r/dcu

On one hand, Matt Reeves is absolutely cooking with his Elseworlds corner in ‘The Batman: Part II’. People are evidently very excited about it. He has set the standard for how Gotham itself can feel like a character in its own right, and the gritty, dark portrayal of Batman by Robert Pattinson has deeply resonated with audiences.

Meanwhile, the DCU Batman, who is supposedly coming our way with ‘The Brave and the Bold’, has a rather questionable creative team behind it, including Christina Hodson, the writer of ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘The Flash’ — two of the worst DC films of all time.

There are also serious concerns about the tone of this movie and this version of Batman. Theenormous success of ‘Joker’ and ‘The Batman’, despite both releasing during the failing DCEU era, shows that people genuinely love dark, gritty, and grounded DC stories, especially those featuring Batman-adjacent characters. If those characters are reduced to goofy caricatures, audiences would be extremely disappointed and disgusted. Especially when compared side-by-side with the Bat-greatness they are getting from the Reevesverse, people would troll the hell out of the DCU Batman, which could once again become a fatal blow to an infant cinematic universe.

The age range of the DCU Batman is another significant concern. Given how polarising the old-ass Hal Jordan casting has already been, having another older actor play the single most pivotal DC character like Batman could be too divisive for the DCU to handle. At least in Hal Jordan’s case, there is a younger John Stewart to balance him out and clearly carry the Green Lantern mantle forward. But that is not the case with Batman, who is already supposed to have Damian Wayne as his fifth Robin when we first meet him in this movie.

All of this, especially when placed side-by-side with the prestige quality of Reeves’ Gotham and its Batman, makes me very worried that the DCU Batman might be heading toward failure and could potentially drag the entire franchise down with him.

The ‘Clayface’ teaser was great, and I genuinely hope that becomes the blueprint for the DCU Batman as well — dark, gritty, gothic. But in all honesty, that movie is co-produced by Matt Reeves, which is precisely why it feels far more compatible with the Reevesverse than with what we have seen so far from the Gunn-led DCU. And we still do not know whether future non-Reeves-produced DCU projects will maintain the same impeccable quality as ‘Clayface’ or lean more toward stereotypical goofy-with-heart projects like ‘Peacemaker’, ‘Creature Commandos’, and ‘Superman’.

Since Gunn has repeatedly spoken about how much he admires Matt Reeves’ work, and considering Reeves is one of the few filmmakers Gunn actively wants involved with the DCU, it does give me some hope that Gunn understands the importance of taking the DCU Batman and Gotham in a direction as impeccably defined by Reeves in ‘The Batman’ and ‘The Penguin’.

1. Creature Commandos (2024)

2. Superman (2025)

3. Peacemaker S2 (2025)

Source: https://deadline.com/2026/05/superman-2-man-of-tomorrow-matthew-lillard-1236883112/

There are exactly 50 days left until the release of Supergirl!

Very excited to see how they adapt Woman of Tomorrow and of course excited to see Milly Alcock's performance. I'm building up hype by rereading WOT (this time as a TPB), and rewatching DCU projects but this time I'm throwing in some extra that I missed last year (like the Peacemaker podcast and Superman BTS documentary).

What do you all do in anticipation for the next DCU film?

This objectively is the worst scene in any Superman media. Superman flying into his apartment with a giant monster behind him and ignoring it. There is just no excuse to this.

Saying the Justice Gang were there is not an argument either. By that logic if Superman sees a fire and sees a fire truck on the way he’d just go “well they got it covered.” Plus we saw earlier the JG were careless about endangering civilians. It is also still Superman letting others endanger themselves, this includes Mr. Terrific who is a normal guy with no superpowers.

You can ogle about Superman saving squirrels or hugging kids or talking about kindness being punk rock, this scene alone destroyed all that.

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Who do you think he's playing

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/man-of-tomorrow-enlists-sinqua-walls-1236588558/

Just curious.... thoughts?

*Amazo

*Plastic Man

I personally think DC really needs to make its big characters like Batman and Wonder Woman work—let them be established as the pillars of this new universe and give fans something to emotionally invest in through their character arcs and dynamics. Then, deliver a Justice League movie that can beautifully bring together characters of contrasting tones (quippy, gritty, R-rated, etc.) to create something truly magical.

Gunn is right to include something as tonally unique and different as Clayface in the DCU. I think we need more such distinct projects and characters (hopefully Batman would be nothing like Superman, except perhaps in age), which could push the boundaries of what can be done with the comic book genre and satisfy the appetite of fans across different tastes.

Marvel is certainly a behemoth, and its universe is now fully stacked with the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man—and fans will undoubtedly enjoy the movies and dynamics of each. But are they offering anything truly unique from one another, or just different shades of the same Marvel quippy formula?

If DC can break the mould created for CBMs by Marvel instead of copying it, I can see DC outclassing Marvel over the next ten years.

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