Highly acclaimed author Brandon Sanderson recently took a few moments on his podcast to reflect on the state of comic book movies and where he hopes the genre goes in the near future.
For years now, critics and audiences alike have worried about the potential fallout of the sheer glut of superhero movies that have been released over the course of the last two decades. All of this reached a head shortly after the pandemic, when the two powerhouses of superheroes, Marvel and DC, were both faced with widespread failure and forced to dramatically reconsider their plans.
For Marvel, the failure of projects like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion resulted in them overhauling their entire overarching plan and swapping out their previously established villain for a new one, in the form of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
For DC, the continued shortcomings of films like Black Adam, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods resulted in the studio deciding to press the hard reset button. Filmmakers James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to start from scratch with the company’s stable of iconic characters. Gunn’s Superman, released this year, became a massive success. A big contributor to this was how much of a counterpoint its colorful, hopeful world is to the previous cinematic adaptation by Zack Snyder.
Brandon Sanderson didn't love Man of Steel
When speaking about the DC Universe on the latest episode of Intentionally Blank alongside author Dan Wells, Sanderson recalled:
“I went to see Man of Steel opening weekend. I like Superman. I like the idea of the hopeful hero. I actually realized I’ve read a decent number of like the big Superman comics… I’m not a comic book person, but what I have read are things like All-Star Superman, Kingdom Come, and The Death of Superman. I’ve read all of those, and there’s something about Superman for me. As much as I liked some things about the Zack Snyder Man of Steel, the movie itself, I don’t think worked.”
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Sanderson went on to echo a sentiment that many Superman fans have shared over the course of the last decade, saying, “Beyond that, it was not the hopeful take on Superman that I wanted to see. So I am cautiously optimistic.”
He went on to elaborate that he also wasn’t a fan of the sequel’s attempts to recontextualize events from the previous film in a more self-serious light. “When they started Batman v. Superman with Batman’s perspective on the ground of all the disaster that Superman is causing (at the end of Man of Steel)… Now, I feel like you’re winking at me… I don’t know,” he shared.
Sanderson's take on gritty superhero movies
When asked if he thought that Gunn’s new film would officially put an end to somber, gritty takes on popular superheroes for DC, Sanderson said, “If Superman is successful, I would say yes,” having filmed the episode prior to the movie's release on July 11.
"The thing is, were we ever there?" Sanderson questioned, reflecting on the state of both major comic book studios.
"Marvel was never gritty. DC did gritty to try to contrast against Marvel and failed. Successful DC movies were not gritty," he continued, making an exception for Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.
Sanderson and Wells acknowledged that by the time the podcast episode dropped, they would already know their opinions and the reception to Superman, which ditches the grittiness for a brighter and overall more hopeful tone. With its nearly $600 million worldwide box office earnings at the time of this writing, we'd say most viewers agree with Sanderson's take.