only then–do you try for your first “event movie”.  Once everyone is invested and you have your formula, the franchise will practically assemble itself.

Don’t try to create your “event” overnight.  Slow and careful.  Some fanboy love wouldn’t hurt, either.