There were rumors last year that there was an unwritten manifesto at DC Comics and Warner Bros. that there was to be no humor in their movies. While Marvel Comics has no problem with the humor factor in their movies, DC Comics wanted to keep their movies grounded in the real world. However, things have changed since Geoff Johns has taken over the movies and he said in a WonderCon panel that he believes that the DC Comics movies need to have humor, heart, and heroics to succeed.
'Man of Steel' and 'Batman V Superman'
Christopher Nolan created one of the best comic book trilogies of all time with his Dark Knight trilogy.
However, while those movies were brilliant, the message it sent to DC Comics was that they worked because they were dark and humorless and not because they were just great movies. As a result, when they brought in Zack Snyder to make "Man of Steel," the edict was to keep it grounded in the real world and not play with the idea that these are just movies based on comic books. As a result, the biggest complaints about "Man of Steel" was that Superman was too gloomy and dark and then "Batman V Superman" continued to keep everything as dark and depressing as possible. While there are still a lot of fans of those two movies, they really don't attract the universal praise of the Marvel movies that tend to have fun while keeping the stakes high.
Then Geoff Johns entered the picture.
'Wonder Woman' and 'Justice League'
Geoff Johns has a lot of fans when it comes to DC Comics. He came in just over a decade ago and really turned things around in DC, reviving characters like the original Green Lantern and Flash and even making Aquaman less of a joke. He seems to love comic books and DC Comics heroes and knows what makes them fun and interesting.
The first movie that showed that DC Comics might be moving away from doom and gloom was "Suicide Squad," which was a lighter weight movie that had a ton of humor as villains teamed up to save the world. While they are not out yet, the trailers for both "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League" also show a lot of humor that was missing in "Batman V Superman" and one might hope that the arrival of Geoff Johns means more accessible films from DC Comics.
