As the co-CEO of DC Studios that’s also just seen The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special land on Disney Plus, James Gunn will be more than used to criticisms coming in from both sides of the comic book divide, even if he’s only been in his new executive role for a matter of weeks.
The filmmaker has made a point of noting that it’s entirely possible (and even actively encouraged) to enjoy both, but the sense of tribalism that always has Marvel and DC supporters trying to one-up each other by any means possible has been around for a lot longer than the internet, so it’s never going to go away.
Gunn also has to contend with MCU fanatics taking issue with some of his creative choices, but the Twitter-happy Peacemaker architect is always more than happy to offer a pithy rebuttal that more often than not burns his detractors to the ground.
It’s only gone and happened yet again, too, with the Holiday Special‘s revelation that Rocket finally got the Christmas present he always wanted not sitting well with one “fan” in particular.
As well-worded and thoughtful as Gunn’s response was, it’s still basically the equivalent of him saying “tough sh*t, I make the decisions and there’s nothing you can do about it.” On the plus side, now that we know Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier is missing his enhanced appendage, it opens up the door for another subplot to potentially be explored in either Captain America: New World Order or Thunderbolts, because we’d love to know how Nebula managed to get the drop on him so severely that she made off with his arm.