DC should not be this bad at making movies. In Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, they have three of the four most marketable characters in the world. Spider-Man is the only Marvel hero on their level, and he was sidelined at the beginning of the MCU because of various legal issues. But while Marvel is making mega hits out of Guardians of the Galaxy, Shang-Chi, and Doctor Strange, DC is struggling to zip up its fly. Enter James Gunn.
James Gunn, along with Peter Safran, is now overseeing the DCEU from above. Though it’s a little reductive, this essentially makes him DC’s Kevin Feige. Part of the reason Marvel has been able to balance all of its phases out, tell separate stories simultaneously, and combine them meaningfully is because of Feige. While Phase 4 has been slow and meandering, the future looks brighter. Phase 4 had to move on from the Avengers and introduce television into the mix, while coping with the passing of Chadwick Boseman and working around covid. There’s a lull at Marvel now but it’s still raking in billions at the box office and dominating streaming, so it’s fair to say Gunn is expected to work Feige-level miracles.
There’s a nice slice of irony here, too. The aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy, still arguably the least popular comic book heroes Marvel has made a success of, came to the screen under Gunn’s stewardship. After success with Guardians and its sequel, Gunn was seen as one of Marvel’s golden directors. There was talk of him being given the Avengers. Then he criticised Donald Trump.
Growing tired that everyone hated their favourite pussy grabbing conman, throngs of Trump supporters targeted the most left-wing celebrities and tried to get them fired. Because Gunn used to tweet college humour dead baby jokes, they succeeded. Gunn was fired by Marvel in a spectacular public way, and the usually quiet and unseen Feige was furious. The decision came from above him, and while Feige eventually negotiated Gunn’s return for GotG 3, DC had already offered him a deal to direct The Suicide Squad. Gunn went Marvel, DC, back to Marvel, and now back to DC. He seems like the perfect man for the top job at DC.
The DCEU’s biggest problem has always been a lack of collective vision. While I don’t care for Zack Snyder’s writing style, he at least knew what he wanted the universe to look like. But this wasn’t held up across the rest of the DCEU, not to mention the forced team-ups were tiresome and awkward. Marvel took big swings with, say, skipping Spider-Man’s backstory, but that’s Spider-Man. We all know it anyway. When DC decided not to bother introducing Cyborg, it’s asking for trouble.
Exactly how much the DCEU is going to reboot and how much it’s going to have to roll from a standing start is unclear, but Gunn is exactly what it needs. First off, he’s a movie man, not a money man. He’s made money his whole career, but he’s done it via making good movies. With DC chasing Marvel moolah, Gunn’s hand at the wheel is crucial. Secondly, he loves comic books. That’s a major trait of Feige too - it can’t be IP to these guys. They need to see them as heroes. Thirdly, not only has Gunn experienced both major CBM factories, he knows a good team up. The real secret the DCEU wants cracked is not how to make individual movies better, but how to make the universe.
The reason we all go to see Eternals, or Ant-Man, or Other C-Tier Hero Man, is not because we necessarily care about the movie itself, but about where it leads. Even before Marvel introduced actual TV shows, the movies felt like episodic parts of a larger whole. Shang-Chi was a solid movie with great fight scenes, not to mention offering non-tokenised representation in a way superhero movies had never offered before. But part of the reason it was so successful despite few people having heard of its hero was because people want the next Avengers movie. Post Age of Ultron (and arguably earlier), Marvel audiences have been coached to care about the Avengers Level Threat. DC rushed it and is now treading water figuring out where to go next.
Gunn knows the art of a team-up, but he’s also seen first hand the patience Marvel has applied. His experience on both sides of the aisle, his time in the director’s chair, and his love for all things caped means DC might finally be heading in the right direction. With Superman back and James Gunn in the driver’s seat, the DCEU might finally be a fitting challenger to the MCU.