DEADPOOL Creator Rob Liefeld Describes DC As A "Damaged Brand" That Is Unable To Catch Up With Marvel

DEADPOOL Creator Rob Liefeld Describes DC As A "Damaged Brand" That Is Unable To Catch Up With Marvel

After The Suicide Squad underwhelmed at the box office, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has chimed in with his thoughts. While he loved the movie, he believes Warner Bros. has damaged DC beyond repair...

News
By JoshWilding - Aug 09, 2021 03:08 AM EST
Filed Under: The Suicide Squad
Source: CBR

Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, The Suicide Squad struggled to make much of an impact at the box office this weekend. No one seems quite sure what went wrong, and while the pandemic and a free HBO Max release are obvious contributing factors, it seems interest in Task Force X among moviegoers is relatively low. 

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld hasn't been shy about praising James Gunn's movie, but took to Twitter this weekend to share his take on where Warner Bros. has gone wrong with the DCEU. 

In a now-deleted Tweet, the prolific comic book creator said, "Unfortunately, DC is just a damaged brand at this point. Marvel has pulled away in such spectacular fashion and DC has lost ground on all platforms." He'd later add that Warner Bros. needs to "get rid of everyone, top to bottom. Start over." 

"Years of tone deaf mismanagement," Liefeld would later add. "Make no doubt, The Suicide Squad is a great film. James Gunn added so much style and heart. The problem is deeper, beyond the pandemic and streaming. Looking forward to Peacemaker regardless."

It does feel a lot like there is something inherently wrong with how Warner Bros. is handling these DC Comics adaptations, which is evident from what's happened over the past few years. Directors have spoken openly about studio interference, while the vast majority of movies they've released in recent years have been received negatively by critics. 

There's clearly no plan in place to create a shared world, and over the next few years, we have multiple versions of the Dark Knight coming to the big screen, reboots with actors from previous movies in them, and sequels that could honestly go one way or the other based on what we've heard. 

Do you agree with Liefeld's assessment of the DC Extended Universe?

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TheOverseer
TheOverseer - 8/9/2021, 3:59 AM
Amen.
Blergh
Blergh - 8/9/2021, 4:02 AM
Preach it Rob, WB should do a Disney and turn DC into a separate film divison like Marvel is.
Hire NEW people to lead and carry these projects.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/9/2021, 7:17 AM
@Blergh - But....it already is right? DC films is the name of the division??? They have their own president and everything:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Films
Blergh
Blergh - 8/9/2021, 7:21 AM
@Nightwing1015 - it's just a sub-division still completely under Warners creative and business control.

The reason Marvel works as well as it does is because Disney hands down their requirements to Marvel, they adhere to them and do things on their own.
WB seems to interfere every step of the way.
The1st
The1st - 8/9/2021, 7:30 AM
@Blergh - This, all of this. Also, it just seems like the other studios are still trapped in the late 90's. They don't seem to know what they want these films to be. Marvel established a clear tone for what their world is, even if stories may vary due to the overall narrative structure and or director influence. If Marvel had the rights to everything they foolishly gave away like DC does it wouldn't even be a discussion at this point. DC should literally be able to do whatever they want storywise, meddling aside, but maybe that's the problem. They're embarrassing their selves with their embarrassment of riches.

Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/9/2021, 7:45 AM
@Blergh - Yeah but Marvel is technically a sub division of Disney as well. So what's the actual difference.

I agree WB should mess with them less but I don't think that has anything to do with them being a seperate studio. Because they already are that and have been since 2016.
Blergh
Blergh - 8/9/2021, 7:49 AM
@Nightwing1015 - From what I noticed in various interviews it seems to be that Disney is a rather hands-off company in terms of creativity.
They have certain requirements in their movies, they hand this down to their subsidiary and let them go wild. For better (Marvel) or worse (Star Wars).
This is why I don't blame Disney for SW failing but rather the spearheads of LucasFilm. The franchises faults and strenghts are clearly visible in their sub-division leads.

With WB it always seems like theres a bunch of executives hovering around each production throwing in their two cents. WizardingWorld and DC might be separate from WB but there always seems to be studio interferance.
Either WB can't separate itself as well from it's sub divisions or they're only sub-divisions in name only.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/9/2021, 8:04 AM
@Blergh - I don't think they were hands off with Star Wars at all, I think it was their interference which ruined it. Would Lucasfilm have cancelled Clone Wars, all those video games and shut down Lucasarts if it hadn't been for Disney, of course not. Lucasfilm was never the same after the buyout, it seemed like a completely new company making all these big changes to the way things were running year-to-year.

