For the past decade, the blockbuster movie discussion has been dominated by the battle between Marvel and DC. Both comic giants have cinematic shared universes and, while the former definitely had a major head-start, it always looked like an open, two-horse race. With The Avengers, and whereas for Marvel the arrival of Earth's Mightiest Heroes was a new benchmark for both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the superhero genre in general, Justice League has spun out, making the future incredibly unclear.
Related: All The Similarities Between Avengers and Justice League
Obviously, there are Wonder Woman has received comparable success to Marvel's outings, and with Justice League also offering the third studio-meddled film, it feels very much like the exception that proves the rule.
However, that comparison is really unfairly weighted to DC. The Avengers was five years ago; since then, Marvel has released eleven more films and completely evolved the MCU.
Marvel Has Revolutionized Since The Avengers (This Page)
Marvel Has Revolutionized Since The Avengers
If we break down Marvel's Phases, it's got less to do with story as much as concept. Phase 1 had them perfecting making average-to-good standalone movies that trumpeted character from their core before going into a full-on team-up; Phase 2 extended that, doing similar for genre mash-ups; and Phase 3 the same for "standalone" crossovers (all the while maintaining that initial quality). As a result, the sort of films they're delivering now are worlds apart from the simple days of Avengers: Age of Ultron compounded those issues.
Evolution has been the key, and that's evident in how the shared universe idea in particular has changed. Originally, Marvel were happy coasting on the simple thrill of having different franchises interact, but once the novelty wore off they upped their game; now it's more threaded and about aiding the story at hand (see: Civil War or Ragnarok). It is all still connected and fans in the know can pick up the threads (and point out the plot holes) but on a more casual level there's a nice ebb and flow that doesn't get too overbearing in a single movie. It's almost like, well, the shared universe of the comics on which they're based (this may be why it's not worked as well for non-comic book franchises).
Related: Spider-Man: Homecoming: Why Shared Universes Are A Good Thing
None of this is to say the Marvel Cinematic Universe is perfect. In fact, for all their mega-franchise deftness, it's recently felt like they've become Avengers: Infinity War, hype is high.
DC Were Either Copying Or Contrasting Marvel
Already you have an imbalance; while DC have been trying to match where Marvel was in 2012, the MCU has raced ahead and grown exponentially. But it's how they've tried to for that which has truly broken it.
Warner Bros. started their universe almost by accident, with Kevin Feige, who's been the mastermind of the micro and macro picture at Marvel, rather a collection of potentially dominant creative voices who could never hold fast against the corporate overlords.
Related: What Future DC Movies Are Actually Coming Out?
What we can surmise is that the drive was to be Marvel-but-not-Marvel: emulate the success without just copying. The immediate problem is that the whole idea and setup is a riff, and every difference felt superficial and done just to be the opposite; you ended up with an accelerated Phase 1 story that went more directly to the fabled team-up and has a clearer narrative throughline (every single DCEU movie follows on directly from the one that came before). Issues spark already; they were making the assumption of continued engagement rather than maintaining focus on the film at hand, and didn't seem to for context. The Captain America: The First Avenger, due to the trailer blitz you were familiar with them going into The Avengers) dampened this further. Yes, Wonder Woman ticked these boxes, but it's alone in that; for Justice League, there was no attempt to establish anything.
The knock-on effect was that, for all the rushing, the ethos grew out of date, which in turn led to panic and the notorious mid-production changes to Batman v Superman (heavily reshot to be more akin to Marvel). The end result is a confused muddle of a series that reflects every step of its development. And, with Marvel having now released 17 films to the tune of $13 billion and set to be rounding out an unprecedented 22-movie arc in 2019, being one-for-five with audience's apathetic at best is simply too far behind to pull it back.
In all this discussion, we haven't even got to the other sides of Marvel: Sony's Spiderverse and Fox's X-Men. For the longest time, this seemed to hurt Marvel because seven films from this trifecta before Aquaman, the next DC offering).
Can DC Pull It Back?
If you want to make a hare and the tortoise argument and say that DC are just biding their time, that ignores the bigger scope. It may now feel like DC were always on the backfoot, but that's really only true when it comes to the shared universe boom of the past decade; in the grand scope of the superhero genre, Marvel are the ones who've pulled it back. DC dominated in the two decades after the dawn of the cinematic superhero in 1978 with Superman: The Movie, but while for years Marvel's lone entry in the pantheon was Howard the Duck, they slowly built up a brand before even getting to Marvel Studios. But, are we being too hasty? Could DC pull it back. It's not out of the question.
Related: What Future DC Movies Are Actually Coming Out?
While the future of the DCEU is currently in flux, it's that clear whatever happens, things will change. Next up is James Wan's Wonder Woman 2; three movies from strong, clear-visioned filmmakers. Now, DC has always tried to trumpet being a filmmaker-led enterprise (and, to be fair, when WB hasn't balked, their films have mostly been the product of their director, especially true of Snyder's first two outings), but the manner in which these three have talked publically about their stance and their experience working with studios in the past (Wan is the primo popcorn horror director, Sandberg is working with New Line and Jenkins, well, did Wonder Woman) suggests a degree of understood autonomy. Should these three deliver on promise, that might at least turn those hopes around.
From there, the franchise has serious room for growth. The list of mooted in-development films is unwieldy to plot for sure, but each one has room for a unique creative stamp and, should things land remotely close to our current understanding, DC would have a run of movies that stands out amongst the genre; organically opposed to Marvel, who are increasingly the homogenous rulers.
So there is potentially room for a reblance. As we already said, Marvel has currently settled into being "fun", which definitely has people laughing while they wait for post-credits scenes and coming back for more, but is ultimately little more than cinematic fast food. The formula is showing, and even if that doesn't lead to stagnation, it leaves room for more exciting projects to muscle in. Further, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is unclear. While Disney clearly know where they see the franchise for years to come, they're keeping the cards close to their chest to ensure the focus hinges on plans for 20 more films, sure, but who knows what they means.
The biggest hurdle DC perhaps face is the bold takes of Fox. Dark Phoenix. That's as ecclectic as any random sampling of DCEU prospects, and these are all in the next year-or-so. Fox's continuity-flipping franchise is up and running, and only set to grow. If Marvel is firmament, the X-Men are alternative.
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At the moment, DC is at its lowest ebb, while Marvel's at its highest (at least on the big screen - comics, TV, games and more are much more nuanced). In five years, there's an outside possibility the scales could have shifted, but for now, the war seems to be over.
