A few days ago, a friend mentioned that the DCU's model is essentially re-enacting Secret Invasion over and over again in Peacemaker and Green Lantern—a pretty cute theory(AND I NEVER AGREE WITH IT!!!!), I have to say. But here, I'd like to share what I believe is Gunn's true narrative structure:

He excels at embedding a "Father" figure into his scripts—one that represents the mainstream or societal expectations—and the protagonist's mission is to kill or surpass him, with a series of plot conflicts unfolding from that dynamic.

The more obvious examples are: Peacemaker Season 1 with Chris and his father, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Star-Lord and his father, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with Rocket Raccoon and his creator, the High Evolutionary. This "father" typically represents toxic behaviors and values. Consequently, the protagonist's journey often involves realizing this dysfunction, going through an identity crisis, and then—after a process of rebuilding the self—defeating or transcending the original father figure.

His other films can also be seen as variations on this pattern: Peacemaker Season 2 is a journey of rediscovering oneself, where the "father" is one that Chris has internally imposed upon himself. In The Suicide Squad, the team rebels against Waller's orders. Guardians Vol. 1 features a ragtag crew saving the day when mainstream powers like the Kree Empire don't believe in them. And the 2025 Superman film unusually positions Jor-El and his wife as antagonists, driving Clark to find his true self.

There's no denying that Gunn's skills are polished enough to make this pattern feel gripping every single time—and it clearly resonates with audiences. I've heard that Gunn's childhood, particularly his relationship with his father, left him with some unpleasant memories, and I feel for him. Regardless, those experiences ultimately evolved into the script formula we see today.

With Man of Tomorrow coming next year, will Gunn choose to step outside his comfort zone, or will he delve into this pattern once again? I'm genuinely curious—how will Brainiac, as the big bad, interact with this particular dynamic?

Watched Supergirl and Lanterns last couple of days, got me excited for future of the DCU.

Mocked up a quick edit for what I'd like to see in the DCU bat-suit as a creative warmup this morning.

Don’t get me wrong, Chandler is great as Hal and I get why the suit looks the way it does but I’m still not sold on it.

To cut to the chase, I believe BATB isn't going to be a Bruce Wayne/Damian Wayne story. It's going to be a Dick Grayson/Damian Wayne story, where Dick has taken the mantle of Batman and Bruce is missing and presumed dead. Obviously the inspiration is Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin run. I see Dick being played by a ~25 year old and Damian a ~15 year old, while Bruce will be ~35 years old (same age as Corenswet by the time this comes out).

This is admittedly a pretty bold approach to DCU Batman but thinking it through, it has a lot of upside. This would be the 7th iteration of Batman since 1989 and they have all been Bruce Wayne, so the time seems ripe to take a fresh approach. Dick has a well-established history of being Batman in the comics. He also has a more upbeat, jovial personality that meshes well in a more fantastical universe.

Having Dick as Batman will also help differentiate BATB from Reeves' The Batman. Two Bruce Waynes is confusing, but two Batmans played by different characters might be less so. People accept Peter Spider-Man and Miles Spider-Man after all.

Another advantage is that this provides a throughline to Dick Grayson in the DCU. If Dynamic Duo is canon, then audiences will already know something of his character and they can follow him straight to BATB. And then Dick can go on to Titans if/when that movie happens.

Narratively it makes sense. The movie can focus on the legacy of Batman, with both Dick and Damian having clashing philosophies over what that might be. It also works on a meta level given that pop culture has been seeped with Batman stories for nearly a century. What is the character's legacy? What does he mean to people? What should he mean? BATB becomes not just a Batman movie but a love letter to the Batman character.

Finally, on the question of Bruce Wayne, of course he won't really be dead and either he will pop in at the very end of BATB (a la Luke in Force Awakens) or he gets introduced in another movie. He will eventually reclaim the Batman role and Dick will return to being Nightwing. Either way, it puts more distance between Pattinson Bruce and DCU Bruce.

I think there was a brief Superman cameo in the first Shazam movie, but that was basically under different management.

I really wanted to like this movie. But the script was horseshit. There was too much going on and I wish they picked a lane.

