Building a Universe in a Hurry

Let me start off by laying a few cards on the table.  I prefer Marvel to DC, I dressed up as Superman a few Halloweens in a row (even had the forehead curl), I think Superman III was better than Man of Steel, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the best thing to happen to comics in my lifetime.  Now that I got that out of the way let me say that I do not like the rushed away DC is building their cinematic universe.

DC is in a bad position because they are nearly a decade behind Marvel with their universe.  Who knows how long the movie going public will clamor for comic based movies? It's only a matter of time before we reach saturation and DC needs to strike while the iron is still hot.  This is why Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice (ugh!) movie is stuffed with superhero cameos, got to make up for lost time but while that may seem like a necessity I can't help but feel it is also a mistake.

This movie has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman and who knows who else.  Now you may say "hey this worked in The Avengers" and I'd say "yes it did" which may result in you saying "so why is this a negative?" and then I'd reply "because in The Avengers we already had 4 (not counting The Incredible Hulk) movies where we learned about each character and care about them but here we're just supposed to care about Wonder Woman because it's Wonder Woman?".  DC is banking on us giving a crap about these characters just because they're the characters.  Would you want to know what makes this Batman a grizzled & tired crime fighter?  Yeah, me too.

The last thing I'll say is I don't trust the team building the DC Universe.  Goyer's comments regarding She-Hulk "I think She-Hulk is the chick that you could f**k if you were Hulk, you know what I’m saying? … She-Hulk was the extension of the male power fantasy. So it’s like if I’m going to be this geek who becomes the Hulk then let’s create a giant green porn star that only the Hulk could f**k." and the dark and joyless Superman created by Snyder leave me wondering what they'll do to the rest of the DC gang.  Meanwhile, Marvel has Whedon and well...all hail Joss Whedon.

I hope DC can pull it off but outside the Nolan Batman trilogy their track record this decade has been less than stellar.