How many times have you experienced that a guy who you thought was a veracious person, but in reality was lying to everybody. A person who you thought was the most calmed down person but ended up punching a guy. Often right? It is because we all are grey. One cannot just be a good, decent human being all the time or one cannot just be an evil brat all the time. We all are good but, we all have darkness inside us. There’s not a single person in this world who doesn’t have a dark side. We all are good and we all are bad as well.
Same thing applies for the characters in the films. All the characters have to be grey and not just black or white. Name a person who is good, decent, righteous and has never done anything wrong in his whole life. You can’t, right? It is because we all have a good as well as a dark side inside us. What differs is the proportion. Some has more good, but less bad and vice versa. This proportion is what makes a character. A character is made with all of the emotions compiled together. That’s what DCEU’s characters lack. Now I will strictly be talking about DCEU and MCU characters. Not the characters outside those universe.
The Antagonists
DC released their first collective superhero film Justice League, which was not upto the mark. It lacks many things, but the most important one was the poor character development of the main antagonist, Steppenwolf. He was basically a villain who was only behind motherboxes. Darkseid assigned him the task to get the motherboxes for him. So as a loyal pawn he went for it. What they failed to convince us was the mindset of Steppenwolf. If he’s getting such a Massive task of acquiring the motherboxes then what was his mindset at that moment? 
Didn’t he thought what else can it be used for, or how much powerful is this thing or the fact that he can use it to become the most powerful being in the universe? The thing was, they didn’t characterized him well. It was like the same old cliché story where a bad guy endangered earth and the good guys stopped him. The spiceness was absent. If he’d have been characterized well by showing his dilemmas, it’d have been interesting. He’d be more of a matured and dangerous villain. Now, He was totally a Black character and not grey. I mean black, not dark. Now, if you compare this to MCU’s character Ronan. You will see that Steppenwolf was lacking so many things. Ronan too was sent by Thanos to retrieve the orb. Yet, the character was not a mere pawn, but a rather interesting one and grievous as well. He was characterized very well which made him stand out.
A True Antagonist
What really adored me was the character of Thanos, he didn’t want to conquer the world. He didn’t want to rule the world. He just wanted to save this universe from extinction. Maybe his way of doing was not the best(It was worse actually). He was not just another bad dude who wants to rule the world. He had a reason to acquire those infinity stones. In that process, he too made many sacrifices, because to get something, you’ll have to pay the price. We felt the emotions of Thanos. A pure emotion of love and sacrifice. That’s what made him a great and a True Antagonist. I am also really excited to watch how DC will portray Darkseid. Darkseid is a fabulous character in the comics. so I have high hopes with DC regarding that character.
Still Not convinced?
Not just these Antagonists. You can also take an example of Other Antagonists of MCU as well, like Loki. He is like the greyest character in the MCU. He is the God of Mischief and thus making him unpredictable. Loki is an Antagonist as well as a Protagonist. Let me explain you how. He was introduced as a villain in The Avengers, trying to destroy earth and he’s actually a villain, but as I said he’s the greyest character in the MCU, so he has helped Thor in saving the earth as well. He is unpredictable, he tries to destroy the earth and in the next film he saves it. This is the beauty of loki’s character. Nobody can prognosticate what he’s gonna do next. Ultron was not actually a Living soul. He was an A.I. so If I say he’s grey that’ll be foolish of me. Lol. Scarlett witch was grey. She was introduced as a villain but joined avengers later. Because she was misguided by Ultron. The good inside her didn’t let that happen.
The Protagonists of MCU
The Protagonists, heroes of MCU are grey as well. Even the righteous man Captain America himself was supporting wrong or so it may seem. In the movie Civil War, Tony and Steve both came to know that Bucky killed Tony’s parents. 
Naturally, Tony reacted and he was infuriated over Bucky and went on to Finish him. Now here’s something interesting. Steve stopped Tony from doing so, as Bucky was not in his senses while he Butchered them(which was true). But he also had a soft corner in his heart for bucky. He saved bucky because he stood for what’s right, but Bucky was a murderer as well. Due to their friendship he had a soft spot for bucky and Chose him over everybody. He literally fought with the whole nation for Bucky. See, even the most righteous man was partly wrong. That’s the beauty of MCU and they didn’t do it by deceiving or criticizing Tony’s character. Not even a pinch. Instead they gave an ambiguous situation to the audience and let them choose who was right/wrong. They didn’t condemn Tony’s character or Steve’s character in order to do so. They just displayed the reality(Murderer of Tony’s parents, Bucky), a situation(Bucky was not in his senses at that time) and characters of all the protagonists. After that, they just relaxed and let people judge.
Protagonists of DCEU
Here is what DCEU got it wrong. I don’t know why, But I really felt that they rebuke a Character to uplift another. A strong example is in the film Batman vs Superman. They introduced Batman with such a strong persona. It was really good to see two Big time Superheroes in the same movie. The trailer was really exciting as well. It would’ve been so good, Instead what actually happened was the reverse of it. To Uplift Batman and to show him strong, DCEU condemned The Superman, not that strongly, but they did. In Justice league, to show Superman is needed and to Uplift his character they deceived Batman strongly. Along with it they deceived Wonder Woman as well. She had her own movie, with a strong character and strong story. She could’ve been the centre of attraction of the Justice league, Sadly even she was put down to uplift Superman. You cannot just drop characters to uplift another. All the characters should have their importance in the film. All the characters, especially Protagonists should be treated equally or at least fairly.
DC lovers here we GO!
What I am really happy about is, The new entries of superheroes. Aquaman. Man, He was bada**. His character was really attractive and well written. Other character that adored me was, The Flash. He was insane as well. He kind of lighted up many moments and was fun to watch. Cyborg kind of disappointed me. I didn’t like him much. still, can’t say, he’s also getting his stand alone film, might be a possibility he picks up from that movie.
DCEU films have many problems in terms of the characters. Maybe they haven’t yet figured out their strengths or, their vision is distorted. I don’t know. They have great heroes and villains, If they do it well they can touch great heights. They need to work a lot because this is the foundation and if a foundation is weak, the building will collapse. Let’s hope for the best, Because DC will return and let’s hope they return with a bang.
Also Read – 10 Years of Marvel Gave 10 Metaphors To Our Living