Imitation is the best form of flattery. An area where this is evident is in storytelling. A more particular area is in comic books. Ever since Marvel and DC have been friendly rivals in the 1960s, they have been borrowing and sharing ideas within their own stories. So much in fact, multiple characters are mirror images of each other. There’s plenty of shared flare of course. Powerful artifacts need to be chased down. Multiverses need to be explored. And Thanos and Darkseid always give the superpowered teams problems. DC was viewed as the one that beat Marvel to the punch multiple times until the MCU came along. Now it’s the DCU’s turn. With shared DNA, coming from James Gunn, many thought the DCU will follow some of the steps the MCU paved. However, Gunn said the DCU will follow the path that Star Wars carved. Yet, should that be the proper path for the DCU?
What will that look like though? It’s easy to think that Star Wars is only the prequels and original trilogy. Those six movies were, for the most part, linear. There was some time jumps from The Phantom Menace to Attack of the Clones and from Revenge of the Sith to A New Hope. Other than that, the story was contain and told straight forward. Over the years though, comic books, live action shows, cartoons, and other films have broadened and multiplied Star Wars stories. Some of them add to the story told from Episode 1 to Episode 6. Many more step away from that story and begin their own. There are dozens of parallel stories within the Star Wars universe. Some of them even overlap or take over from where the last one left off. That’s what James Gunn wants. And it makes all types of sense…for the most part.
One of the things that piggybacked on James Gunn’s statement about his wish to use Star Wars as a model was his wish to not have a big bad. Of course, with Marvel, Thanos was the big bad. When DC last took their turn to establish a shared cinematic universe, Darkseid was being set up in a similar way. For both universes, everything and everyone was gearing up to fight those two. From how James Gunn wants it in the DCU, he wants to avoid that. By avoiding that however, Gunn is in a way going back on his word when he was comparing the DCU with Star Wars. The first six films had two villains serving as the big bad of the franchise. The Emperor and Darth Vader were those evil forces. The heroes were scrambling to stop them in many different ways. Much like Thanos, those two’s actions and presence influenced a lot that was happening in those six films. In fact, even outside of those six films. Their impact went into other shows, books and the new trilogy. Despite having other villains in other stories, The Emperor and Darth Vader had an everlasting impact on the universe and franchise. So much in fact, Darth Vader is the face of the franchise. DCU could easily do this same thing. Darkseid could serve as the villain that Darth Vader could be. But more villains could serve as the big bad in other parallel stories. The Manhunters, Mongol, Lobo, Brainiac, even Amazo could serve as those villains. Yet, it would be smart that James Gunn does entertain the idea of having a big bad shape the actions and arcs of heroes. It gives the universe a center, a core. Something easy to find foundation. If there’s too many big bads going around, that’s how the things could get out of hand, exhausting, and hard to follow.
Post Avengers: Endgame, there was no clear path for the MCU. Everything seemed like it was its own thing. Something that MCU fans didn’t welcome due to the MCU having an easy path to follow beforehand. Part of that was because everything was leading up to Thanos. A big bad for the DCU could avoid that. However, comic books and animation for both DC and Marvel have proven that stories can be multiple, adjacent, parallel, somewhat related, completely separated and still bottleneck to a linear story. That’s been the way for several years in the comic books for both franchises. MCU did bring a few stories together. But in the books multiple huge stories are happening at the same time and are separated. This is another description that James Gunn could have provided. In reality, having multiple important stories running simultaneously, it embodies much more of the spirit of comic books. What could help these run even smoother for the DCU is that stories are going to be told in live action, animation and video games. There could easily be a big bad for live action, a big bad for animation, and big bad for video games. That means three big stories occurring at once. If this is the path the DCU takes, it makes it easier on the audience since all three forms of storytelling are visually different. It’s easy to distinguish. A hidden benefit of having multiple big stories at the same time is the ability to introduce multiple characters in a short time. The MCU ran into this problem with The Eternals. But if the DCU is able to introduce more characters at a quicker pace, it gives more room to flesh out a large story. Many of the biggest DCU stories in the comic books have had a large roster. Perhaps the films may want to get to those quicker. Star Wars has obviously done this. Multiple avenues of stories have introduced many beloved characters to the franchise. DCU is perhaps hoping to do the same.
It is easy to think that the DCU will follow the MCU because it’s another shared cinematic superhero universe and the man who helmed some of those films is in control of the entirety of the DCU. But some fans were taken back with Gunn’s comment about the DCU following Star War’s path. Given the large rosters and mega stories for the franchises, it does make sense to follow Star Wars. The MCU has proved that a linear story is something that people expected. But the DCU is doing things different. It seems that its sights is to tell stories on a broader wider scope.
