The Truth Behind DC’s Fandom War
People love to rage bait. Right now, the new target is James Gunn and his Superman movie. According to some of these “critics”… Gunn is the guy who tore the DC fandom in half. Cute story. Easy clicks. But completely false.
The divide in this fandom didn’t start with Gunn. Hell, it didn’t even start with The Suicide Squad. If you want to understand where this war really began, you have to rewind to June 2013.
The Real Beginning: Man of Steel
Coming off Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, the DC fandom was buzzing with hope.
Warner Bros. had chosen Zack Snyder to reintroduce Superman, and people were excited to see what the “visionary director” could bring. Then Man of Steel hit theaters.
Financially? It was fine. Over $660 million worldwide is nothing to sneeze at. But reception? That’s where things got messy.
Superman was no longer the bright, smiling beacon of hope that defined the character for eight decades.
Snyder’s Superman was brooding, conflicted, and at times downright gloomy.
To some, this was fresh and modern. To others, it was a betrayal of the core character. That tension? That was the first crack in the foundation.
The Breaking Point: Batman v Superman
But WB didn’t pump the brakes. They doubled down.
Snyder was handed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice… which wasn’t just a Superman sequel but also a Batman movie, a Wonder Woman debut, and a setup for the Justice League.
Instead of winning audiences over, the film made the divide permanent.
Fans who were unsure about Man of Steel now had their answer… this wasn’t “their” Superman. He was dour, joyless, and constantly sidelined in his own movie.
Meanwhile, Snyder loyalists planted their flag. To them, this vision was bold, operatic, and misunderstood.
From that moment, the fandom was split in two. And unlike Marvel fans, who were busy celebrating every new entry, DC fans were already at war with each other.
The Rise of the Snyder Bros
What followed was chaos. Snyder loyalists (who would later be dubbed “Snyder Bros” or “Snyder Cultists”) defended every creative choice like it was gospel.
On the other side, you had comic purists and casual fans who wanted films that felt closer to the source material.
Every new DC release turned into a battlefield.
Shazam!… a fun, comic accurate film was dismissed as “childish.”
The Flash? Mocked endlessly.
Snyder Bros didn’t just criticize… they attacked directors, writers, and executives online.
They even went after filmmakers completely outside DC, just for saying something they didn’t like.
And keep in mind, all this toxicity existed years before James Gunn or Peter Safran were anywhere near DC Studios.
The Snyder Cut Era & The Grifters
Then came 2020.
The Snyder Cut of Justice League was announced. For Snyder loyalists, it was vindication. For casual fans, it was curiosity. And for grifters on YouTube? It was a gold mine.
Suddenly, content creators were spinning tales of a full “SnyderVerse restoration.” Fake scoops, false promises, and wild speculation ran rampant.
Every video was designed to get clicks, not tell the truth. Fans who bought into it became even more entrenched. Fans who didn’t? They got louder about calling it all nonsense. Arguments escalated. The divide widened.
Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg, also came forward with serious allegations about misconduct on the set of Justice League.
Yes, Important issues… but Snyder loyalists turned it into another weapon against WB, mobilizing attacks on anyone who disagreed with them. From the outside looking in, the DC fandom now looked toxic and unhinged.
WB’s Chaos & The Zaslav Shuffle
And let’s not let WB off the hook here.
Their leadership was a revolving door.
Executives made promises to actors they had no real way of fulfilling.
Projects were announced and even made that were killed off.
There was no vision, no plan, just reactionary decision making.
That chaos gave Snyder Bros even more ammo to cry foul.
But then came the Discovery merger.
David Zaslav wanted to clean house. He wanted a proper studio system for DC, not random executives pulling strings.
During his search for leadership, there was a power struggle within WB, and fans were fed even more false hope. Eventually, James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced as Co-CEOs.
Gunn Becomes the Villain
Fact is… Gunn wasn’t the spark. He was just the next scapegoat.
His hiring meant course corrections. It meant scrapping old, broken promises. It meant finally giving DC a clean slate. But for the Snyder Bros, this was unforgivable.
Instead of moving on, they doubled down on hashtags:
#SellZSJLtoNetflix
#WalletsClosed
#FireJamesGunn
They thought they were fighting for the “true” DC vision. In reality, they are hurting the brand they claim to love and driving away the casual audience even further.
The Truth
So let’s be crystal clear.
James Gunn didn’t cause this divide. His Superman movie didn’t cause this divide.
The fracture has been there since 2013, born out of Snyder’s polarizing vision, fueled by WB’s incompetence, and kept alive by a toxic subsection of the fandom addicted to rage.
The DC fandom isn’t broken because of Gunn. It’s broken because for over a decade, fans have been fighting each other instead of rallying around the characters.
Gunn just happens to be the latest lightning rod.
And if history tells us anything, once the rage baiters burn out on Gunn and Superman, they’ll find a new target.
Because for them, it’s never about celebrating DC. It’s about feeding the divide.
