Column: LEGO is trying to right the superhero ship, but course correction isn’t easy

The LEGO Group is clearly trying to right the superhero ship in 2023 across both Marvel and DC, but it’s hitting stumbling blocks along the way.

I don’t think it’s bold to say that the golden age of the LEGO Super Heroes themes is behind us – or at the very least, has yet to be fully realised. The problems are pretty clear to anyone who’s paying attention: until this month, we’d gone nearly two years without anything substantial from DC, while Marvel capped off 2022 with a pair of lacklustre direct-to-consumer sets – and nothing from Spider-Man: No Way Home, a full year after the MCU threequel debuted in cinemas.

Those issues are symptomatic of a theme that increasingly feels like it’s lost its footing over the past few years, amid a wider shift away from comic book-inspired sets across both Marvel and DC. Looking beyond the silver screen and pulling characters, locations and events straight from the comics has historically given us plenty of interesting concepts within these themes, but those deep dives into superhero lore are few and far between these days.

The community has not exactly been forgiving, either. Both 76210 Hulkbuster and 76215 Black Panther arrived to a scathing reception from swathes of superhero fans, while the complete absence of DC-inspired sets has been a real sticking point for anyone invested in the other half of the LEGO Super Heroes line-up. In 2023, the LEGO Group is clearly trying to right the ship – but the results are, so far, a mixed bag.

DC is back, for example, but maybe it’s more accurate to say that Batman is back. 76252 Batcave – Shadow Box launched earlier this month, bringing us the biggest LEGO DC set to date, and it’s definitely not what most of us were expecting from a $400 Batcave. Three more sets will follow in August, which is great! Except they almost come across as a parody of all the criticisms the theme has faced over the past few years, as it’s moved away from ‘LEGO DC Super Heroes’ back to 2006’s ‘LEGO Batman’.

All three of the new LEGO DC sets launching in August – 76224 Batmobile: Batman vs The Joker Chase, 76264 Batmobile Pursuit: Batman vs The Joker and 76265 Batwing: Batman vs The Joker – feature the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime, with zero supporting characters from either the wider DC universe or even the Caped Crusader’s Rogues Gallery. So yes, LEGO DC is back… but in possibly the most limited way imaginable.

The blame doesn’t lay entirely at the LEGO Group’s feet, of course. Any products it cooks up are created in partnership with Warner Bros., and the studio behind the DC Extended Universe isn’t doing Billund’s brightest any favours with its haphazard approach to its current cinematic line-up. Chances are good its reboot under James Gunn and Peter Safran will help guide the DC theme in the years to come, but the initial fruits of that plan are some way off yet.

So in the meantime… where are the Shazam, Flash and Aquaman sets? They don’t necessarily need to be tied to the movies: comic book-inspired sets featuring these characters would surely do just as well. You can go watch The Flash in cinemas right now (if you so choose – the controversy surrounding its star Ezra Miller and its status within the wider DCEU seem to be putting plenty of people off), but you can’t then walk into a LEGO Store and buy a set with a Flash minifigure. Talk about failing to capitalise (and again, that’s as much on Warner Bros. as the LEGO Group).

Things look a little bit brighter for Marvel, meanwhile, thanks almost entirely to 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle. It’s the No Way Home set we’ve been waiting for these past 18 months, recreating the climactic showdown around the Statue of Liberty. You get all three Spider-Men in the box, along with Ned, MJ, Doctor Strange, Doc Ock, Green Goblin and Electro. But… where’s the Lizard? Why is Sandman less Sandman and more Sandhand?

The 900-piece set is a good effort, but these are painful missteps and omissions this far out from the movie, when the LEGO Group has had plenty of time to figure out what would make the perfect No Way Home model. Bump up the price by £15 if you have to, but a bigfig Lizard and brick-built Sandman would have easily elevated this to one of the greatest LEGO Marvel sets of all time.

Elsewhere, the rest of Marvel’s August range is a mixture of confusing and depressing: 76249 Venomised Groot is a perplexing choice (although a very cool one, I have to admit), while 76262 Captain America’s Shield appears to be going down like a vibranium balloon (critics have called out its repetitive build, gappy design and high price, none of which I’m going to disagree with).

This wave is capped off by another trip down memory lane, as the Marvel team revisits the finale of Avengers: Endgame for what feels like the 50th time in 76266 Endgame Final Battle. The frequency with which it’s turning back to not only that blockbuster but the rest of the Infinity Saga speaks to the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which seems to be deflating among audiences in the aftermath of the 2019 tentpole team-up. All hope is not lost, though – at least if the rumour mill is on the money.

According to reports that have been circling for, oh, a good long while, this year’s Marvel range will be capped off by 76269 Avengers Tower, a $525 modular building packed to the rafters with MCU minifigures. This could well be LEGO Marvel’s saving grace, worthy of wielding Mjolnir; the Avengers equivalent of the much-lauded 76178 Daily Bugle, coming in as a minifigure-heavy modular building the likes of which most superhero fans have been clamouring after since the Spidey-themed skyscraper debuted in 2021. (Just look at the number of custom towers that pop up at conventions, like the one at Brickworld Chicago, for an example of how popular this location is.)

• Every LEGO set confirmed for August 2023 so far
• More details spotted for rumoured LEGO Marvel 76269 Avengers Tower

You can see the LEGO Group’s strategy in launching sets like 76215 Black Panther and 76210 Hulkbuster: offer as much variety as possible within its portfolio to cast a wider net across the entire Marvel merch market, rather than feeding the same core fanbase over and over again. But it will be incredibly interesting to see how 76269 Avengers Tower is received (if it exists at all – remember the usual caveats around rumours, which is that, you know, they’re only rumours), and whether the LEGO Group subsequently decides to pivot fully towards minifigure-heavy direct-to-consumer sets.

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Look: there are glimmers of hope here. Maybe the three upcoming Batman sets (one of which may once have been a Flash set) are simply the foundations of a much-needed reboot for the DC theme, which will eventually open the doors to more characters, settings and vehicles (once we’re beyond the basics of Batman, Joker, a Batmobile and Batwing). And the Avengers Tower does sound genuinely fantastic on paper, packing in almost everyone you could want from such a set – and with a piece count that should allow for a properly imposing build.

Course correction doesn’t happen overnight, but perhaps by 2024 or 2025 we’ll find ourselves in a new golden age of LEGO Super Heroes. The one caveat to that optimism is that for the Marvel and DC themes to truly succeed – amid the DCEU’s overhauling and the MCU still struggling to find its footing in a post-Endgame landscape – the LEGO Group, Warner Bros. and Disney may need to take plunge and trust that comic book-inspired sets can find an audience again, just like the good old days.

In which case: consider the ship righted.

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