The Marvel movie ends, the post credit scene finishes and the crowd of fellow geeks turns to me expecting me to answer their probing questions, like who Thanos is or what an Infinity Stone is. While I am the "That Guy" of my group of friends, Marvel was never my main wheelhouse. I even skipped the first Iron Man in theaters because I just didn't care. My house is a DC house, and for 13 years I've been living in the wrong universe.
The Snyder Cut
The release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League gave us a glimpse of an alternate universe, one where the DC franchise was the big superhero franchise, the one that raked in the billions, and the one on everyone's lips. Don't get me wrong, I love the MCU. Every character is a treat, and even the worst movie is still well executed, but nothing compares to my excitement when a new DC movie is announced. Justice League gave my DC heart everything it ever wanted, all my favorite characters with hints of more. I feel we got a glimpse of what could've been, or more specifically, what should've been.
DC vs. Marvel
Non-comic fans may want to know what the big deal is, since they're both superhero franchises just with different characters. That's just it though, it's the different characters. Unless you grew up with an incredible amount of free time and disposable income, as a comic nerd you had to pick one universe to follow over another. Growing up I picked DC, the bright colorful heroes who always did what was right no matter what appealed to my young sensibilities more than Marvel's darker real world undertones. Ironically the franchises have since traded tones since DC made an R rated Joker movie and the MCU now exists next to Mickey Mouse, but I digress. It all boils down to a mayonnaise vs Miracle Whip decision. A boxers or briefs decision. A PC or Mac decision. It's a personal preference thing, and you can like elements of both without having your ethics brought into question. My preference though is DC.
The Stories We Lost
Without DC becoming the mega franchise, here is but a small list of things we probably will not get to see on the big screen, compiled by yours truly with an ache in his heart.
Justice League Dark
The Killing Joke
Death In The Family
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Reign of the Supermen
The Flashpoint Paradox
Hikeitia
The War of Light
The Judas Contract
Villains United
Identity Crisis
Fourth World
Gotham City Sirens
Kingdom Come
My point is that we are missing a lot of great stories that could be explored because the Snyderverse was cancelled.
Hope Remains
Will DC restore the Snyderverse, salvage the DC films and create something great? Only time will tell. It's hard to blame them if they don't, since it would be an expensive undertaking and will now not only be compared to the MCU directly but back to its own past failures with critics and trolls constantly looking for things to destroy, but maybe. The real good news, however, is that while Marvel loudly brought out blockbuster after blockbuster DC quietly created a library of animated features that can easily hold their own against their cinematic counterparts in both companies. Several of the aforementioned stories have been explored in animation and are incredible pieces of art, and all are streaming on HBO Max (Seriously, with as many times as I've mentioned them on this site they need to start coughing up royalties).
If you are a DC fan realize that if we don't get the universe we want, we at least have several pieces of the universe we deserve, just animated.
-JOE
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