5 things DC Films should do if it wants to compete with Marvel

A brief history lesson: Iron Man came out in 2008. The film was a hit, but under the guidance of mastermind Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios soon took things further. It made Captain America: The First Avenger. It made Thor. It brought everyone together in 2012’s The Avengers, and soon it was operating the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the most successful movie empire the world has ever known.

In the comics, Marvel’s biggest rival was always DC. Marvel has Spider-Man, DC has Superman; Marvel has Wolverine, DC has Batman, etc. So naturally, WarnerMedia — the studio that makes big and small screen adaptations of DC properties — set about making its own MCU. The DC Extended Universe, or DCEU, would be everything the MCU was, but with DC heroes rather than Marvel ones.

It didn’t quite work out like that. 2013’s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill didn’t do badly, but public opinion took a turn with 2017’s Batman v Superman, and cratered with 2017’s Justice League. The DCEU is now in a very weird place, with some films — like the upcoming Flash movie starring Ezra Miller — maintaining some connection to the movies that came before, while others — like The Batman starring Robert Pattinson — seemingly doing their own thing entirely.

What started as an attempt to ape Marvel’s style has morphed into something very different, but WarnerMedia wants to give it another go. A recent report revealed that David Zaslav, the man now in charge of WarnerMedia after it merged with Discovery, wants to revamp the DC brand. He wants to revitalize characters like Superman, who he thinks have been sidelined for too long. He wants to hire a Kevin Feige-type to oversee whatever new form the DC films take.

Can DC Films reorganize itself so it’s competitive with Marvel? Here are some things Zaslav and company should keep in mind as they set about their ambitious new endeavor:

Don’t

Really, just don’t. Zaslav, I know you think you need to make some DC Cinematic Universe to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Green Lantern and Wonder Woman and Aquaman all share the same storylines and appear in each other’s movies and everything has a similar tone.

But here’s the thing: you don’t. Marvel already does that, and if we’re being honest, you’re probably not going to top them at it; they’re too far ahead. I know everyone wants to have a cinematic universe because Marvel has had such success with it, but no one has really succeeded, at least not as much as they want to. So don’t try.

Instead, why not embrace what you have? In one corner you have a movie like Joker, something so dark and grounded it barely feels like a superhero movie at all, and in another you have Shazam!, which has a lighter tone more akin to a Marvel movie. Those movies have nothing to do with each other, and they don’t have to. Don’t force them into the same cinematic universe just because Marvel is doing it.

But I know this probably isn’t a realistic option; you have your mind made up. So if you’re going to do this, at least take this advice…