by How comic films go, the Superman restart is a biggia. It is the first film by DC Studios to be created by Warner Bros in 2022 to finally compete with Marvel. And it marks the beginning of the newly launched DC universe, in the studio manager James Gunn and Peter Safran happy storylines, cancel projects and restart of characters (too much online foam).
Why do I fight to take care of it? Is it the restart of the Russian Doll? Is it franchise? No, it’s superman! The boring hero of everyone! Too good, to be interesting, too strong to be really feasible and definitely to scouts to be funny. I always found him a less exciting view than other supers.
But Gunn, who wrote and staged the film, seems to have a plan to make Superman less a snooze. And it affects villains, many of them – I counted at least seven in the trailer alone. And do you know what? It can just work. Because superhero films have never really been about the Spandex-Do-Gooters. They live and die through their villains.
Villars are our main action catalysts. Without them, heroes would no longer be in the job – even a rafikus in Superman’s case. And the greater the threat you represent, the more exciting the story (normally). But you can also make or break important principles of the genre.
Take action sequences. The Battle of New York in 2012, The Avengers – this famous recording of our heroes, which gathered in a defensive circle as a decimation of Lokis Army, Manhattan – still gives me chills. But nuclear you shoot in Superman IV. Not so much. Just as relaxes mid-battle joke from an awkward villain like the Oscar award winner from Heath Ledger, but Arnold Schwarzeneggers incessantly punishing as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin from 1997 is now the basis for a while.
It is also increasingly expected that villains are not only the antagonists, but also the main event – fully realized characters with motivations, charisma more floor covering and background stories than their heroic counterparts. In a sea of sequels, they have become the sights that help us not only remember which film was good, but which film was.
The choke pit of Villains on the success of superhero films is only too clear if you look at Marvel’s fluctuating success. The first three cinematic “phases” gave us some not good cores. Tom Hiddlestons Loki enchanted us, Michael B Jordan’s Killmonger challenged us (is it malignant to free oppressed people?) And their films climbed at the box office. Her great final boss Thanos, whose appearance was the highlight of a seven-year arch of action and who regularly leads the best villain lists, helped Avengers: Endgame for the second highest film ever.
But since Thano’s death, Marvel-Bösewichen have been baked so quickly, unforgettable and sent to how they appear, like a few billion dollar games from Whack-A-Mole. And the ability of the studio have stalled accordingly. The unfortunate DC Extended Universe did not make us much better and gave us Duds like Jared Letos Leiser Joker in the Suicide Squad from 2016 and Batman against Supermans Doomsday, who created the impressive task of killing Superman and at the same time remaining unobtrusive.
But DC always had a great advantage over Marvel: a better library of villains. And if Gunn uses it carefully, he could revive more than just Superman. He could exceed Marvel’s cash records, maybe even surpass. The enemies in the Superman trailer certainly have the complex, main character energy of Marvels Vor -hanos-Los. There is the engineer operated in Nanotech, who is normally part of an antihero team called Authority (with her own film in the works), but who works mystify for Lex Luthor. A masked character that the Internet suspects is ultraman, an evil alternative version of Superman itself. There is also the hammer of Boravia, a armored Goliath from Gunn, whose attack on the metropolis apparently reaction to the affairs of his country-one ideological confusion for Kal-EL.
In the meantime, Supermans Arch nemesis Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) seems to take on a large doll’s role role à la Thanos. There are even rumors that he is the president in the film or at least on the way to the office. A multi-film story arch that appeals to Superman against America himself? Now that I would watch.
Gunn even said that he would like to change a more nuanced approach to malignant approach to the stories of DC “away from the good guy against evil”. In 2023 in conversation with Empire he said: “There are really good – almost holy – people and Superman are among them. There are really terrible villains […] And then there are all in between, so there are all these shades of gray that enable us to tell complex stories. “
We have to wait until next week to see if Gunn’s villains can finally spice up Superman, and even longer to see how a DC universe plays with cloudy characters. But with Gunn’s plan in motion and Marvel owned by Doctor Doom and Magneto (two of the greatest villains of everyone), it certainly looks as if superhero films are finally reminiscent of who makes the big money for them. Take up the bad guys.
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