DC Hasn’t Missed In Years, And I Can Prove It

Being a fan of DC Comics isn’t always easy. Over the years, DC superfans like me have had a lot of heartache – the rise and fall of the New 52, the failure of the Green Lantern film, the massive ups and downs of the DCEU, and several comic status quo changes that started great but ended up being disappointing. However, that hasn’t been the case in the last few years. DC has been firing on all cylinders, with its comics, films, and TV shows supplying many of the best superhero stories of all time. The nascent DCU and DC Studios are driving excitement for the brand. Marvel may get all the money, but DC has all of the plaudits.

DC hasn’t missed in the last few years, and it’s actually not all that hard to prove. Looking at the particulars of what DC has been putting out, it’s hit after hit after hit. DC has always pushed the envelope when it comes to superheroes and if this keeps up, there will be a new big dog in the superhero yard.

DC Is All Killer, No Filler, & Has Been for Years

Looking back over the years, the turning point of DC was certainly The Suicide Squad in 2021. James Gunn’s first work for DC was amazing: it took the pieces set up by the DCEU and fixed them. The movie was able to combine the more mature tone of the DCEU, with the kind of humor and love of the DC Universe that those films often lacked. Unfortunately, things on the movie side of things weren’t magically fixed; the remaining films in the DCEU (Black Adam, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Blue Beetle, and The Flash) were all varying degrees of box office failures. However, even then, I wouldn’t exactly call them failures. Most of these movies weren’t terrible. At best, they were standard superhero movies, and at worst, they were The Flash.

The first few years of the 2020s hadn’t exactly been great for any superhero movies or TV shows – well, except for DC. Peacemaker took the fan-favorite character from The Suicide Squad and gave him what is arguably the best live-action superhero TV show ever. It had the humor, it had the action, but most importantly it had the heart. Peacemaker was able to connect with audiences on every level, telling a great superhero story that also tugged at the heartstrings – everything that DC fans wanted from these adaptations and they were finally getting it. The Arrowverse deserves its respect, with even the franchise’s final show Superman & Lois earning a lot of respect and acclaim from fans as it ended this year.

On the big screen, The Batman was another huge win for DC, despite it not being a part of either the DCEU or DCU, it gave fans the kind of Batman movie they always wanted: a dark detective drama that didn’t just walk in the paths of other Batman movies. It also, perhaps coincidentally, is better than just about every MCU movie since 2019 that wasn’t directed by James Gunn.

The end of the DCEU and the announcement of the new DCU, under the control of James Gunn and Peter Safran, is when things really got good. Gunn is probably the best writer/director in comic book movies today. He gets how to make superhero stories work, able to meld plot and character building in ways that many others just can’t. Look at the successes of DC since Gunn and Safran took over. Creature Commandos has opened up the doors of the DCU, with Gunn again melding character and plot expertly. Creature Commandos‘ overarching story is pretty basic, but what makes the show work so well is the magnificent attention and care it pays to the characters – a near-perfect example of how great an adaptation can be.

Related: DC Reveals Lex Luthor’s Key Role in Baby Superman’s Life

The Penguin is another example of what DC does so well. Now, yes, the show isn’t a DCU project (it’s part of Matt Reeves’ That Batman Universe), but it’s following in the footsteps of what the DCU is doing. The Penguin isn’t the standard superhero movie spinoff show: it’s a crime drama that uses Gotham City and its organized crime families as fertile storytelling ground. The Penguin is the best TV show of 2024 because it was more about telling its own story than being an adaptation. It wasn’t a cash-in for a movie, it was a piece of fiction that could stand on its own, which is very important.

Of course, we can’t talk about the DCU without referencing the 500lb. gorilla in the room: Superman. 2024 had some great fandom moments, and the December release of the Superman trailer set the Internet on fire. For two minutes and 19 seconds, the world got a perfect slice of what a superhero trailer should be. Superman has been out in the weeds for a while as a character; sure, people liked Henry Cavill’s Superman, but it’s impossible to say that the world was happy with his role in the DCEU films. Superman‘s trailer felt more like Superman in under three minutes than the multiple hours of Superman we got from the DCEU. The second trailer is also amazing, showing off the Man of Steel in flight beautifully.

Of course, DC is more than just movies and TV: comics have been another place where the brand has been stellar. Marvel was basically the de facto sales leader in the comic market, with DC being a rather distant second. However, when it comes to quality, DC’s comics have been outstanding in the 2020s. The turning point for DC began with 2021’s “Infinite Frontier”, a publishing initiative that was a soft reboot of DC’s comics line. Now, “Infinite Frontier” wasn’t perfect, as DC went heavily on Batman comics and was barely publishing anything else. However, books like Action Comics, Detective Comics, Nightwing, and The Flash were getting praise from fans. “Infinite Frontier” ended with the event comic known as Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths, a crossover I loved, even though it has its share of detractors. However, even the people who didn’t like DCoIE have to admit it was a huge turning point; after the book, DC’s titles started to get way better, in general.

2023 kicked off the “Dawn of DC” publishing initiative. “Dawn of DC” was simple; it was all about rebuilding the DC Universe. DC’s comic continuity can be rather confusing, but “Dawn of DC” did something that DC publishing initiative hasn’t done in a while – it just ignored continuity. We all know who these characters are and we know there’s a multiverse. That was all a fan needed to know to love these books. It worked perfectly. It was back to basics, and chockful of great comics. Superman, Action Comics, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, Detective Comics, Poison Ivy, Nightwing, Titans, Steelworks, Superboy: Man of Tomorrow, Green Arrow, Justice Society of America (when it came out), Wonder Woman, and many more were all riding high. Sales were going up, and the event comic Absolute Power would lead to the biggest change to DC in decades: the debut of the Absolute Universe.

The Absolute Universe copies Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe almost exactly – a villain-created universe where the heroes get very different origins and lives from the mainline Earth. Absolute Batman stars a more violent (and poor) Bruce Wayne as Batman. Absolute Superman features a Superman who came to Earth much later in his life and is more Kryptonian than earthman. Absolute Wonder Woman stars a version of Wonder Woman raised in Hell and defending the world from its horrors. These three books have been destroying the sales charts, to the extent that DC has gotten the top spot almost every week since they debuted. DC is putting out the best superhero comics – both in their main line (with its new “All-In” initiative) and the Absolute line – bar none.

It’s a Perfect Time To Be a DC Fan

Since 2023, DC has been killing it. There’s really no other way around it. 2023 was when most of the old guard at DC started to fade away, and the new DC Studios started to take command of the adaptations. The comics put out amazing stories, making forays into the top of the charts like never before. Everything is looking good again and only looking better and better over the next few years.

2025 looks to be a tremendous year for DC. Creature Commandos showed that audiences are down for the weirder corners of DC, while Superman (2025) looks like it’s going to be a pop-culture phenomenon. The comics are finally selling well again; The Penguin showed audiences that DC Studios TV series could be more prestige-tier and earn more acclaim than the conveyor belt of Marvel Disney+ shows. DC is proving something that I’ve been saying for years – that it doesn’t miss.