Figuring out continuity in a cinematic universe is more difficult than it seems. Despite Fox having a clean slate with the X-Men movies, the studio always found a way to mess things up, introducing multiple versions of the same character and letting major events slip its mind. To avoid those kinds of issues, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has an overseer, Kevin Feige, who does his best to keep every project working in harmony. Despite having been part of the Marvel Studios factory at one point, James Gunn isn’t taking any pointers from his former boss, choosing to take his new DC Universe in a different direction.
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The first film in the DCU, Superman, foregoes the origin story route, dropping the Man of Steel into a world that’s already full of heroes. Metahumans aren’t new to the people of Earth, as they’ve been active for hundreds of years. However, not all the characters in Superman are new, with Gunn bringing back some familiar faces from his other DC projects. The connections the movie has to previous shows and movies aren’t as squeaky clean as they seem, though.
Superman Embraces James Gunn’s Previous DC Projects
Superman‘s opening crawl provides a history lesson, explaining when the hero’s ship arrived on Earth and how long he’s been protecting the world. It also mentions that, only a few minutes before the movie kicked off, the Man of Steel suffered his first loss at the hands of the Hammer of Boravia. Coming in second only once in three years is a mighty impressive feat, and it doesn’t take long for Superman to return the favor to his enemy by knocking him around after it comes to light that he’s a clone created by Lex Luthor. Before Superman defeats Luthor and his cronies, he has to deal with his public image, which takes a hit after the villain reveals the message Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van sent their son to Earth with to the world.
One of the people who takes the opportunity to trash Superman is Christopher Smith (John Cena), who, of course, appears in both The Suicide Squad and the HBO Max series Peacemaker. It should be impossible for Peacemaker to share the screen with David Corenswet’s Superman because he ran into Henry Cavill’s version only a few years ago, but Gunn has made it clear that Season 2 of the anti-hero’s solo series will explain everything. However, it will have to clear up a lot more than that one inconsistency because there’s another major continuity snag that involves Superman.
Bloodsport Put Superman in His Place Before The Suicide Squad
While Peacemaker’s presence in the DCU is easy to clean up due to the pocket universes he has access to, Rick Flag Sr.’s backstory is going to be an issue. Creature Commandos, which takes place in the DCU, seemingly picks up not that long after the events of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, as Flag Sr. is still reeling from the death of his son at the hands of Smith. Another character present during that tragic moment in Corto Maltese is Robert DuBois, aka Bloodsport, who has a rivalry with Peacemaker. While Smith claims to be every bit the marksman DuBois is, there is one thing separating them: Bloodsport hit Superman with a Kryptonite bullet and put the hero in the hospital.
Ending up in the ICU would certainly count as a loss for the Man of Steel, which means Gunn’s DCU is ignoring it despite moving forward with other aspects of his lore. Maybe Bloodsport will appear again at some point down the line and tangle with Superman, but that won’t make things any less confusing. Gunn probably would have been better off having the Hammer of Boravia incident be the second time his hero has been defeated because, as things stand, the DCU is starting off more like Fox’s superhero franchise than the MCU.
Superman is in theaters.
How do you think Peacemaker is going to end up in the DCU? Does it make sense to you that Rick Flag Sr. wants revenge for the death of his son, but the other events of The Suicide Squad didn’t happen? Let us know in the comments below!
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