Much fuss was made at San Diego Comic Con over the arrival of two full pieces of DC propaganda.

It began with an initial look at SUICIDE SQUAD (which has craned many necks this spring/summer as it has filmed on the streets of city mine). In case you have no idea what it’s about, basically imagine it as DC’s version of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. You have a bunch of rogues that are tasked with knocking out a much more dangerous rogue.

I’m encouraged by what I see in this footage – but as always, only cautiously optimistic. Besides the fact that the action looks as grounded as the sequences that worked so well for Christopher Nolan, it seems as though the tone of the two lunatics that interact with the crew (Jared Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn) have found the sweet spot.

Considering how much of a wildcard this property was, it’s good to evidence of a firm hand on the tiller.

 

After that was unveiled, we got our second, longer look at what’s to come in BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE.

Here I am deeply biased, so I won’t try to pretend otherwise. What I will say is this; considering the deep amount of backlash that MAN OF STEEL took for its destruction-porn conclusion, it’s intriguing to see how that has become the engine for this next chapter. I don’t believe for one hot second that it was the direction that Zack Snyder, Geoff Johns, and everybody at DC intended to take this universe. That means that this is a tentpole picture that has made its bet in reaction to the way its last tentpole was received.

This might either be a daring bit of course correction, or a massive miscalculation. No matter what, I’ll be curious to see if it happens to paint MAN OF STEEL in a different light for anyone.

 

So? Ready to leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a while and keep company with gods and hoodlums?