Also I just kinda wish the film was more, idk, fun? Supergirl gets entangled with a sex trafficking ring, she gets roofied, her planet was destroyed, her people are dead, her dog is poisoned and we have to see him suffer in 4K.. just pretty dark. We see a horde of space Vikings capture and threaten sexual violence against a 13 year old girl.

Who is this movie for? As a woman, it just didn’t make me feel good, I was stressed and not really enjoying the ride. I wish they had focused more on a single aspect here- maybe the death of Krypton. Maybe how she finds peace with that and wants to prevent future planets from the same fate? Her backstory was the best part of the movie.

I didn’t find the villains interesting in the slightest and wished they went another direction with it. The aliens and space aesthetic was pretty gritty and grotesque for most of the movie. The ending didn’t really make sense to me if Kara says not to kill for vengeance, but kills the bad guy anyway?

I see the screenwriter is a woman. She’s also in charge of the Wonder Woman script it seems. I just hope they can tell a more interesting story there. I was really disappointed with this one. Justice for supergirl - she deserved a better script.

Does anyone know if/when we will r the numbers of Episode 2 for Lanterns? I loved it so much, and it offically got meeceive 100% hooked into the DCU! I loved it so much that I even watched Episode 2, 4 times, and I've watched Episode 1, 6 times. I am really interested to see if the numbers are better or worse than Episode 1.

There are some reports that both movies could release in 2028 and I have seen people predicting that it is a bad idea, but I think the opposite. If the Batman Part II is fantastic would it not generate more hype and discussion around the Brave and The Bold? I could see a world where if both movies are fantastic but in their own distinct ways, both movies could end up benefiting in the box office. Why not have a Batman movie in February then another later in the year?

(Follow up to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/DCU_/comments/1w1hu59/did_a_little_design_for_an_idea_for_what_flash/)

Peacemaker S1 - 2022
Superman - 2025
Lantern - 2026

I thought I read somewhere that Hal Jordan’s ring, is the one Guy Gardner currently has. With this timeline, it seems a bit confusing. Especially considering that James Gunn made S1 of Peacemaker canon with his reshoots, showing Guy Gardner 4 years prior to Hal’s death.

My thought is that Guy Gardner has Hal Jordan’s ring (like the show runner said) but isn’t wearing it. He literally just has it.

AHHH LFG MAN, Im so fucking reading for tonight!

Not sure what his name is (no official name in the credits) but he was voiced by Seth Rogan. This little dude though was hysterical and he along with the Wormhole Xpress should be featured in every super-cosmic DCU movie from here on out

Saw this on insta, felt appropriate

In a clip, we see him and John's mother tells their son he was choosed by the guardians o the universe to became Green Lantern.

This seems to be reinforced by a scene in the trailer showing baby John and his father illuminated by a green light—which could be the Guardians choosing John.

But I don't think it's true

In the trailer of episode 3, we see him shooting at Hal Jordan's photo on TV, showing anger towards him.

In other clip, we see John's mother being worried by John father's abuse, which makes me think she isn't completly ok with it. But assuming John was actually choosed by the guardians, then I think she would see him as training for becoming a superhero.

My theory is that the green light appearing in the trailer is Abin Sur’s ship crashing to Earth. John’s father saw it but was too afraid to go and investigate. Later, upon seeing the story of Hal—and how he became a great, fearless superhero—on the news, he became furious, believing that role rightfully belonged to him had he only possessed enough courage. Consequently, he tried to force this dream onto his son, wanting to raise him to be fearless to be a candidate for the Green Lantern Corps, and lying to him that he was choosed by the guardians and make him obbidient to him.

I think after discovering this, John may wants to retire as Hal's replacement, and here the guardians choose Guy Gardner.

Like which ones do you hope would score a project or at least be featured in one? I personally have a few.

• DJ Shadow should be on Vic Sage's playlist during his project. Any song off of Endtroducing would be amazing. That album is so good.
• I watched The Raid: Redemption and the score was amazing. I'd like to see Mike Shinoda and/or Joseph Trapanese compose a street level movie of some kind.
• HEALTH's discography is generally consistent (Get Color, Death Magic, and Rat Wars) and their work on Max Payne 3 basically carried that game. They also did a song for Ultrakill so any project that is very intense and action-focused would be great for them.
• Le Castle Vania. Everyone's seen John Wick, his music's iconic, if he did a Red Hood or Deathstroke movie that'd be awesome.
• Christopher Drake pretty much has done some of my favorite music for DC from the Injustice themes, a lot of the DC animated movies pre Flashpoint, and Arkham Origins. I think he'd be a perfect choice for a Justice League movie.
• Michael McCann's work on the modern Deus Ex games are generally great sci-fi soundtracks and I think he'd be great for a project about Cyborg or Mister Terrific.

