Even as Blue Beetle is already being declared a flop — or at least, a bigger disappointment at the box office than expected — that doesn’t mean James Gunn’s DCU is destined to fail. In fact, if you look at the history of the Marvel v DC rivalry in movies, it would seem that the MCU is next up for a reboot.
We loved Blue Beetle and found it disappointing that it apparently crashed and burned at theaters for its opening weekend. However, due to its relatively smaller budget compared to other high-profile flops earlier this year, like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Flash, there’s a good chance positive word of mouth may eventually cause Blue Beetle to break even or maybe profit in the long term.
Despite this, it can’t be understated that DC has been in a sorry state of affairs with its failed DCEU franchise leading up to this moment. However, maybe cinematic movie franchises simply naturally have cycles of glory days followed by periods of struggle that necessarily end with a complete and total reboot. If that’s the case, DC is actually ahead of the curve compared to Marvel.
Even though Marvel has managed to thwart financial disaster with its movies and shows, tell-tale signs of the MCU faltering have been building up for years now. Just this year, the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the Disney Plus series Secret Invasion proved to be two of the lowest points the franchise has seen in a while. The fact that those titles represent our introduction to Phase 5 following the critically maligned run of Phase 4 titles years prior is a worrying sign that Marvel may be entering its period of struggle phase. That would mean it is overdue for a reboot, putting them behind the times compared to DC, relatively.
If you think this theory sounds silly, consider the fact that, historically speaking, DC and Marvel have routinely swapped places in the past, alternating between one being the underdog and the other being on top. For instance, 2008’s Iron Man was a critical and commercial success upon its release. However, it’s obvious that the movie was overshadowed by the much more glowing reviews and higher box office returns of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight that same year.
This was a period of DC’s then main universe thriving while Marvel was just getting its sea legs. At the time, it could be argued Marvel was the one aping the success of DC, and not the other way around, with many critics drawing similarities between Iron Man and 2005’s Batman Begins in terms of its story and tone. Meanwhile, 2008 also saw the critically underwhelming second installment of the MCU, The Incredible Hulk. It soon may be that the age of DC dominance will happen again when Gunn’s DCU launches with the 2025 release of Superman: Legacy, especially if Marvel doesn’t get their act together by then.
All of this makes us wonder whether the speculation holds true that Avengers: Secret Wars may be the MCU’s way of rebooting the entire franchise, as it may take a cue from Jonathan Hickman’s titular comic from 2015 which did the exact same thing, as we previously explained. This could mean Marvel Studios has already seen the writing on the wall, realized they need a reboot, and that the plans are already underway for this to happen. Either way, DC will still be ahead of the curve in this regard, since their reboot is set to debut in 2025 while Secret Wars debuts in 2027, with a total MCU reboot presumably coming sometime thereafter, if the theory holds true.
It is starting to feel like cinematic universes are not unlike console generations in video games. After all, who can forget that the successes found in Marvel franchises like X-Men and Spider-Man rose from the ashes of the critically-hated Batman and Robin? Then once X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3 both disappointed fans and critics, that is when The Dark Knight secured its dominance in the superhero movie genre. When it comes to the cycles of comic book movies rising and falling, it’s like George Lucas once said, “It’s like poetry, so that they rhyme.”