Despite what the rumors say about James Gunn’s upcoming DCU, the fractured universe is still in need of a visionary thinker like Zack Snyder.

Zack Snyder understands the intricacies of storytelling, unlike any other Hollywood director. His ability to reach into the humane depths of established mythological figures and bring out the best and the worst of their nature is what makes for a compelling narrative, devoid of pretentious, predictable, and overdone adaptations.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League featuring Henry Cavill as Superman [Credit: Warner Bros.]

While the DC Extended Universe was a failed endeavor, it still roused enough emotion and rage to push the entire world into rebelling against a Goliath studio. The splattering of ideas and character storylines that Snyder introduced in his grimdark vision without ever getting the chance to build on them was a tragedy in and of itself.

In DC’s second coming, James Gunn and Warner Bros. now have a monumental opportunity on their hands to bring those ideas out of oblivion and finally establish an Elseworld project that can put an end to the superhero fatigue.

Zack Snyder’s DC vision needs an urgent revisitation

Green Lantern in DCEU gets a short-lived cameo [Credit: Warner Bros.]

In Zack Snyder‘s reimagined, grimdark, and debased world of DC, morally bankrupt superheroes play judge, jury, and executioner while running around delivering their own twisted brand of justice. In his incomplete 5-movie vision, Earth falls, the Justice League gets disbanded, and Batman enlists the Joker in a post-apocalyptic landscape to save the universe.

While a bold idea on paper, Snyder proved himself capable of walking the talk by delivering an equally electrifying and visually sensational trilogy that turned garden-variety fans into cult-like fanatics. Characters uncharted by DC were brought into the fold as John Stewart’s Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter played a key role in the version of events leading up to the Justice League trilogy.

James Gunn‘s DC reboot, if done right, can bring back those superheroes from Snyder’s unrealized vision and play into the storyline by furthering their character arcs. With DCU already exploring a True Detective-style Lanterns series, all that now remains is to pull the Martian Manhunter out of Warner Bros.’s vaults and develop a project helmed by Zack Snyder in his signature cinematic vision.

The Martian Manhunter project needs Snyder’s touch

The Martian Manhunter in Justice League [Credit: Warner Bros.]

The DCEU is like the Holy Grail of the comic book world – both destructive and elusive at the same time. While some fans still mourn its loss, others seem to welcome the fact that Snyder’s vision never reached fruition. Although controversial to the extreme, DCEU still managed to rile the audience out of stagnancy and tell a story that divided an entire generation of fans.

One of the elements in that story was the subtle influence of Martian Manhunter as the mysterious green alien pulled the threads of fate here and there and changed the course of events that shaped history within the world of DC. Played by Harry Lennix, the character was as poignant in his limited screen time as he was powerful and memorable.

Massively underrated as a DC superhero, the Martian Manhunter’s abilities such as shapeshifting, telepathy, and telekinesis, regeneration, super-vision can place him as one of the strongest heroes DC has ever seen. His alien background warrants mature storytelling with a darkly humane twist – a skill that Zack Snyder possesses in abundance.

The complexity that the project will bring to DC can heal its fractured universe and elevate the studio in the post-superhero fatigue era by delivering a compelling, emotionally heavy, sci-fi spectacle that is far beyond anything that the CBM world has done recently.

Not only can Snyder’s Martian Manhunter story bridge the gap between DC’s hastily restructured timeline, but it will also prove to the fans that James Gunn’s strategic vision can work wonders if placed in the right hands. Instead of centering the universe around familiar, marketable, and overused characters like Batman and Superman, WB could finally play outside the sandbox and build around a hero who can literally bridge worlds – within and outside DC.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is currently available to stream on Max.