Alternate title: Scrappy-Doo and Guess Who.
It’s the closest thing to a James Gunn image in my library. It still makes me happy. Sometimes I remember why I make a weekly comic strip.
However, it’s not Gunn’s treatment of my childhood nostalgia that is bugging me right now, unless you want to get technical. I did grow up with the DC Universe and their now abandoned takes on the aspirational hero with fun stories and adventures that could be done in one issue but still have ramifications in later issues. Of course I also loved the DC shows I grew up with because they followed the same formula. Sadly this is no longer the case.
That’s not what we’re here to talk about though. I’m not trying to trash Zac Snyder when I say it was a mistake for Warner Brothers to use him as their “Kevin Feige”, the only who was supposed to create their own DC Cinematic Universe. Snyder is good for the stories he tells but the stories he tells are not in line with the DC superheroes or why so many fans like those characters. His more cynical perspective on superheroes worked to adapt Watchmen but that book ran counter to the DC heroes as well so it was in good company. The “DC Extended Universe” bombed for the most part, and that included stuff he partly or entirely wasn’t part of with the exception of the first Wonder Woman movies. Even that film did stuff wrong, while the first Shazam movie was based on Geoff Johns’ re-imagining of the original Captain Marvel so I don’t even care if it was good or not. At any rate Warner Brothers was forced to end his “Snyderverse”, though some of the ways they did so wasn’t really fair to him no matter how happy I am he’s no longer ruining my favorite heroes.
Unfortunately James Gunn comes with his own issues, and right now he seems to be making the same mistake as the New 52. (By the way, someone next week remind me to go over the current Dan DiDio situation.) While Snyder kind of borrowed from that with his darker tone, Gunn is following one of their other mistakes: he isn’t committing to the reboot fully enough. Some of his statements are really confusing considering the direction he’s going, and what’s coming with him FROM the Snyderverse to the Gunnverse.
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