You might have expected Zack Snyder to take umbrage when asked to respond to Steven Spielberg’s recent comments about superhero movies one day going “the way of the western”. But the director of Watchmen and Man of Steel clearly thinks his own upcoming comic-book smackdown, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be good enough to survive the cull. “I feel like he’s right. But I feel like Batman and Superman are transcendent of superhero movies in a way, because they’re Batman and Superman,” said Snyder, in widely reported comments. “They’re not just, like, the flavour of the week ... Ant-Man. Not to be mean, but whatever it is. What is the next? Blank-Man?”
The US director might have a point when it comes to Peyton Reed’s film, which scored the lowest box office of any Marvel film since 2011’s middling Captain America: The First Avenger, and for me remains the weakest movie in the Disney-owned studio’s recent canon. But his comments have been read as an attack on Marvel itself, which, given some of the superhero bombs Batman v Superman studio Warner Bros has put out over the past few years (The Green Lantern, anyone?), seems a bit like Batman criticising the Hulk for his misanthropic outlook.
Here are five reasons why Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, and his team won’t be quaking in their boots any time soon as Warner goes about setting up its own rival DC Comics-based “cinematic universe” to challenge Iron Man, The Avengers et al.
Lesser-known superheroes mean more creative freedom
There’s a reason Edgar Wright chose Ant-Man for his debut foray into superhero movies (unless one counts Scott Pilgrim vs the World). The size-shifting superhero’s lack of notoriety ought to have allowed the British director the artistic wiggle space to put his own stamp on the genre. Ultimately, that didn’t work out, with Marvel deciding to go with a version that cleaved closer to the style of its other movies, but Wright and fellow screenwriter Joe Cornish still laid the ground-rules for a version of the hero far-removed from the disgraced comic book version. And Snyder’s own Superman reboot, Man of Steel, lost out at the box office to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which featured a bunch of space weirdos who few outside the hardcore comics community had heard of prior to the release of James Gunn’s blisteringly entertainment movie. When filmgoers find the world’s first and most famous superhero less inspiring than an anthropomorphic raccoon, a talking tree and a couple of little-known green-tinged extraterrestrials, all bets are very much off.
Nobody knows who half the Warner/DC superheroes are either
Hands up if you were au fait with the comic book adventures of Rick Flag, Enchantress and Deadshot prior to the release of the debut trailer for Suicide Squad, David Ayer’s much-hyped movie. Anyone? No, I thought not. But the Warner/DC supervillain epic, which will follow Batman v Superman into cinemas, currently boasts more hype than even Snyder’s film can muster. With a cast including Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Viola Davis, the warsploitation-riffing, bad guy romp looks well set to transcend its relative obscurity.
Marvel has by far the fresher, more modern roster
Unfortunately, the rest of the Warner/DC slate looks a lot weaker, at least on paper. DC mainstays such as Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman were all created during the 1940s and 50s, when audiences were a lot less sophisticated . The caped crusader is the only one of the main trio whose dark and brooding nature has successfully translated to the modern era, while Marvel’s more introspective roster from the later silver age of cinema offers heroes such as Iron Man and Spider-Man, whose quick-witted banter is perfectly suited to the zippy dialogue-infused style the studio has found most success with. Warner/DC may yet find success mining gold from hokey old heroes such as Aquaman, Shazam and The Flash, but audiences could yet find all of them a little dated.
Warner Bros’ fledgling cinematic universe is still playing catchup
The studio was clearly taken unawares by the success of its rival, which has taken Hollywood by storm over the past decade with its innovative multiple superhero approach to film-making. Unfortunately, it shows. Man of Steel was half a decent movie, but ultimately failed because Snyder was clearly trying to go one better than The Avengers’ world-mashing crash-bang-wallop denouement. It all felt like too much, too soon, while Marvel spent several movies introducing each individual hero before throwing them all in at the alien invasion deep-end.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hasn’t learned those lessons
Take DC’s two best-known heroes, set them in opposition and watch the box office greenbacks roll in, seems to be Warner’s approach on its upcoming film. But Snyder is also charged with introducing us to a number of additional fantastically-powered comic-book titans, including Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg, who will only get their own standalone movies at a later date. Warner/DC has plumped for a comic-book top trumps approach in its desperation to magic a successful shared superhero universe into existence without putting in the hard yards. In this context, criticising Marvel when the studio has found success through a carefully considered, softly-softly approach to building its universe, suggests that Snyder’s own superpower might just be hubris.