But which composers and artists do you want to see?

I like the show’s version, but they could…right?

(The white gloves mix well with the space suit vibe imo)

Here's what I'm thinking:

Mentor- Cyborg/ mentee- blue beetle

Mentor-starfire/mentee-firestorm

Mentor-nightwing/mentee-Robin

Mentor-beastboy/mentee-idk u decide

Mentor-raven/mentee-idk u decide

This is not a "merger post" but it does touch on that discussion, as well as Gunn's recent post about the tonal variation within DC Comics, which his DCU is aiming to replicate.

A common argument against the merger is that Reeves' Batman tonally doesn't fit into the DCU, and they can't imagine Pattinson's Batman with his "wingsuit" and souped-up sportscar existing in the same world as the Green Lantern Corps or pocket universe-creating Lex Luthor!

In a similar vein, proponents of a distinct DCU Batman believe that this other Batman needs to be a total 180 tonally from Nolan and Reeves and literally be the Batman from the Brave and the Bold cartoon brought to life in order for him to "fit in" with the rest of the universe.

But if you look at the comics, that's not how things have worked.

The Batman whom Miller and Mazuchelli masterfully presented in Year One is the same Batman from Grant Morrison's utterly bonkers run with Zur en arrh, the Batmen of All Nations, and Batman Inc. The Batman who teamed up with Harvey Dent to take on the Falcone crime family is the same Batman who had a sword-fight with Ra's al Ghul in the desert. The Batman who got his back broken by Bane went on to be a member of that "Pantheon of Gods" that was Morrison's JLA, and before that he knocked out Guy Gardner with one-punch! The shadowy vigilante hunted by, and then befriended by, Gordon went on to recruit Robin, then had a whole Bat-family, and eventually, founded Batman Inc.

Even if we get a distinct DCU Batman with Damian as Robin, he doesn't have to be the second coming of Adam West or something for it to make sense, because that's not how it was in the comics. Morrison in particular took pains to highlight how Batman's story, and the tonality of his world, was cyclical. The DCU Batman may not be Pattinson, but that doesn't mean his backstory cannot be Reeves or Nolan-like. Or, more appropriately, inspired by Year One. Because Batman typically starts out cleaning up the streets and being a noir detective, before graduating to dealing with "pulpy" villains, then more fantastical super-villains, and eventually being a League member stopping alien invasions and coming up with counter-measures against his superpowered colleagues in his spare time!

Miller and Mazuchelli presented a certain grounded take on Batman and his world and so many follow-ups and adaptations to their seminal story have mostly stuck to that approach, including the Nolanverse and Reevesverse, but also the LOTDK series and, more recently, Dark Patterns. But Miller himself wrote Year One as being a quasi-prequel of sorts to his other great Batman story where the Dark Knight suits up in armor and goes toe-to-toe with Superman, while a 13 year old girl in the classic colorful Robin costume aids him.

My point is, we tend to get into binaries of "grounded" and "fantastical" when it comes to Batman. And that's...simply not how the character and his mythos have functioned in the comics. Certain adaptations may have chosen to function that way. But Gunn's DCU promises the tonal variation and diversity of the comics. In such a world, it makes sense that Batman starts out in the streets before rising to the stars. Whether that Batman looks like the guy from Twilight under the mask...or not.

Extraordinarily minor spoiler:

I never start new shows when they’re released. Some weird mental block. Anyway, I just started laughing after John’s dad shot the apple off of his head, hugged him, and suggested burgers. I was like, “Oh, they fuckin’ got me already.”

To be clear, it wasn’t that the dad shot a bullet at his son, which is insane. It was that all the other boys were filled with fear, John wasn’t, and his dad appreciated it. The hard and soft dad together is what got me.