‘Aquaman’ and the World Building of the DC Universe

The heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe largely come from a world that resembles our own. Captain America is a guy from Brooklyn. Spider-Man is a kid from Queens. The heroes of DC’s cinematic universe, on the other hand, come from mythical realms and fictional cities that require a type of world-building that’s different than that found in the Marvel films. That’s never been truer than in James Wan’s Aquaman.

To date, every DC cinematic universe film has attempted to dive deep into a new kind of world, and the success of that world-building has generally correlated with the financial and critical success of its films.