Justice League Trailer Proves Marvel's Superior Strategy

Too Many New Faces

The biggest difference in the "DC vs Marvel" approach to Cinematic Universe building has been the method of introducing fans to superhero characters and their worlds. The Marvel Cinematic Universe famously took the approach of releasing solo character films for each major hero first, before uniting them all in The Avengers.

DC Films, on the other hand, tried one (very divisive) solo character film with Man of Steel, then launched directly into big team-up events like Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. Currently, the release plan is to alternate between DC solo films (Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg), and team-up event films (Gotham City Sirens, Justice League, Green Lantern Corps).

Fans have long debated whether DC's method will allow them to get over the hurdle of selling new characters in a team-up ensemble, before viewers have had the time and experience of getting to know them, solo. And if the latest Justice League trailer is any indication, there is a very real concern about too many new faces being introduced in a movie that may not have the necessary screen time to service them all.

Thinly Spread

The new Justice League trailer spends a lot of time running through the various heroes in the League (in some cases, literally). Most of the footage is used to introduce new heroes Aquaman (Jason Mamoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher); Batman and Wonder Woman are secondary thoughts, and we learn little to nothing about the actual story and/or villains involved in the film.

If this trailer had trouble meeting fan-service demands, then it's not crazy to the have concern that the actual film could face the same challenges. The situation seems even more precarious when you consider that Justice League also has secondary characters that we've barely seen (Mera, Commisioner Gordon), and several villains that we have yet to see at all (Steppenwolf, Lex Luthor, Deathstroke). All in all, it seems like there's big risk that this film will spread itself thin.

Marvel avoided that problem in Avengers by being able to rely on previous character experiences for viewer inference, without having to stop and explain everything. Instead of Avengers spending time on exposition and explanation of the characters, we moved right into meaningful interaction between those big franchise superheroes, with a lot of humor and resonance mined from implication and previously established associations.

With much less of that depth built into the DCEU, Justice League will have to spend crucial screen time establishing who is who, and what is what. And in doing so, the film could potentially lose out on one of its most important obligations...

Crew Love

One thing that Joss Whedon did so well early on with Avengers trailers was to break from the booming rock anthems and explosive action footage to give us scenes of the team actually interacting together. That gave us an idea of why seeing these heroes together in a movie was going to be a novel and dynamic experience: it was just as much fun seeing Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark talk trash to Captain America and/or bond with Bruce Banner, as it was seeing all the alien energy blasts and explosions.

Justice League's trailer gives us a (introductory) run down on who the heroes in the team are, and what they can do; however, outside of showing us how each of them interact with Bruce Wayne's Batman, we don't really have any sense of how the full Justice League team interacts and/or fights together.

Some two trailers in, that's a weird and very noticeable vacancy. One wonders if it's due to the editing on the trailers - or if it's perhaps a sign that Snyder and Co. haven't pulled the characters together as tightly as they needed to.

If Justice League can't deliver a satisfying team dynamic, then the project will have failed in one of its primary intended goals...

Battle Plans

Marvel's Avengers trailers also made sure to hit one particularly crucial sell: showing viewers how frickin' cool it is to see their favorite superheroes onscreen fighting together, tag-team style!

By the time we got the second full Avengers trailer, fans had seen plenty of glimpses of what the team dynamic looked like in slower moments (dialogue, banter) - but also what that dynamic looked like, in battle. Trailer footage of Captain America, and Co. battling on ground (while Iron Man and Hawkeye covered air) made the Avengers fight scenes seem like the epic milestone event that it was - and that epic shot of Iron Man falling from the sky and being caught by The Hulk gave viewers literal goose bumps of excitement.

It can be fairly argued that Justice League has at least one more official trailer coming - one which can showcase some epic team battle dynamics. That may be true, however, right now, that kind of team dynamic excitement simply hasn't been shown to fans.

...Ironically enough, there are hints of great team battle sequences all over the trailer - we just need Snyder and Co. to let them play out longer, and really help make the sell that Justice League's action can rival The Avengers.

More Justice League