The DC Universe has been in a tough spot for years.
When compared to the still-thriving MCU, it’s hard to find many similarities between the formerly-competitive publishers. DC boasts some of comics’ most well-known characters, including Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, but even these heavy hitters aren’t enough to keep DC’s attempts at a cinematic universe standing.
The failure of the DCEU, which has now been reworked and rebranded into the DCU, has many culprits, but most people tend to blame the creative minds behind its biggest missteps. Films like 2016’s Suicide Squad got the trailer game down pat, only to massively disappoint when the film itself proved to be nearly unwatchable. This is a trend that’s persisted across DC cinematic releases, but one fan is ditching those tired complaints against Zack Snyder and James Gunn, both of whom were behind the wheel of a DC flop. Instead, they’re pointing the finger at a Marvel character, of all people, who they say is to blame for DC’s failures.
It is Deadpool, rather than Gunn or Snyder, who is most to blame for DC’s trend of expensive, but unwatchable, releases. The foul-mouthed mercenary’s success was responsible for DC’s downfall, at least according to Twitter user @Croc_Block.
In a hugely popular tweet posted early Monday morning, @Croc_Block explained that the success of the first Deadpool film, back in 2016 (the same year Suicide Squad dropped), caused “detrimental damage to the DCEU and resulted in its eventual downfall.”
Proclaiming that “Deadpool killed the DCEU” certainly seems like a stretch on the surface, but it’s not an entirely unreasonable position. As @Croc_Block explains via several comments, they believe Deadpool “made WB blink and second guess their tone,” which eventually led the company to “rethink their direction” and, eventually, spiral out of control.
Not everyone agrees, of course, not only because some people think the DCEU was “dead on arrival,” but also because many viewers blame a range of other Marvel properties for ruining DC’s prospects. Flicks like Guardians of the Galaxy also challenged the tone the DCEU had branded itself around, and made the people on top pay attention. Their failure to capture a similar tone — despite multiple embarrassing efforts — could be the real culprit behind all those lackluster releases.
The DCEU was plagued by issues from the beginning, but it’s fair to think that competition with the MCU — and Marvel films like Deadpool — hugely altered how Warner Bros. approached future releases. And, despite their best efforts, every team tapped to bring a DC property to life has largely failed. Some attempts shine far brighter than others, but none come close to competing with the likes of Deadpool. All we can hope, as we look back on the shambles of the DCEU, is that the fresh direction the DCU is taking will learn from those many, many past mistakes, and put in the work to stand on its own — instead of producing barebones MCU copycats.