“Batman v Superman” appears courtesy of Angel Aranda.

With the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC Comics has officially thrown their hat in the cinematic universe ring, effectively competing with Marvel Studios. And if you have an internet connection, you’re undoubtedly bombarded by videos, articles, and comments about how much the upcoming universe is going to suck. From the quality of Dawn of Justice to the complaints about Suicide Squad and the other movies, it is almost impossible to surf the web without seeing someone complain about how much DC sucks, and how great Marvel is. But is all of this really justified? I mean sure, Dawn of Justice is an admittedly flawed movie (and this is coming from someone who did enjoy it for the most part), but there is actually a lot more bright spots in the DC future than people give them credit for. (Ed. note: I hated Batman v. Superman. And I absolutely adore Man of Steel, so…)

Batman v Superman’s “failure” (almost $850 million worth of failure) is actually a lot similar to pinpoint than most people admit. Regardless of how you feel about the film, it’s length and tone, as well as its representation of the heroes, the film is a disappointment for a much more broad reason: origin stories are never as good as their sequels. Looking back at DC’s earlier, pre-cinematic universe slate solidifies this point. As good as something like Batman Begins is, it will always pale in comparison to The Dark Knight. The reason behind this is also fairly straight forward, as a sequel to a superhero movie has more freedom. Unlike the first film, a sequel doesn’t need to concern itself about setting up the hero(es), the world, or the tone, and as such, they can introduce a more interesting villain, a more complex conflict, and much higher stakes. And for all of its shortcomings, the thing that Batman v Superman did pretty well was set the stage for the upcoming Justice League movies, as well as the other solo movies for their other heroes.

“Wonder Woman” appears courtesy of Youtube.com

The same thing can be said about Marvel. Think back to Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aside from the first Iron Man and The Avengers, Phase 1 wasn’t very good. Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor only existed so audience members weren’t asking who the guy with the shield and the other guy with the hammer were in the Avengers. Iron Man 2 only exists to set up SHIELD, and give Samuel L. Jackson something to do before the Avengers. The Incredible Hulk is essentially moot given that Bruce Banner has morphed from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo. Even something like Guardians of the Galaxy is hindered by the need to introduce their new characters and backstories. Nearly all the sequels to the movies listed above are substantially better than the original movie, and it’s not that much of a stretch to think that the Justice League movies will be better than BvS. I mean, hell, just look at the trailers for Suicide Squad (and yes, re-shoots, but just about every major blockbusters have some kind of re-shoot). (Ed. Note: Suicide Squad looks bad-ass, and I’m not even much of an Ayers fan.)

And yes, as said earlier in this article, BvS is a very flawed movie, but there are actually a lot of good parts of it that have been lost in the cavalcade of criticism. Ben Affleck is the only person who came out of it with consistent praise for his portrayal of Batman, but there are other bright spots. Henry Cavill is still a good choice for Superman and is at least trying to make him more complex than a superpower boy scout. Gal Gadot stole all her scenes as Wonder Woman, and while Jesse Eisenberg was too unhinged as Lex Luthor, his plan was more interesting and devious than any previous live action Luthor that came before him (no real estate scamming Gene Hackman/Kevin Spacey antics). Hell, BvS isn’t even the worst Batman or Superman movie out there and believe it or not, there is something that DC does better than Marvel on a pretty consistent basis: scale.

While the two Avengers movies have featured a wide variety of big and epic fights, the solo adventures of the heroes have been rather small for the most part. The three Iron Man movies have mostly been about Tony Stark trying to keep his tech out of some small time, vengeful terrorist or hunting the not-Mandarin. Captain America defeated the Red Skull, his arch enemy, in a brisk 20 minute montage. Thor is mostly relegated to stumbling around various places on Earth (New Mexico, London) or Valhalla before ending with an anticlimactic fight scene with whatever villain happens to be in the movie, and most of the other films in the franchise have been relegated to fighting generic movie villain number 3 in an overly CG-filled extravaganza. While there is nothing wrong with taking the action to a smaller scale, it can be hard to see why certain events need a superhero to intervene. Compare that to any of the scenes in the Dark Knight trilogy or Man of Steel, which feature far grander set pieces, and it’s easy to see why a superhero would need to intervene.

“Man of Steel” appears courtesy of SITS Girls and is licensed under CC BY 2.0

So what happens now for DC? Following BvS’s lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike, many have suggested that it is time for DC to admit defeat, or completely revamp their current plan. There are several different petitions to replace Zack Snyder as director for the upcoming Justice League movies, along with rumor after rumor of including more jokes and humor in the upcoming films. And ironically enough, DC’s biggest advantage over Marvel is also their greatest weakness. Unlike Marvel Studios, which does not have the rights to some of their more popular characters like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and until recently, Spider-Man, DC’s entire gallery of heroes and villains is fair game for Warner Brothers. While this gives them an advantage in the sense that they don’t need to go out their way to explain why Superman or Batman won’t be appearing in the Justice League, it also opens them up to more criticism from fanboys. Superman and Batman are easily the two most popular superheroes of all time, and have a lot of history (good and bad) on the page as well as the screen. Every fan has their own idea of what these characters should be, which mostly comes down to “be more like Christopher Reeves’ Superman”, and while Reeves is the definitive Superman, taking that same approach in a modern setting simply does not work (just look at Superman Returns).

Essentially what a lot of this talk boils down to is that people want the DC Expanded Universe to be more like Marvel’s universe, but are we sure we really want that? The biggest criticism that can be levied at Marvel is that their films are becoming increasingly formulaic. Pretty much all of their movies in Phase 2 followed the same basic outline: the heroes fight some one-off villain that is mostly forgettable and disappointingly bland through a series of CG spectacles before ending with a larger scale fight scene that takes place in the air. One of the sources of praise that can be leveled at Warner Brothers is the fact that they give their directors a great amount of creative freedom. It’s why films like the Dark Knight trilogy and Mad Max are as unique and good as they are; because there is a singular vision behind them.