Marvel has done a horrible thing to DC Comics. They jumped off the pages of their comic books onto the big screen and in a big way. Now DC Comics is attempting to play catch up, and they have a long road ahead of them. 

DC Comics announced at Sand Diego ComicCon this year that they would be releasing nine movies in the next six years. This is a pretty bold claim given that the last real success that DC had was “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012. They have rebooted Superman with 2013’s “Man of Steel” but it didn’t appeal to everyone.

Another thing that makes it a little tough to grasp for us comic book fans is the supposed rumor that DC movies will be without any of the fun and joking that we’re used to in the Marvel films, and somewhat in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy. This however is only rumor, and we’ll have to wait and see.

So 2016 will bring us “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” This will be the setup for the new DC cinematic universe. They are also setting up various television shows. These include the already successful “Arrow” on the CW, and that will be followed up by “The Flash” on the same network. Fox’s Batman prequel series, “Gotham”, has been met with mixed reviews. Most of them have been positive. We also have a Constantine show that is set to air on NBC, and “Titans” that will air on TNT. That’s an awful lot of introduction. Which leads me into the first thing we need.

1. It all needs to make sense

As fans we don’t want a whole bunch of different things shoved down our throats with no real end point. If you are going to introduce a ton of characters, “Gotham” I’m looking at you, then it has to add up in the big picture scheme. You also can’t just throw a bunch of movies a TV shows at us and expect us to like them all. Marvel learned the hard way with “Agents of SHIELD” that the plot has to be good if you want to keep us interested. This brings me to number two.

2. Character Development

What was so great about Christopher Noaln’s Batman trilogy is that we not only got to see who Batman was, we got to see who Bruce Wayne was too. This worked similar in “Smallville” where they really developed Clark Kent. However, they never developed Superman. In “Man of Steel” they tried to develop Clark but fell short. I’m saying we need a bunch of origin stories, but let us know who these characters are. You what will help with that?

3. Casting

This is so important! Marvel has nailed it’s casting in it’s recent films, and has not let us down yet. Make sure that whoever you cast in these roles makes us believe that they are them. Ben Affleck better convince me that he’s Bruce Wayne. Now I will not hate on “Bet-fleck” because I am holding onto hope. I believe this will be good, just please don’t let me down.

4. Not too many changes

You lost a lot of us fans on “Smallville” when you changed the origins of several of Superman’s villains in his rogues gallery. Obviously we want the writers to be able to write a good story, but we also don’t want you to go too far away from the comic books. We know that some things need to change, but just don’t go all crazy on us. You need to ear our trust if you want us to keep coming to see all these movies until 2020.

5. Make us believe

This is so critical. If you’re going to give us Gotham City, you need to make me believe they are in Gotham. If I’m going to Metropolis, or Krypton, or Mars, I need to believe that I’m there. Make us believe in the story, the characters, the actors and the writers. You are getting set to introduce a bunch of new movies and television shows. Even if they don’t all connect, you have to make us want to enter these worlds week after week, year after year.

With all that being said, don’t let us down DC. Please.