I think Disney are more hands on than they would like people to think.
Deonox
Deonox - 8/9/2021, 8:33 AM
@Nightwing1015 - You're not wrong about the buy out. Disney definitely put the people they wanted in charge but at that point it does seem like they're hands off. The only exception would be RotS. Force Awakens is VERY JJ, and the fact that Rian Johnson ran so counter to the original vision tells us that they let him do what they want. They even let Filoni finish Clone Wars, and gave him a show that's very him, and my goodness the Mandalorian is obviously in the sole control of Favreau and Filoni. Finally Visions is an anthology series by all these different animation studios. Obviously Disney has certain things that they'd like to do, and in the case of Gina, won't do. But the actual films themselves has always been up to the creators. They just oversee greenlighting, marketing, and other things. Which for a company that massive is fair
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/9/2021, 9:27 AM
@Deonox - That's true, I think creatively they allow a lot of freedom. Not so much on the business side of things when they start cancelling things and restructuring the company!
KWilly
KWilly - 8/9/2021, 4:04 AM


Told it like it is, lol
DoubleD
DoubleD - 8/9/2021, 4:06 AM
Now that's true DC was always rushing their movies to catch up to Marvel's Avengers movie.
DoubleD
DoubleD - 8/9/2021, 8:13 AM
@DoubleD - :)
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 8/9/2021, 4:10 AM
They could certainly use more people actually know the property.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 8/9/2021, 4:52 AM
@RitoRevolto - who*
Where is the edit button? lol
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 8/9/2021, 4:11 AM
it's so damaged it has a tattoo of that word on its forehead
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 8/9/2021, 4:14 AM
WB really made a mistake by taking Snyder's vision (that's not really aimed at the masses) as the mainstream continuity. Glad they're moving away from it.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 8/9/2021, 4:49 AM
@bkmeijer - Are they though? Rumors and leaks point to The Flash doubling down on it, when it should give us a clean slate. Erase everything but Momoas Aquaman.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 8/9/2021, 4:57 AM
@GwenLantern - I'm hoping Flash does really do a reboot, but it does look like it won't change a lot.

As for the rest (Aquaman 2, Shazam 2, Blue Beetle, Static, Batgirl and Wonder Woman 3 eventually), all have very few ties aside from a few castings, or atleast that's what I'm hoping for.
scoobyjas
scoobyjas - 8/9/2021, 11:39 AM
@bkmeijer - Hopefully they do a Flashpoint type soft reboot
demonizer84
demonizer84 - 8/9/2021, 4:15 AM
he aint wrong, marvel has been building up this universe for years, its had some stinkers but they are still wathable, even the dark world and IM3 which were probably 2 of the worse up til captain marvel for me were still watchable and had their place in a wider universe .

over the years marvel has learned from their mistakes and built up to something special, characters people care about and reached out to a global platform that even the casuals know who these characters are, whether it be through TV ads, toys, youtube videos, talk shows or just their kids being fans etc everyone has a place in the universe and its been a steady ride to get there, im not 100% convinced about the next phase of movies im not half as excited as i was for any of the movies that lead upto endgame but we shall see.

With DC its just been a mish mash, the movies seem thrown together, they learned nothing from marvel and just tried to rush something that marvel had built up for nearly 10 years and DC tried to do it in 2 movies with throw-away scenes or references and introduced characters that nobody really cares for aside from the fanboys.

none of the movies have been great, the actors aint really offered anything special, i dont think many really care for margot as harley and she doesnt really draw people in, the suicide squad characters unless you are a fan nobody heard of, cena divides fans from his wrestling days and aint a great actor at all, idris elba is a bit of a niche overhyped actor in my eyes i dont think he really offers anything or is a draw.

