Kevin Feige has some advice for DC and its Justice League movie: “Believe in the source material”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

You would think Marvel would be the last company to give DC advice, right? While Marvel is already starting the second phase of their films, DC is still trying to figure out what the hell to do with JUSTICE LEAGUE. DC does have MAN OF STEEL out in June and if that film is a big hit things could speed up significantly for JUSTICE LEAGUE. But it's pretty clear that although DC may have "more important" characters, it doesn't matter in the comic book movie race and right now Marvel is definitely ahead.

Marvel Stuidos' Kevin Feige helped THE AVENGERS assemble so DC might want to take note on a couple of things he said to Collider in a recent interview. The site asked Feige if he had any suggestions for DC on how to make JUSTICE LEAGUE:

I don’t know. I’m sure they have smart people over there who have a plan and know what they’re doing. Man of Steel looks like it’s going to be awesome and obviously Dark Knight is awesome. I don’t know. It’s what I say all the time and have said over the years, which is, have confidence in the characters, believe in the source material, don’t be afraid to stay true to all of the elements of the characters no matter how seemingly silly or crazy they are. I don’t know, I think the Marvel characters have a bit of a leg up for all the reasons that Marvel fans are aware of in terms of the emotional complexity of the characters and the flawed nature of the characters. Those are obviously the elements we want to accentuate amongst all the action.

I can see what Feige is trying to say and Marvel has done a pretty decent job with staying true to the source material but it sounds a little hypocritical to me, especially when you consider the changes that were made to a certain character in IRON MAN 3. I'm not a purist who thinks that the film needs to completely mirror the comic but I agree that not following the source material for unnecessary reasons is a bad move when making a comic book movie. Kevin Feige also gave DC credit for having some fantastic stories and creating the superhero team-up in the first place with the Justice League comics:

I think there have been a lot of great DC stories and there are a lot of great DC characters, and if they focus on those things the audience will be interested.  It was a very unique model that we were lucky enough to be able to do – introducing each individual hero before introducing The Avengers.  That, to me, is what was always interesting about The Avengers. The Avengers are not The Guardians of the Galaxy, are not The Dirty Dozen, where you spend a movie introducing each character and putting them together for the first time. The Avengers was cool because they were preexisting characters that teamed up for a big event. I think that’s why Justice League was cool, Justice League was first. That’s what they did first in comic form.

It's going to be very entertaining couple of years seeing these two companies battle it out in theaters. I hope with so much money and focus being spent on comic book films that each company pushes the other to continue to make quality films. Of course we won't know how MAN OF STEEL is until June but it looks like that film is a step in the right direction for DC and JUSTICE LEAGUE.