The DC universe: For DC, this week marks an end and a beginning at the same time

This week is both an end and a beginning for the screen adventures of DC Comics.

The last of the DC’s TV expansive world that was known as the Arrowverse wrapped up with the final episode of Superman & Lois, the last man standing after 12 years.

At the same time, the first series of the James Gunn era of DC Studios, Creature Commandos, premiered.

It’s a changing of the guard that has been coming since late 2022, when Gunn and his producing partner Peter Safran were hired by Warner Bros to reboot the erratic DC screen universe.

At the time, there were several fragments to DC’s screen ambitions and Warner Bros wanted a more unifying overseer akin to Disney’s Kevin Feige, who lords over the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gunn, who at the time was best known for his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, had already worked with DC on The Suicide Squad, and both he and the studio bosses were keen to expand on that relationship.

Which meant the inevitable end to existing order, such as it were.

But if the DC movies were a chaotic regime under Zack Snyder, who rebooted the films with his 2015 Superman movie, Man of Steel, on the TV side, it was actually a coherent connected storytelling universe.

With the end of Superman & Lois, the Arrowverse marked 12 years across 10 TV shows and 817 episodes. That’s an incredible feat by anyone’s measure.

The Arrowverse shows, which aired in the US on the CW network and in Australia mostly on Foxtel, started in October 2012 with Arrow, which told the story of the Green Arrow, a bow-wielding vigilante crime fighting with a sharp eye.

The series starred Stephen Amell (soon to be seen in the Suits: LA spin-off coming in 2025 to 7plus) and clocked up 170 episodes over eight seasons, the kind of longevity every streaming show can only dream of now.

It was youth-oriented and kind of soapy, but it had a very strong idea about what the tone was, and it set the template for its compatriots to follow.

Follow they did, with The Flash launching two years later, starring Glee actor Grant Gustin in the role, Supergirl in 2015 and then Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Stargirl, Superman & Lois, Gotham Knights and Naomi.

All bar one show (Naomi) came from the stable of Greg Berlanti, a prolific producer who knew how to make TV on a budget while still delivering the thrills and effects required of superhero stories.

Most significantly, he knew how to build a fandom, and the Arrowverse had legions of devoted followers. When Barry Allen/The Flash character was due to make its debut in the then DC Extended Universe movies, fans petitioned for Gustin to cross over to the big screen. Some of them never accepted Ezra Miller as “their” Barry.

It isn’t just that Gunn and Safran taking over DC projects that spelled the end of the Arrowverse. Its American home network, CW, pivoted its strategy after new corporate owners took over and is almost completely out of the scripted series game.

The timing was, for lack of a better word, fortuitous, because it gives DC a clean slate to embark on its venture. Creature Commandos, an animated series about a monster squad, is the first launch of Gunn’s tenure.

There was another series, Peacemaker starring John Cena, which Gunn had already made before his reign and is still ongoing, but Creature Commandos is the first new project from Gunn’s 10-year plan for DC.

Arguably, the best DC series by some distance is The Penguin, which does not fall under Gunn and Safran as the spin-off from The Batman, which exists in its own carve-out pocket universe.

Even when comic book movies and TV shows try to be grouped together, there are still outliers to confuse the average viewer as to how they’re all connected.

The more significant grand arrival for Gunn’s DC vision will be Superman, his rebooted movie of the shining beacon of goodness due out in July, 2025.

Starring David Corenswet as the invincible hero, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther, it will be the launch pad for the next slate of movies which also includes Supergirl, starring Australian actor Milly Alcock.

The Snyder era and the versions of iconic characters played by Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa, have been consigned to cultural history. Now, the Arrowverse has too.

For DC fans, this week is a momentous one.