Then with the other DC movies its the same nobody realllllllly cares about them and they have had such a mish mash of reception, the characters in them have drained people to death, the whole ray fisher thing i think made people just think urgh im out, jared leto's joker killed a lot of peoples passion for anything in life, gal gadot is a bit of a plank when it comes to anything that resembles passion or enthusiasm nobody likes ezra miller for chokeslamming people, you had the whole snyder shit show which drained people, ayer is now crying and preaching about his movie nobody cares about, its just not a good look for any of it.

i would scrap it for a while, the new batman movie looks decent from the trailers but again its another batman when we aint even done with afleck it seems at minute, then keatons back in the frame, batman for days everywhere ya look, they need to down tools, leave it alone then come back in a few years with a new plan and build something from the ground up, otherwise its just going to get more convoluted and die a pretty quick death .
CLTMAN29
CLTMAN29 - 8/9/2021, 4:46 AM
@demonizer84 - THIS THIS THIS. I remember back in...what, 2014, when DC/WB just announced an entire slate of movies (some have still never emerged) with no build up or semblance of easing audiences in, U just remember looking at it saying, this can't do anything but fail.

The simple issue is, they don't have a Feige. They don't have a single vision in charge with an understanding of the source material, there's no architect.

Never has the phrase 'throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks' been more applicable.
Mugens
Mugens - 8/9/2021, 4:17 AM
Can't say I disagree with anything Rob said. Shouldn't have deleted the tweet. I have never faulted the many Directors that have tried to make these movies, yeah even Snyder. The fault has always been with the WB execs.
DoubleD
DoubleD - 8/9/2021, 4:17 AM
How do you fire AT@T buying WB/DC? You can't this was the death of great DC movies because their is no one to fire.
DoubleD
DoubleD - 8/9/2021, 4:36 AM
@DoubleD - AT@T only cares about a quick fast profit over quality which takes time.
Spidey91
Spidey91 - 8/9/2021, 4:18 AM
he's completely right about DC's problem being structural. they have the money, they have the talent, the directors, the actors, the VFX and music composers, too bad the WB suits are a bunch of syphilitic monkeys with brain damage.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 8/9/2021, 4:56 AM
@Spidey91 - They had Gunn and they let him do DCEU.

Hamada said "Do whatever you want"

Gunn's like "What, really?"

Hamada: "Seriously. I do not care. Just take this money and don't disturb me. I'm busy".

Bad management. Neglectful parenting. They should not have let their child play with the poisoned bottle marked 'DCEU', let alone as a fvcking sequel to 2016's Suicide Squad.

Learn to say "No".
GhostDog
GhostDog - 8/9/2021, 4:29 AM
Wow! Rob Liefeld is ACTUALLY RIGHT…
Orphix
Orphix - 8/9/2021, 4:33 AM
I just think WB shouldn't be afraid to use the structural template Marvel Studios has created, and then add their tone and style.

There is an excitement in creating a variety of franchises and then bringing those characters together in an event movie. As soon as you have the second film pretty much giving us half the justice league you've removed any excitement of the team up.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 8/9/2021, 6:10 AM
@Orphix - lol. Look at it like this. DC started with Man of Steel. Then instantly jumped to Batman v Superman. A movie about a character we've seen once, fighting against a character we hadn't seen yet. And these are the supposed to be the two tent poles of the film universe.

That would have been like Marvel doing Iron Man 1, the the next movie being Civil War. Trying to make people care about two heroes fighting each other with zero build up to their motives or disagreement. Civil War worked because we saw several things happen over the course of two whole phases of movies that built up to it. You genuinely liked both characters and could understand and relate with both sides' motivations.

BvS only gave us a superhero that was still fresh in his role as a suoerhero and another character that wanted to kill him for the dumbest and flimsiest of reasons. It was never going to work.
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 8/9/2021, 4:33 AM
what he's saying is very much on the ball. i just can't take him to seriously. i hear Rob Liefeld and i think of this.
JoJo1982
JoJo1982 - 8/9/2021, 4:34 AM
Rob Liefield ain’t lying!!!
DC should be WB’s biggest property that they own, but they don’t wanna listen to the fans when it comes to what ppl want.

Sorry but it’s time to let go of all the heads over there at WB and bring in a group of ppl that will actually listen to the audio
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 8/9/2021, 5:04 AM
@JoJo1982 - Kick out the suits and bring in the fans! Much as I hate JJ Abrams' Star Wars, he would be way better as DC Films head. Just don't let him direct anything and bring in Matt Reeves as his Darth Vader and we're golden.

Anything's better than career fat cats who couldn't care less what division they're head of.
I don't know. Make Hamada head of RomComs or something. Something that doesn't require creative coordination.
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