Can DC Movies Grow Beyond the Superhero Genre?

Everyone is tired of superhero movies. At least, that’s what people on the internet keep saying. They frequently make money and drum up comical levels of hype, but the number of viewers excited about each new Marvel or DC outing dwindles every month. This is an unfortunate phenomenon for the massive studios that make superhero movies. As the reliably profitable stuff slowly outlives its usefulness, even the dinosaurs at the top will have to move on. One easy way to make that happen might be to expand the narrow bounds of what a comic book movie can be.

The unfortunate reality of comic book movies is that the same two companies that held most of the market are still in charge. There are loads of interesting comic book movies out there; they just have nothing to do with the primary competitors. Kingsman: The Secret Service and Nimona were both comic book movies, even if they don’t look that way. Genres are weird little boxes, but mediums should always be argued to include more than they exclude.

DC Used To Do Different Things

As many fans know, DC Comics didn’t always specialize exclusively in superheroes. It used to be one of many types of genre fiction that the publisher worked with. That’s not to say they were also doing groundbreaking autobiographical stuff like many gifted graphic novelists of today, but they covered a lot of different material. DC started life as National Allied Publications in 1934. Their first publication was an anthology title called New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine. It included comedic strips much like those that would appear in newspapers and cowboy stories starring characters like Jack Wood. Superheroes weren’t far behind; there wasn’t some lost age of DC Comics that escaped the genre. Doctor Occult is the oldest surviving superhero, emerging only a year after DC came together. DC did the same kinds of things that kept other pulp magazines alive. They did westerns, war, horror, science fiction, and even romance. The goal was to cover the broadest imaginable market, so no one genre could fully dominate the publication.

How did DC Comics change their output?

In the 1940s, superheroes started to lose popularity. More specifically, the old-fashioned heroes who emerged in the 1930s started to fade slightly. They never disappeared, but their sales were less impressive. This pushed DC to focus on their other material. They did stuff like Girl’s Love and Secret Hearts in the romance genre. They introduced Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank as massive war stories. All-Star Western kept Johnny Thunder, the Trigger Twins, and, eventually, Jonah Hex in the mix. House of Mystery and House of Secrets featured tons of horror stories. In time, however, most of these stories ended their runs or disappeared into the dull eras of the Comics Code Authority. War heroes lived through the conflict to fight alongside Batman. The name “Johnny Thunder” left its original home and attached to a superhero with magical genie powers. Horror comics abandoned their scary elements to focus on mysteries before yielding their main character roles to more superheroes. Now, almost nothing comes out of the DC brand without a superhero in the central lineup. This is partially a censorship issue, but it also came as a reflection of the sales. Superheroes made money, shops had limited shelf space, and the franchise lost much of its variety.

DC Movies Could Do The Same

The current rumor surrounding the DCU is that Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes, most recently of Challengers fame, will direct and write an adaptation of Sgt. Rock. This would be an epic war movie with the DC branding. There are no costumed crime fighters in this story. It’s just a classic World War II comic about the usual gunfire and heroism. This would be a massive leap from the usual DCU output, but there’s no guarantee that it will ever come out. If it did, Sgt. Rock could be the first of many new frontiers in the franchise. That DC logo could come before a cowboy movie or a touching romance. This would open the doors to countless creators to try new things within the proven success of a massive brand. It’s the opposite of what most pursestring holders want, but the only way to see the stories fans love continue is to let them grow beyond their narrow and suffocating boundaries.

Marvel Could Follow That Example

Like DC, Marvel used to have a ton of unique stories. Some of their favorite heroes emerged from war, horror, or science fiction comics. When Marvel became Marvel, it made one of the strangest changes of its early career. They had a teen romantic comedy series called Patsy Walker. Once DC brought superheroes back to prominence, they turned Patsy into a superhero called Hellcat. Marvel gradually consolidated or abandoned everything it had to focus on the characters fans know and love today. There’s no reason they can’t do the reverse now that they’re facing the potential decline of their heavy hitters.

Genres tend to go in cycles. Nothing is popular forever, no matter how much the owners would like it to be. The publishers who ran DC and Marvel throughout the 20th century knew how to watch the trends, adapt, evolve, and keep things interesting. Now, the same companies produce billion-dollar entertainment juggernauts and one of the most common complaints is that their material feels too one-note. One of the best ways to do something new would be to expand the franchise into something new.