Top 5 Reasons the DC Universe is Over
I grew up reading DC comics from nearby public libraries. The selection wasn’t ever consistent but you could always rely on finding certain heroes — Superman, Batman, The Justice League. Whether it was from the Silver Age to the Infinite Crisis crossover event the stories they had me captivated and keen to soak it all up. Marvel comics favourites were often present but apart from the odd Spiderman book I wasn’t too interested.
Lately I’m not really feeling it for the DC Universe and there’s a few reasons why. This isn’t a shit list or anything, I’m just airing my thoughts. Please don’t send any of the people mentioned here hate, this is a nerd’s rant.
1. Crap films made with no heart
(Older) Millenials are probably the last generation to be familiar with Christopher Reeves’ Superman films. Perhaps at most knowing it from refences in other places like Family Guy.
The 2006 Superman Returns film with Brandon Routh was not bad. Goofey and very cliche but it had an optimism to it that feels entirely gone in today’s world. I guess it was worth sacrificing X-Men 3’s direction for…
The Nolan Batman films? Amazing! A return of good DC portrayals on screen was lapped up and things like Michael Cain’s Alfred remain legendary and a part of the meme verse to this day.
Then came the Snyderverse.
I had already been weary of the glorification of violence and bigotry woven into Zack Snyder’s works from Suckerpunch and Watchmen. I’m all for presenting ugly stuff but there needs to be some kind of pay off or reason for it to be there in fiction otherwise it’s just gratutious. That’s the difference to me between extreme violence in Snyder versus a comparable director like Tarantino.
Now Warner Bros have decided to yet again shake things up because James Gunn was able to make a DCEU film that wasn’t awful. Not exactly a miracle given the only thing they probably had to do was replace edge lord Snyder with someone who makes films for the audiences enjoyment.
2. Henry Cavill is my Superman
The drag queen Ongina famously sang “Henry Cavill is my Superman” (embed below) and I have to agree. Apart from having the actual build of a proper 1990s Superman, the British actor is a role model within “nerd community”.
Henry Cavill famously has a good attitude, obviously great health and immense level of respect for the things he admires — which is something every nerd can relate to. A lot of people are unhappy that Netflix has apparently allowed him to just depart The Witcher despite literally being the face of the franchise and in many fan’s minds the QA person for it.
For me, it was the way he was let go from the DCEU that really seemed petty and created a bad look for any future Warner Bros productions. “It’s Indian giving” as Summer on Rick and Morty would say.
3. Dark Knights VS Doomsday Clock VS Whatever
Films can only ruin my perception of a franchise so far, as I mentioned at the start it’s the comics where I spent my childhood and it’s there I turn to for the latest on where the stories are at. For those unfamiliar, DC likes to create crossover events between their comics every few years and they call these “Crisis” events. A “Crisis” usually involves something multiversey, allowing them to make all sorts of changes to continuity for future stories.
Final Crisis was probably also the final time they did it right — one big story at a time. When Watchmen began to get integrated into the DC Comics proper as Doomsday Clock, many theorised this was going to have long reaching effects on the continuity. Nope. I don’t really understand what the decision making was over at DC but they decided to publish another, and then another, big Justice League story while Doomsday Clock was running.
Superman is good but he’s not so good he can casually tap back and forth between two completely different stories and this just looked sloppy and cheap as a reader at the time. If they couldn’t sort out what’s true and what’s just a one shot within their own house then why read all of it? Any of it?
Since that happened I’ve found a lot of enjoyment in Image Comics for faithfully sticking to one world per comic and Valiant for doing the exact opposite and beautifully weaving a single timeline from the 1980s to today (except for poor Ol’ Bloodshot.. but if you’re familiar you know it works!).
There’s the odd issue of Marvel I enjoy but they’ve always had the problem of oversaturation that DC has now started to go through. I used to see DC as a bit of a higher quality more refined publisher but that perception is gone.
4. Too meta for comprehension, not enough Metabaron for enjoyment
As I enter my mid 30’s this year, perhaps I’m not in the target audience of the DC comics and that’s completely fine. But I still have to question what the value of just going bigger and more infinite every time they need to seem like they’re doing something fresh and unseen before.
I love a good meta story — Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of the most inventive comics writers I’ve ever read and frequently interweaves modern issues with the world building and character arcs of his works. There’s a truth deep within each ugly and beautiful thing he shows you.
The Batman Who Laughs was a platform for some incredible stuff, not to mention the titular character himself being terrifying and thrilling. And then they introduced multiverse god lady.. Maybe I missed something in the subtext but I could not relate to this very strange story at all. There wasn’t any grounding in what was going on — shit just unfolded to move things along and then the good guys won — yay. There was no metaphor apart from some inane ramblings about hope VS despair.
I might have complained about Doomsday Clock clashing in continuity, and having basically no impact, but at least it knew how to tell a story and tell it right. The ending was telegraphed from the beginning and yet was handled beautifully from start to finish. A really well told tale with beautiful art.
5. Lower quality art than (smaller) competing publishers
This is not at all a dig at the artists but rather at the production budget they’ve been given — not enough time or money. Some of the recent issues coming out of DC are just so low quality that I’ve found it hard to get back into after reading something people put more time into like anything drawn by Jean Giraud and/or published by Humanoids.
That’s not to say that DC, or Marvel, don’t have good art coming out. I’m just saddened that apart from knowing an artist by name and previewing a few pages (and maybe spoiling the plot) there’s no way to tell if something is a Saturday newspaper comic strip or a proper book anymore. DC could probably fix this up by making different badges like it used to but they seem to want to have their cake and eat it too — everything is canon until the next thing invalidates it. As such if there’s no big budget at the start of some arc there probably isn’t going to be much reason to follow it either.
Comics are a visual medium and while it’s fine to have passable art if you have a good story — if you aren’t offering either what’s the point?
I love Superman, I love Justice League and many many things that have come from DC but I’m not really sure I’m interested in anything else they have to offer anymore. I’ll watch a movie because James Gunn is directing or because Jason Momoa is in it as Aquaman but that’s about it for me and DC.
It seems like DC will just put out whatever dodgy crap they want to try to make a dime and actual fans who have supported them for decades don’t matter to their business model. But that’s fine, there are plenty of better options from others like Dark Horse, Image Comics, Humanoids, Valiant and no doubt many more.
Thank you for reading! Want more content? Follow me on
- Medium: https://medium.com/@paulbrzeski
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-b-23620b209/
- Website: https://www.paulbrzeski.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@paulbrzeski4237/
