Regardless of how many trolls try and sh*t on his mere existence as the co-CEO of DC Studios and the creative architect of the franchise’s next overhaul, based on nothing but reviews and critical acclaim, James Gunn boasts a 100 percent track record when it comes to comic book properties.
His Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and Holiday Special for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with DC’s The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, have all fared exceedingly well with critics and audiences, and the early acclaim to greet Blue Beetle has underlined that assessment even further.
At the time of writing, the origin story for the first superhero confirmed to be jumping from the DCEU to its next iteration holds a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 83 percent. For the record, that’s better than six of the last seven titles to emerge from the struggling saga, with the exception of the one directed by James Gunn.
If you want to split hairs and include Peacemaker in the mix, too, then Gunn is directly responsible for the only DC film or television projects to have emerged in the last three and a half years to have fared better than Blue Beetle on the aggregation site, with the incoming blockbuster outstripping Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and The Flash.
When you put it like that, it’s easy to see why the boss is willing to keep the title hero around, even if he’s currently brains behind the DCU’s best-reviewed content ever in Peacemaker, and its second top-rated movie after only Wonder Woman.