James Gunn's new DCU is doing whatever the hell it wants, and that's shaking up the MCU house style in a very good way

Pretty much since the moment James Gunn announced his new DC cinematic universe for DC Studios, fans were wondering what it would be like. How would it contrast with the MCU?

With Gunn having already made three Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Disney/Marvel, would we be getting more of the same – just DC style? Well, thanks to the debut of Superman in July and Peacemaker season 2 a month later on HBO Max, we know the answer: the DCU is going to be whatever it wants, and that’s pretty frickin' great.

While there have been exceptions – including, notably, Gunn's Guardians movies – most of the MCU has become a punching bag for hitting the same sort of beats. Part of that is likely the model set by Iron Man back in 2008, where Robert Downey Jr.’s riffy, improvisational approach to the title character charmed critics and fans, and wowed at the box office as well.

While the first phase of the MCU had stronger gradations on that – Kenneth Branagh's Thor and Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger are immediately identifiable as part of their directors' oeuvres – most of the MCU since then has relied on team players to deliver a product.

House rules

For nearly 40 movies and multiple TV shows (again, there are exceptions, we know there are exceptions, CALM DOWN), the same sort of flat visual style, the same rhythms to the quips, the same doohickey that needs to shut down a sky portal has become part and parcel of the MCU.

It's a house style that puts Marvel first, filmmaker second. And that has been part of the joy for a good long while with the MCU, the comfort of knowing what you're getting when you go to the movie theater. You're going to laugh, you’re going to cry (maybe), you're going to see superheroes punch supervillains and win the day.

But it's also led to a general exhaustion with the MCU, among other factors, which is something that even Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is aware of. During a sit-down with reporters before the opening of Fantastic Four: First Steps, Feige commented on how demands from parent company Disney led to juggling multiple TV shows and movies at the same time starting in 2019, something that critics point to as the turning point for the studios. "For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality," Feige noted.

James Gunn, meanwhile, is clearly taking a look at where Marvel went wrong and going in the opposite direction. Gunn has repeated online that he won't greenlight scripts for DC Studios until they're ready so often that it might as well be his Pokémon name. And when it comes to putting house style first? Well, he's not doing that.

"There's not a company style," Gunn told CBS Mornings, as posted on TikTok. "It's not like every movie is gonna be like Superman. The artists and the directors and the writers that create each one will bring their own sense to it… We don't want people being bored."

You can see that plainly on display in the first two projects from the DCU, as well as the extended output of DC Studios. Superman was a bright, boldly hopeful family movie that included rivers of colored anti-proton blocks like something out of the Minecraft movie, and a goofy good-boy CGI dog named Krypto who brought joy to millions.

Then there's Peacemaker, a viscerally violent, bloody TV show with full frontal nudity and massive orgies in the season 2 premiere alone that is diving right into the deep-seated trauma of the title character.

And coming next in theaters, we have the drunken adventures of Supergirl, the body horror of Clayface, and not in the DCU, but The Batman: Part 2, continuing Matt Reeves' down-to-Earth crime saga, plus the wild-sounding CGI animation/puppet hybrid Dynamic Duo, focusing on two Robins. On the TV end, we've got a True Detective-style team-up series for HBO, Lanterns, and then more of the animated monster-fest Creature Commandos.

Stylistic shake-up

And that's only what's been officially greenlit as of now. On the surface, none of these projects go with each other, and certainly would not belong together in the MCU. But the thrill of what Gunn is attempting here is that if you aren't interested in CGI puppet movies (though, why wouldn't you be???), there's a body horror movie if you prefer that, an adult action series, and more superheroics to come.

If you don't like the MCU, you're not going to be inclined to come out and see the next MCU movie or watch the next show because they're all slight variations on the same side of the dial. For the DCU, you can just go and see what you're interested in, the way movies and TV shows are supposed to work. Weird!

In essence, isn't that what has led to comic book companies like Marvel and DC lasting so long? There have been significant portions of their histories that have leaned into a house style – DC famously had a style guide created by José Luis García-López that lasted for years, and is still referenced to this day – but those periods have always been interrupted by stylistic shake-ups, artists and/or writers who tried something that went in the opposite direction of where a title had gone before.

Mostly, we don't remember the storylines where Spider-Man fought the Sandman for the fourteenth time, or Batman once again sat on a rooftop growling at Commissioner Gordon. It's the innovators, or the ones who shook things up and set the tone for the next decade, who are recalled fondly.

The MCU had its time to do that, shaking up superhero movies from the way they were before – and it dominated culture for nearly two decades.

Now, it's the DCU’s time to at least attempt to change the game. We're only a month into the new paradigm, but so far? To riff off what Gunn said: certainly, nobody is bored.

Superman is available on digital now. You can keep up with the DCU with our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows.