DC Comics. Marvel’s only real competitor for complete comics supremacy, and even that term stretches their relationship a tad. Marvel has had complete dominance over the superhero genre ever since they released The Avengers, with DC’s last hurrah being The Dark Knight Rises.

2013’s Man of Steel proved divisive: it was a massive box-office success but received mixed reviews. Director Zack Snyder appears to be taking the DC version of Joss Whedon’s job of directing the main features and team-up films. His short filmography includes some success with 300 and the Watchmen adaptation, but proves hit-and-miss with Sucker Punch and the second 300 film.

Snyder’s projects will be the much-anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the two Justice League movies which will act as a follow-up to the clash of the titans in the aforementioned film.

The main aspect of DC’s movie project has been doubt by its fans. Many feel that, in addition to Man of Steel’s uncertain success, new directors and reboots are not needed. Indeed, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is seen as the definitive comic book movie series, with The Dark Knight being the definitive comic book movie. Batman v Superman has felt the pressure of its peerless predecessor on every step of its path: the casting of Ben Affleck as the Batman commanded (and continues to command) incredible attention as well as controversy.

Aside from the fans crying out for Affleck to step down and give Christian Bale his Batsuit back, there are seven other movies in the works, the biggest of which will probably be Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman. The Suicide Squad is a kind of rogues’ gallery featuring more than a few Batman villains, such as Harley Quinn and Deadshot. This is presumably DC’s answer to Guardians of the Galaxy. The Wonder Woman film will be the first time the character has had a movie, and her second appearance on film (after Batman v Superman).

The other films that have been announced are The Flash, Aquaman, Shazam, Cyborg, and Green Lantern. The most difficult reboot will probably be the Green Lantern reboot, after the dreadful and unsuccessful 2011 film.

An interesting difference is that most of these heroes will appear in the Justice League films before their own, whereas Marvel has given most of its heroes their own films before including them in The Avengers. Also, the DC cinematic universe is appearing in theaters years after than the Marvel universe is; Marvel’s began in 2008 with Iron Man, while Man of Steel came out just last year.

And so the challenge for DC becomes a more difficult version of Marvel’s challenge: it needs to keep its audience interested, teasing and hyping its films until 2016, and then it has to directly compete with the giants of Marvel. Batfleck has to hold up until that time, and then the true clash of the titans (teams of comic titans, that is) will begin.