Summary
With comic book film adaptations soaring in popularity,DCwas desperate to recreate the success of the MCU with their own DCEU. However, the lack of planning, vision, and poor decisions led to the failure of their universe. DC is once again, establishing a new live-action universe that will be a soft reboot of the DCEU under the supervision of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
While the MCU is the example of a superhero universe nailed right in the eyes of many viewers, that statement is true just for typical audiences. The MCU over time hasgotten much more complexand has too much going on. The DCEU took inspiration from the MCU to create a superhero universe despite them having the perfect blueprint already. Around 3 decades ago, Bruce Timm made the perfect superhero universe with the DCAU. The DCAU provides the perfect layout for James Gunn’s DCU which could replicate the same success the Timmverse had but on a bigger scale.
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The DCAU Proves That Not Every Superhero Needs An Origin Story
With so many interpretations in the past, at least everyone is familiar with the origin stories of heroes like Batman and Superman. The Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader are without a doubt the face of the DC. The DCAU trusted in its audience that they were already familiar with the origin stories of the beloved superhero and started on experienced versions of the characters and explored many exciting storylines. The DCU will also focus on a much more experienced Superman and Batman in their DCU movies which couldpotentially lead to new storylinesthat have not been told in live-action universes.
DCAU’s Justice League started off without any solo movies or TV shows of most characters like The Flash or Wonder Woman yet still expanded very much on the characters including their mythos. However, the best part about theJustice Leaguecould be the character relationships and their story arcs. This is what made the DCAU different from any other superhero universe but of course, it wasn’t given much importance considering it’s just in an animated medium.
One aspect that the DCAU nailed, and the reason it was successful in the first place, was its ability to maintain the tonality of its characters. In a superhero universe as vast as DC’s, many superheroes exist, each representing their own tone, theme, and morals. That’s what sets them apart; Batman has a darker and grittier theme, whereas Superman, on the other hand, represents hope and is a more vibrant and optimistic character. The DCAU clearly built upon these characters without their involvement with each other. Only then did they give them a team-up movie, and that’s what makes sense.The DCEU failed in the first placebecause they rushed too much being desperate for a bigger blockbuster and immediately let out the bigger guns. James Gunn’s DCU could potentially be on theway to making the same mistakeas the DCEU.Superman: Legacywhich is said to start the DCU already has a cast big enough that it could very well be a Justice League movie which adds concern that theDCU is trying to do too much too fast.
Comic books can never be translated directly into live-action. There are several reasons for that with the first being that comics are meant for a much narrower audience who are already quite familiar with the characters. Movies, on the other hand, bring the same character to broad audiences and they might get confused if movies were to directly adapt comics. In the past comic book movies in general have been heavily criticized for not being comic-accurate. However, the DCAU had the perfect solution for this. James Gunn’s DCU should adopt the storytelling approach that the DCAU used. The Timmverse respected its source material but wasn’t always too shy to explore stories on its own by creating original stories for the characters. Harley Quinn is the perfect example of this.Batman: The Animated Seriesintroducedthe psychiatrist turned Joker’s henchwoman and the result was so successful that the character developed her own image and even spawned a solo movie in the DCEU.
James Gunn has already confirmedJustice League UnlimitedandYoung Justiceto behis inspirations for the DCU, fans can rest assured that the acclaimedGuardians of the Galaxywill deliver a fully structured and richly story-lined superhero universe that they deserve. While the DCAU is to be taken as a blueprint for the DCU in terms of storytelling and in terms of world-building and structure, the main essence will be establishing storylines and characters. The future of the DCU looks bright with all the mistakes learned from the previous continuity, James Gunn is sure to deliver this time around.
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