15 Changes the DCEU Needs To Make For Its Upcoming Movies
By Jenn Reid
HENRY CAVILL (center) as Superman and CHRISTOPHER MELONI (far right) as Colonel Hardy in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “MAN OF STEEL,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Remember Why People Like These Heroes In The First Place
So Zach Snyder and the Powers That Be in the DCEU are really interested in deconstructing heroes. That in and of itself isn’t a problem: Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are two hugely popular and successful graphic novels that deconstruct heroes in an interesting way. Comics have been exploring what it really means to be a superhero for years: is what they are doing right, or legal? Is Batman a hero or just a damaged weirdo beating up people?
The problem is that DC shouldn’t be using that for their tentpole franchises.
When people go to see a Superman movie, they want to see the heroism and iconography he’s known for. People want to bring their kids and introduce them to the heroes that they grew up loving, and the DCEU movies just aren’t delivering on that front.
Starting your series with a deconstruction is only going to alienate viewers. Only hardcore superhero fans are interested in exploring alternate plot lines like “what if Superman killed people and the government treated him like a terrorist.”
People like Superman. They like Wonder Woman. They like Batman. They like them best when they’re being heroes, working together and fighting the good fight.
DC needs to remember who these heroes are at their core, and focus on that. Speaking of…