Now that Man of Steel has been seen by many of our readers, I felt it was time to address one of the most common questions: where were the DC Universe tie-ins? Is Man of Steel supposed to be the start of Warner Brothers’ attempt at a DC cinematic universe? It could be argued that they did; everyone saw that Wayne Enterprise logo on the satellite Zod and Superman destroyed, right?
No, most didn’t spot a blink-and-you-miss-it Easter egg. If you’re not going to make such shout-outs clearly visible for all to see, why bother? Maybe Warner Brothers didn’t make bigger efforts towards showing a DC Universe for a simple reason: they are not ready, and they know it.
To be honest, Marvel wasn’t ready either. Remember when we all sat though the credits for Iron Man in 2008 and saw Nick Fury, and then freaked out when he said Avengers? A big studio was going to make a group superhero movie? We had seen the X-Men, but this was way different, this is The Avengers.
And over the next five years Marvel Studios did it. Marvel Studio (before Disney bought them) dove in headfirst and said to the world: we’re doing this ready or not. They made a workable comic movie universe like we had never seen before, with characters all bouncing between movies and uniting when needed. As a comic book fan, this was nothing less than amazing.
But what a gamble for the studio. One: It’s never been done before. Two: It took lots of time and money. Finally, three: They got the right smart people to be in charge. Three important things Warner Brothers doesn’t seem to understand.
Yes, the Nolan Batman trilogy did great. But that’s not a comic book Batman. It’s not a criticism of Nolan’s wonderfully crafted movies to say there’s no way the Nolan Batman could stand next to Superman; they simply do not live in the same universe. The Nolan Batman is more in line with a noir crime movie, one that just happens to have a guy who dresses like a bat.
Warner Brothers never seems to have it together. It’s like DC and the WB just don’t talk to each other, communicating solely through memos and rumor. By contrast, there’s clearly an open line of communication between Disney and Marvel, where Disney trusts Marvel to do what they do best and make all the money. By comparison, DC and the WB just seem to want to ignore each other and hope for the best, which seems like a terrible way to run a business.
Of course, there are things we don’t see that are going on behind closed doors, but from the outside it just doesn’t feel like they have a clue. They have to sit down and work out a plan. If Man of Steel was to never connect with another hero I wouldn’t be surprised. It simply feels as if they don’t have any idea as to what to do next.
Man of Steel has a lot riding on it. Not only does it need to make a huge profit, it also has to be good. While it made a lot of money, the being good part seems to be split 50/50. Some really enjoy it while others have some serious hate. (We all know over which scene, too.) But why didn’t Warner Brothers try to plant the seeds of a bigger universe?
I think it’s because they wanted to see how well the movie did first. If it did well, then they can say “well look at the Wayne Enterprise logo” or talk about that Lexcorp tank. But it would have made no sense in this movie for Superman to see Batman. You can’t just start adding things without motivation. That’s like…well, Sinsetro putting on a yellow ring, for no reason other than to say “look what we did!”
Which brings us to the Man of Steel sequel, which they say is coming sooner than we think.
First off WB, hold it! How about you move slowly into the unknown territory and really think about what your next move is? It’s obvious from Man of Steel that after stopping Zod and destroying all of Metropolis, that Lex Luthor (however he’s introduced) isn’t going to be happy with that.
Who’s to say Lex doesn’t start messing around with Kryptonian Technology that’s been left behind and creates an a AI unit code named Brainiac? Maybe he accidently calls Brainiac from deep space? Maybe Lex is in charge of some sort of cloning Superman plot that goes wrong, and enter Bizzaro? It all depends on what origin they go with. Hell, they could even have Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprise get into a bidding war over which company gets to rebuild Metropolis, etc. They have a chance, and so many different avenues to go from here. They could step up, take charge, and change the game. I hope they’d take full advantage of that.
At the end of the day, the sequel needs time to build on what they already established in Man of Steel. And a year isn’t enough time. Nor are two years for a Justice League movie. Even Man of Steel star Henry Cavill has said about the Justice League movie:
It’s a very tough one to do because the DC comic heroes are all god-like in their power. So in this real world universe, real world setting we’re telling our story in, it’s going to be tough to achieve that. It has to be done very delicately with a lot of thought…So, it won’t be right away. I hope it’s not, anyway. It may take some time of building up other movies and other characters and introducing them together in one way or another.
That could not have been said any better. Yes, the WB should be thinking about the big picture. But if they move too fast then we get movies like Green Lantern, Catwoman, or Superman Returns. And no one wants that.
So a word of caution to Warner Brothers: slow down. Do what Marvel did. Take your time and work everything out before jumping head first into the deep end. We, as fans, will thank you in the long run.