Within the ebook, “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” authors Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards word that “within the age of Peak Superhero, DC Movies wasn’t as profitable as Marvel Studios, however had created a particular model.” That model, in line with the authors, was “brutal, self-serious, and largely joyless” — a view seemingly shared by Richard Donner, who had some robust opinions in regards to the DCEU’s tackle Superman. When Zack Snyder debuted his imaginative and prescient for Supes with 2013’s “Man of Metal,” the titular hero was proven brooding, snapping necks, and laying waste to town he is supposedly sworn to guard. This was the precise reverse of Richard Donner’s iteration of the character, who represented a shining paragon of morality and clear minimize American values.
That, in line with Kevin Feige, is the perfect strategy for any superhero filmmaker to take. The Marvel Studios head instructed Robinson, Gonzales, and Edwards that he considers Donner’s “Superman” to be “the archetype of the proper superhero movie origin story,” earlier than revealing, “We watch it earlier than we make any one in every of our movies.”
That makes whole sense contemplating the way in which the MCU began. 2008’s “Iron Man,” 2011’s “Thor,” and 2012’s “The Avengers,” to call a couple of of the early MCU films, maintained a light-hearted tone. They handled their hero protagonists with a palpable reverence that recalled Donner’s summation of his strategy to “Superman” as attempting to “make a superb film about this beloved character and deal with him with our best respect.” Feige’s personal reverence for the 1978 superhero film that kickstarted all of it was seemingly infused into every little thing his studio was pumping out.