For many fans around the globe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become synonymous with the Superhero genre as a whole. From Iron Man to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the ever-expanding MCU has left little room in the cinematic landscape for the Supermans and Batmans of DC lore – and nothing is better proof of that than the box office returns of the Dceu compared to the MCU.

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Saying that the DCEU would have been better if the MCU had never existed sounds a bit obvious at first glance – but it’s not as easy as just saying that it would have been better without having Marvel’s franchises as a reference. The “failure” of the DCEU (and, more importantly, of the Snyderverse) is something that will be studied by Film historians for years to come.

There’s an unspoken rule that every fan knows dictates the future of every franchise in the entertainment industry: creativity will never prevail over profitability. The DCEU, as well-received by fans as it might be, never reached the astronomical box office numbers of the MCU, and for Warner Bros., that’s a situation that simply couldn’t stand. That might explain why the new face of the DC cinematic universe is the guy who put the Guardians of the Galaxy – one of Marvel’s less glamorous superhero teams – in the spotlight for millions of fans.

To better understand the effect that the MCU had on the DCEU and DC’s way of producing films, we’ll have to look into the franchise’s past – before the first Iron Man film changed the face of the superhero genre forever. Before the Avengers and superhero team-ups became the norm, DC was content with releasing stories that encapsulated their character’s personalities as standalone experiences instead of building complex interwoven cinematic universes.

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In many aspects, DC were trailblazers of the superhero genre. Since the 70s, films like Richard Donner’s Superman became the blueprint for how to craft a successful superhero flick. With a powerful musical score, outstanding performances, and a solid grasp of the comic book characters and their motivations, DC proved that you could make a live-action adaptation that lived up to the standards of their ink-and-paper counterparts.

But 1978’s Superman is a classic, and so is the 1989 Batman adaptation helmed by Tim Burton – what about modern masterpieces, the movies that could directly compete against the MCU’s best? Well, we need to look no further than Nolan’s outstanding Dark Knight trilogy.

Released at around the same time when the MCU was making its first steps into the cinematic landmark, the Dark Knight trilogy seemed like the standard that every superhero film would have to follow in the future. Nolan achieved the perfect balance between realism and comic book heroics with his trilogy, and maybe that could have been the tone that the DCEU strived for – had the MCU never existed in the first place.

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One common complaint fans have about the DCEU is that it felt borderline “reactionary” at times. It was as if it tried to be the opposite of the MCU in every way – except for the Joss Whedon re-direct of the Justice League film, but we don’t talk about that.

Movies like the original Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey felt like desperate attempts by a dying DCEU to capture the attention of the MCU crowd. However, fans of the Nolan trilogy, or even those who loved the charm and tone of the classic Superman or Batman films, found that these movies didn’t capture what made the DC so special in the first place.

So, to answer the question, yes, the DCEU would have been more successful had the MCU never existed – however, it would also be a very different franchise than the one we know today. Without the MCU leading the way on how to make superhero films “properly,” perhaps the modern landscape of caped crusaders in cinemas would have been much more influenced by the input of visionary filmmakers like Nolan and Snyder, and less attached to inane quips and “witty” jokes.

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Tell us, do you think the DCEU would be more successful if the MCU didn’t exist?

Would The DCEU Be More Succesful If The MCU Didn’t Exist? Written by Staff Writer for Fortress of Solitude