3 Reasons DC could compete with Marvel phase 5
and why they won’t
After the big climax of Infinity War and
Endgame, Marvel is toning things down. It is introducing a lot of new
characters, from bringing Deadpool into
continuity, to confirming the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will appear, along
with ints of the Inhumans not just in the Ms. Marvel series, but in their
own eponymous series, as well as Dr. Doom, Namor, and Adam Warlock.
- Get it together
It
was clear after Avengers that DC needed to find a way to rival Marvel in the
box office. The problem is, ever since Man of Steel, DCEU movies have
been known as a mess when it comes to plot and continuity, when in Far From
Home, set after Thanos’s snap and before Endgame, continuity ios so tight the
writers managed to bring in characters and reference the very first movie of
the franchise. Not everything in Marvel is planned out over several
decades, but attention writers and directors pay attention to detail enough that audiences always know
what’s going on (even if enough is left to pay off in a big twist later). If DC wants to compete, they need to show up
stories that have one A plot and no more than two b plots and for it all to
MAKE SENSE.
2.
These aren’t anyone’s
superheroes
DC
is trying to push Justice League. Not Injustice, not Superman Red Son,
not Kingdom Come, not Superman: Earth’s End, not Villain’s united. That
means, while there can always be conflict between them, while they can do
wrong, they should first and foremost be superheroes while they have that
costume on and first and foremost be people trying to do good, no matter what
they wear. We need Superman, not a crazy alien that starts blasting
randomly at property and people. We need
Batman, the tortured soul who will do anything to protect people, the world,
and his friends (though probably won’t admit they are his friends. Whichever
Flash they choose, he should be friendly, outgoing, and useful to the team. The
same goes for everyone else. With all their flaws and fights they are a team of
superHEROES and they should act like it.
3.
Go Woke and Go Broke
Both
Marvel and DC have gotten flack for pandering to the ultra-liberal ‘woke’ crowd. Jumping on the bandwagon of
blaming an entire gender for not wanting to watch another gender (especially
when there’s tons of evidence against it) doesn’t help. Now, there's a
HUGE difference between ‘woke’ and having great gay, trans, women, or minority
characters. The difference is those stories don’t stop to preach to or at the
audience. No one likes being preached
to, and no one likes a movie insulting an entire gender, minority, or anything
else you were born as and can’t help. Not to mention audiences don’t like
it when the story screeched to a halt for any reason. It’s actually really easy to make
representation work. All you need are
two things: first, not gender or race swapping.
That’s insulting to say ‘yeah, we can’t bother to find a character
already trans/gay/woman/etc, so you’ll have to replace someone and thus confuse
people’. Second: put them in a story. Wonder Woman, Mr. Terrific, Steel,
give cyborg his own movie, Scandal as a villain, Hawkgirl, Batwoman, Batgirl
AKA Oracle, John Stewart, everyone from Birds of Prey, only accurate, Katana,
and tons more. If you show that they can be great characters, you also show
bieng trans/gay/woman/etc doesn’t affect that.
You show that anyone can be awesome.
What it all comes down to, though, is whether DC
is ready to do any of these. The world has been ready for a Question movie
for a while. But can DC give us a movie
with a solid plot that focuses on the character and not an agenda?
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