The hierarchy of power in the DC universe has changed. It’s not just a tagline for the new Black Adam film, it’s also seemingly true behind the scenes, where DC Films president Walter Hamada has reportedly exited the studio. Meanwhile, if Dwayne Johnson is to be believed, the actor and producer seems to have quite a bit of say in what’s to come from the company. So, is this the dawn of a new DC or another in a long line of fresh starts for a superhero film division that, try as it might, can’t find the same success as its rival, Marvel Studios, which has reigned supreme for over a decade?

The answer, sadly, is probably more of the latter than the former. While the executives at DC Films no doubt longingly look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe and want a piece of that for themselves, they’ve been going about it all wrong from practically the start. Beginning with the decision to use Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman to immediately launch into a Justice League film, DC has been something of a mess. And while some films have been relatively successful at the box office, DC has presented a product that pales in comparison to the Marvel juggernaut.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the end of Black Adam. If you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, you should stop reading now.

Following the release of a wildly subpar Justice League film, every movie since has been some form of course correction, for better or worse. From Aquaman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman, to Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, and now Black Adam, these films have attempted to define exactly what a DC Extended Universe movie can be. (That’s not counting The Batman and Joker, two movies not connected to the DCEU that are getting sequels.) What we’re left with are a variety of tonal mismatches on the big screen, some great, some far less so.

Shazam, for instance, is a very fun movie. Upon release, it was hailed for its humor and potentially being a new direction for the DCEU. While a sequel comes next year, Shazam certainly didn’t change the course of DC Films. Suicide Squad, meanwhile, showed that DC could be the edgy rival to Marvel, with a film led by villains who you’ll grow to love just as much as the heroes. Then, of course, that didn’t work and the series was soft-rebooted by James Gunn into a far more well-received film, but also one that was a hard R-rated action-comedy that cannot be representative of the DCEU as a whole.

There are also the Aquaman and Wonder Woman movies, which are both still intimately connected to the failed Justice League experiment. However, it could be argued that both are far better films than the movie they spun off from. Sure, they deal with world-sized stakes, but they also don’t forget how silly and fun a comic book universe can be. Seriously, do you remember how Aquaman made it canon that dinosaurs still exist but didn’t bother to dwell on it?

That connection to Justice League will also likely continue in The Flash, whenever it finally arrives in theaters (if it is released at all), blurring the lines even more about what the direction of the DCEU is at this point–especially since it’s dabbling in the multiverse.

Now we have Black Adam, a movie that desperately wants to be the start of something new and exciting in the DCEU but is plagued with a lot of the same problems. By connecting itself to the Justice League–which it does with a number of Easter eggs throughout the film, along with Henry Cavill’s return as Superman for a three-second shot during a post-credits scene–it’s clear that this film is deeply tied to what’s come before. So, in that way, it isn’t a new or fresh take on the DCEU, but is actually, as Johnson said in an interview with Yahoo, “expanding” the universe.

At this point, though, the franchise can’t be expanded much further. As it stands, figuring out a DCEU timeline is practically impossible, as films–and James Gunn’s Peacemaker series–come and go, adding more and more to the DCEU canon. What’s missing is a throughline. With all of these movies that seem to be the dawn of a new day for DC Films, we’ve yet to see what they are working toward–or even what comes next.

And we’re not talking about what comes next in terms of a sequel, there have already been two Woman Woman films, with a third in the works, and follow-ups to both Shazam and Aquaman are on the way. But in the bigger sense, where is any of this leading and why does it matter?

When the MCU launched, it was a series of standalone movies building up to the first Avengers film. From there, the universe expanded, a second Avengers film happened, and the Marvel franchise kept growing bigger and bigger, culminating in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Now, nearing the end of its fourth phase of films, the future has been publicly laid out by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. And through all of that, while there have been a number of disappointing Marvel films, they have ultimately still followed a clearly defined road map.

On the other hand, the DCEU rushed into a Justice League film–which was originally going to be two films–and that fell apart. From there, the studio has seemingly been throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. While that method of world-building might work in the development stage, doing it on the big screen for everyone to see isn’t the best look.

What we’re left with is Black Adam, another movie attempting to course-correct the DCEU. The issue at hand is nobody seems to know what the course is that’s being corrected. So, sure, we’ll probably get a movie where Black Adam and Superman face off and eventually work together to topple a bigger threat (sort of like the exact plot of Batman v Superman) but what does any of it mean in the grand scheme of things?

When there are sequels for Shazam and Aquaman coming, another season of Peacemaker, and even further Wonder Woman and Flash movies in the works–and that’s saying nothing of upcoming Batman and Joker sequels–it seemingly means very little.

If DC Films is hoping for this to all feed successfully into a massive team-up movie, it doesn’t seem very promising. Imagining Harley Quinn, Shazam, Black Adam, and Superman together in the same room is such a tonal scattershot that it just doesn’t make sense.

If Black Adam is the dawn of something new, though, it should just forget about Superman and the Justice League for now. For one, the fight fans have been clamoring for isn’t Adam versus Superman, it’s Adam facing off against Shazam. For another, with the introduction of the Justice Society, it would make so much more sense to focus on those heroes–all of whom are very entertaining in Black Adam. And if the hierarchy of power within the DC universe has truly changed, it shouldn’t need the remnants of the Justice League to fall back on. If Black Adam is the most powerful superhero in the DC universe now, he should be able to stand on his own two feet without Superman there holding him up.

Black Adam is in theaters now.