At the end of Marvel Studios’ first phase of their Marvel Cinematic Universe, they needed a big finale that would bring together the characters established in the five movies that came before. To prove that a connected universe could work, they needed a crossover that could show that these characters co-existing could sustain itself as a formula for the future. So, come 2012, the world got to see The Avengers, brought to life by Joss Whedon.
To say audiences liked The Avengers would be a huge understatement. The film totally shifted the ground beneath the industry, showing that not only can cinematic universes work, but they can be abundantly successful, with The Avengers bringing home a $1.5 billion worldwide gross off of a $220 million budget. So, given the nature of the industry, it only made sense that other studios wanted to capitalize on the new success to make something similar of their own. Because who doesn’t love money? But were these attempts actually good? Did they succeed? One thing is for certain: these movies really tried to be The Avengers… for better or worse.
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‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)
On the negative end of things, Warner Bros. Entertainment and DC Comics — through multiple attempts at recreating what The Avengers was — had an attempt that ended up being considered one of the worst superhero movies ever made. Some even argue this is among the worst films made, period. Regardless, David Ayer‘s Suicide Squad did nothing good for the companies, and especially not for the DC Extended Universe.Suicide Squad is the epitome of how many companies completely failed to recreate The Avengers after the MCU’s big success. The DCEU has an interesting reputation among comic book movie fans and general audiences as a whole, and this movie is one of the largest reasons why. With a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the reception to this attempt proves that it was a total failure.
6
‘We Can Be Heroes’ (2020)
Comic book brands aren’t the only ones trying to get in on the cinematic universe game. From the creator of Spy Kids and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Robert Rodriguez took to Netflix in 2020 and brought audiences the movie We Can Be Heroes. This film was an interesting attempt at making an Avengers-like flick with original characters, and many would argue that it didn’t do the greatest job — but they probably weren’t the intended audience, either.Bringing back the likes of Sharkboy (J.J. Dashnaw) — noTaylor Lautner this time — and Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley), We Can Be Heroes depicted a world in which they now existed in a universe filled with other heroes. They were hardly necessary, however, as the movie is about the children of said heroes, and it felt like the two were merely there for marketing purposes. Had this movie truly been amazing like Rodriguez’s previous projects, this could have been The Avengers for his films. It didn’t really succeed in reaching that level, unfortunately. Oh, and Pedro Pascal is in it, too. Not a good sign for the movie if that’s a fact so easy to forget about.
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‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)
Another example of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment taking a stab at building a cinematic universe in 2016 is none other than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While it doesn’t try building an entire team in one movie, it brings characters together, establishes the other future members of the Justice League, and serves as the first big crossover of the DCEU.It introduces both Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to the world that was brought to life with Superman’s (Henry Cavill) movie in 2013, Man of Steel. So, while it’s not exactly like The Avengers, it does what that movie did on a smaller scale, making it the first The Avengers-like project for the DCEU. It didn’t do an incredible job, given the fact of how poorly the movie was received, but Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was still certainly better than Suicide Squad.
4
‘Thunderbolts*’ (2025)
Who better to pull off another Avengers-typeproject than Marvel Studios themselves? After the Infinity Saga was finalized with Avengers: Endgame, which could be considered the “end” of the first Avengers saga (which would make Avengers: Doomsday the beginning of another), Marvel Studios decided it was time for someone to fill the void. Enter: the Thunderbolts, the team that would end up being known as The New Avengers.Audiences absolutely adored Thunderbolts*. While many were worried, with Marvel Studios’ track record not being amazing before it, they ended up being very pleased with the fact that this team project ended up not only being one of the best Marvel movies in recent years, but one of the most emotionally compelling, too. It is hard to follow up on a success of your own, given the fact that you already knocked it out of the park not once, but a few times, and that’s even more proof of why Thunderbolts* works so well.
3
‘Power Rangers’ (2017)
The one and only Mighty Morphin Power Rangers brand decided it was time to get in on the game in 2017, resulting in a film that many would consider to be underrated. Some even think it was ahead of its time. Let it be known, this is not a perfect project by any means, but it’s actually considered better than it was initially received. However, due to said reception, it didn’t launch the cinematic universe the studio wanted it to.As a team movie, though, Power Rangers did a pretty great job at building this iteration from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in a more dramatic way, and in a way that made their eventual first morphs feel earned. Some fans of the franchise didn’t exactly appreciate how long it took them to morph, but looking at it from an objective perspective, examining character arcs and pacing, it did the film well. Had this movie performed better at the box office and critically (at first), a grand cinematic universe could have blossomed from this flick.
2
‘Fantastic Four’ (2015)
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Before 20th Century Fox was bought out by Disney, the team working on the Marvel properties they owned often struggled. The biggest and worst example comes in the form of Fantastic Four (also known as “Fan4stic”), their attempt at a reboot of the previous 2005 Fantastic Four franchise. This was meant to build out a new universe (and maybe even connect to their X-Men cinematic franchise), but it ended up much like Suicide Squad did: being one of the worst superhero films ever made.Brought to screens by Chronicle‘s Josh Trank, Fantastic Four really struggled both critically and at the box office. As hard as it is to believe, it was received even worse than Suicide Squad, with a horrific — genuinely terrible — 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. If the DCEU movie that would come out next year is considered one of the worst movies of all time, Fantastic Four‘s reputation can’t even be fathomed. No one remembers it, which may very well be even worse than people simply remembering the David Ayer movie for being bad. Safe to say, this 2015 film didn’t just fail at being the next The Avengers, but disgraced the Marvel brand as a whole.
1
‘Justice League’ (2017)
2017’s Justice League may very well be the most precise example of a movie that tried so very hard to be The Avengers, and it’s not even a competition. After Zack Snyder had to leave the project for a personal reason (a time in which Justice League already was trying to be The Avengers), Warner Bros. and DC Comics decided they weren’t even going to try to play it cool with their intentions anymore and decided to say “screw it” and bring Joss Whedon himself in to finish the movie.It is so abundantly clear that the studios told Whedon, “Hey, forget about what Snyder was working on — just make us The Avengers again,” and, boy, did that act as a detriment to the film. The conflict of tones between directors not only killed a lot of the moments from Snyder’s iteration of the movie, but left the movie as a whole feeling soulless, and had audiences walking out of theaters asking why they even tried making it in the first place. If this was supposed to truly kick off the DCEU’s connectivity (as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was very much a soft launch), it did the exact opposite and acted as the defining moment at which many consider the DCEU had unofficially died. People lost interest, faith was gone, and the studios clearly were scrambling to figure out where the heck to go next. Yeah, so much for being the next Avengers, right?
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