Presently, Marvel Studios can’t do no wrong as they are coming off a string of blockbusters, which includes Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and The Avengers: Infinity War.
The latter, and its sequel, the currently untitled The Avengers 4, was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who were also responsible for Marvel’s Captain America movies.
On the flip side, Marvel’s direct competition isn’t doing so well, as it has a string of so-so movies, with Wonder Woman being the lone standout; Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, Batman vs. Superman and Justice League weren’t as well received by both critics and the fans.
So how would Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely fix the DCEU?
Kevin Smith actually asked the pair how they would fix the DC movies on a recent live podcast.
“You guys have made wonderful films about people,” Smith said. “You don’t make movies about super heroes, you make movies about people who have these powers, and they happen to have these powers. That being said, if somebody offered you a f’n ton of money and swayed you to the dark side and said, ‘Fix these f’n movies,’ how would you fix the DC universe?”
“I would look at what Marvel did out of necessity, in that they didn’t have their A-list characters,” Markus replued. “They didn’t have Spider-Man. They didn’t have the X-Men. They went down a line and found a… He’s pretty f’n famous, he’s Iron Man, but he wasn’t there, and they made a really good movie out of it.”
The Marvel route saw the characters first introduced in standalone films and then put together in The Avengers, while the DCEU put the Justice League characters together first as a cameo in Batman vs. Superman and then fully as a team in the Justice League movie. Markus thinks the Marvel approach is best.
“I might put Batman and Superman and everybody else, I mean Wonder Woman is doing fine, aside for a second,” Markus said. “Go through the vast world and go, ‘That guy,’ or ‘That girl,’ and go, ‘Let’s just make a really good movie and not a universe and see what happens.’ There’s a lot of spaghetti being thrown at the wall.”
McFeely admitted he isn’t that big into DC, but offers to start with making just one good movie.
“My familiarity with the DC universe is not that great but I can just say, strategically, ‘Make one,'” McFeely said. “To quote Justice League, ‘Save one person.'”
Kevin Smith recognized the quote as well, “You would fix them with their own advice!”
It probably should be said that Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely aren’t without their own so-so comic book properties as the first Captain America was pretty average, and they also did the ABC Agent Carter series (meh), and Thor: The Dark World is considered the worst Marvel movie by some. Even Captain America: Civil War was just “okay” in my book, but I did really like both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers: Infinity War a lot.
