James Gunn Has Perfect Response to DCU Continuity Critique, Including One Surprising Hero

James Gunn’s DC Universe is stacking wildly different genres onto the same release calendar. Last year, Peacemaker delivered raunchy, R-rated comedy on HBO Max, just a few months after Superman aimed for four-quadrant family spectacle in theaters. Currently, Lanterns swapped cosmic superheroics for a grounded investigative thriller, pairing John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) on a murder case. There’s also Clayface, arriving in theaters this October, which will push even further into full-blown body horror territory. That range is quite different to how the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the now-defunct DC Extended Universe historically stuck with a single house tone across almost every project. Some fans have questioned whether the DCU can hold together creatively while shifting genres this aggressively, and Gunn has the perfect answer.

“Just a reminder: this is all happening in the same DC Universe,” a fan on Threads, going by the handle @bkaisar, wrote alongside posters for Lanterns, Superman, Peacemaker, Supergirl, and Creature Commandos, underlining the lineup’s tone inconsistency. Gunn responded on the platform with two words, “Fancy that,” attaching six DC Comics covers to make his point. He shared Batman #227, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #98, Shade, the Changing Man #20, Booster Gold: Past Imperfect, Batman: The Killing Joke, and a New 52 Justice League cover. His message is that DC Comics has jumped between crime noir, cosmic adventure, satire, and psychological horror inside a single shared universe for decades, and the movies and shows can do the same.

Three of Gunn’s picks line up directly with projects already moving through DC Studios. Batman points toward The Brave and the Bold, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen connects to The People v. Gorilla Grodd, and Booster Gold nods to the in-development Booster Gold series. The Killing Joke and the Justice League cover round out well-known corners of DC’s library, with the Justice League even rumored to form during the upcoming Man of Tomorrow movie. However, Shade, the Changing Man stands apart. Unlike the others, it has no announced DCU adaptation attached to it at all, making its inclusion the most curious signal in the post.

Is Shade, the Changing Man Coming to the DCU?

Shade, the Changing Man began as a Steve Ditko creation in 1977, following Rac Shade, a fugitive from the militant planet Meta who uses a stolen device called the M-Vest to generate nightmarish versions of himself at his enemies. However, the character’s real cultural footprint came in 1990, when writer Peter Milligan and artist Chris Bachalo relaunched the series as one of the earliest titles under DC’s Vertigo imprint. That version traded straightforward superheroics for a surreal story about identity, trauma, and American culture, running 70 issues and helping shape Vertigo into the primary home for mature, boundary-pushing comics. Shade later resurfaced as a member of the Suicide Squad and Justice League Dark, DC’s most consistently horror-adjacent super-team, but the character’s definitive version is still the one from Vertigo pages, from which the cover Gunn shared originated.

Gunn’s decision to reach for that specific cover, over dozens of more recognizable options, has, of course, fed the hopes of fans who would like to see Vertigo’s Shade, the Changing Man adapted. Nothing has been formally announced, and Gunn has not confirmed any plans for the character. Still, the DCU has already shown it will share the spotlight between obscure characters and heavy hitters. Plus, just as Clayface offers the perfect opportunity to explore body horror, Rac Shade is ideal for a psychological horror story, or even a psychedelic exploration of the human mind. That sounds like the kind of experimental project in which DC Studios has excelled so far.