For many DC fans, the critical success of Wonder Woman served as a sort of long awaited reprisal to the soaring backlash garnered by the previous entries in the DCEU. A veritable “I told you so” chorused by a rabble of Batman V. Superman apoligizers finding validation in an institution they were formally so eager to impute fraud and payola. Despite the admittedly snide manner in which I chose to open this discussion, I don’t actually have a dog in the fight and neither should you.
I enjoyed Man of Steel well enough, found that there were inspired moments in its sequel and consider Wonder Woman to be a better film than a bulk of the MCU’s efforts. Never mind the groundbreaking additions to the genre Warner Bros. ushered in with Superman 78 or The Dark Knight. I dig comic books and its films and feel that applying the zealous factionizing mentality, more commonly associated with the jock meatheads that made them the bona fide literature of the outcast in the first place, can only hurt the medium.
This is a sentiment I feel strongly about mostly as it pertains to the advent of cinematic universes. To find that one studio happens to own the properties you find subjectively more interesting is a separate matter entirely. To imagine that one has to fail in order for the other one to flourish, however, is where I take umbridge, as I believe the opposite to actually be true.
The fans of each seem to be the only ones that don’t feel this way. Studios are competitive, sure, but they're also rigorously aware of the big picture — the inevitable though overemphasised “SuperHero fatigue.” I say over emphasised because even in the worst case scenario, it’s effects are a long way away, though movies that perpetually get the kind of critical neutering Batman V. Superman got bodes poorly for the genre as a whole.
To the increasingly smaller percent of moviegoers that have only a vague knowledge of the cinematic lines that separate Superman and Spiderman, the prominent factor dictating whether or not they see another superhero film is based on their enjoyment of the last one they saw, regardless of the studio that put it out.
So in essence, Wonder Woman’s success only bolsters Captain Marvel’s success, the same way the massive triumph that was 2012’s The Avengers undoubtedly encouraged DC to follow suit. Despite the barbaric war that rages on in the comment section of every trending trailer, Kevin Feige wants Geoff Johns to succeed and vice versa.
So relax fellow manchildren and stop perpetuating this myth that movies are anything more than fleeting entertainment worthy of the immolation of your mental fortitude. Warner Bros. doesn’t need you to defend them nor does Marvel. You like their movies? Then go see them. STOP FIGHTING, YOU CUCKS.
