In 2008, Marvel Studios released Iron Man. The film was based on a character who was considered B-level in the comics at the time but would soon become one of the most popular superheroes in the world. The game changer came after the credits of Iron Man when Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury appeared for the first time and mentioned the key words: the Avengers.
Now just some background on me: I am and have always been a DC fan. My first experience with comic books was when I picked up the graphic novel Superman: Secret Identity. The book's intimate, lonely story resonated with me in a way no character had and so have most of the big Superman stories in contemporary comics. From there, the rest of the DC universe opened itself to me and I have lived there ever since.
Of course I've picked up more than a few of Marvel's comics and they're not bad; they're just not my heroes.
So when Iron Man was good, my reaction was "Good for them". I was glad to see a comic book property excite so much of its fanbase and bring in new people interested in the character. But when a shared MCU was announced, that news excited me more than I even understood at the time.
I wasn't excited because of the Avengers although the MCU has been massively successful and mostly very enjoyable. No, it excited me because it opened up a realm of possibility for my real heroes to follow suit: the Justice League.
Around the time that the MCU kicked off, DC and Warner Brothers were on top of their world with the huge success of The Dark Knight. Many felt then and still feel now that Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is the definitive version of the character. What I wanted more than anything in 2008 was to see Superman introduced in the sequel to The Dark Knight, establishing DC's own shared universe. It was obvious pretty soon though that Christopher Nolan had not intention of introducing any other heroes into his world and all of those hopes were dashed.
Fast forward to 2013. The Nolan-verse is now over and WB/DC have finally announced a new movie; a Superman reboot called Man of Steel. When asked about a shared universe, the director and the studio play coy and non-committal. Meanwhile Marvel was releasing Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and a year away from Captain America 2. It wasn't until Batman V Superman was announced that we knew for sure that a shared DC universe was coming. That revelation recently found its culmination in the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice to extremely mixed reviews.
Now to be clear, I really liked Batman V Superman while a great many people did not. You can read my full review here. But even though I liked it, something just doesn't feel right about the path the Justice League universe is on. At first I tried to just ignore that feeling and get on board. It was during that phase that I felt myself getting annoyed with those who were outspoken about their hate for the movie. Recently, though, certain people on social media have taken their efforts to defend BvS and Man of Steel have taken a turn for the inappropriate and downright illegal. Death threats and threats of violence are now being thrown around...about a movie?
That's when I started really looking at my own thoughts on the movie and why I was getting upset with these so-called haters. I discovered that my frustrations are not with those people, rather it comes from my fear that this thing I care about and waited years for may be derailed in some way. Of course, those fears are not totally unfounded. Given Warner Bros. track record of being extremely reactionary with their superhero plans, it's totally easy to think they could panic at BvS's negative reviews and cancel their whole slate. Bye-bye Justice League. See ya later Flash. So long Aquaman.
In short, my investment in the characters of DC comics and their big screen plans is huge. The stakes are high and so naturally, emotions come out. For me, this is unique to DC superheroes. I thought Iron Man 3 was not good. So what? I'm not hugely invested in Iron Man and those movies are doing so well, I'll just wait for the next one and maybe it will be better. But WB is just getting started with their DC characters and the pressure is on.
I believe I'm not alone. A lot of us are worried. A lot of us are insecure. We adore these characters and we feel the stakes are high. I think it's this feeling that is causing people to lash out at those who feel strongly that the DCEU is going in the wrong direction. After all, we have this amazing power at our disposal. We can reach out in an instant and blast our opinion at anyone, anytime with no consequences. But using this power to threaten others for disagreeing with you only serves to harm your cause. It harms all of us who are fans of these characters.
With all of that said, Justice League is filming as we speak and we are mere months away from Suicide Squad. Wonder Woman is done filming and opens next year. Things are not as dire as we feared they might be. The DCEU isn't going anywhere. So before we use this great power called the Internet to threaten people's lives or sling insults at people who don't like Batman V Superman, we should remember this quote from Christopher Reeve:
What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely.
No comments:
Post a Comment