For years, they struggled at the multiplex while their blood rival, Marvel, soared. They’re in the midst of a fight to convince the public that’s the case. “It’s not chaos,” DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson assures me, seated near Johns. But in the past 16 months, they’ve gained significantly more influence on the movie operation, and that change is already bearing fruit. “It took some work for us to earn our stripes, I think, with the rest of the studio and filmmakers,” says the company’s boyish chief creative officer, Geoff Johns, sitting at a long table alongside a clutch of DC executives in a San Diego Marriott on the first day of this July’s San Diego Comic-Con. So what accounts for the contrasting reputations? Perhaps part of the problem is that the movies, until recently, had very little influence from the core DC Entertainment team, who had done so well elsewhere. Hell, even a partnership with Warner’s consumer-products division is bearing fruit: the DC Super Hero Girls toy line has turned into a miniature empire complete with animated web cartoons and a New York Times–best-selling book. DC video games like the Injustice and Batman: Arkham franchises are considered some of the best the medium has to offer.

DC TV shows like Gotham, Arrow, and The Flash enjoy meaty ratings and fan loyalty. Their comics are in a sales renaissance, thanks to a recent initiative called Rebirth. Once known as DC Comics, a 2009 restructuring made the Warner Bros.–owned company more than just a comics publisher - they now also work in coalition with the rest of Warner to produce superhero content in TV, games, consumer products, and films. It’s DC Entertainment in microcosm: When it comes to movies, there’s chronic bad buzz elsewhere, things are going swimmingly. In short, one Superman is flying high the other is experiencing turbulence.

Cavill’s Supes, on the other hand, has an image-control problem: All of his movies so far have been met with at least a certain amount of critical disdain, if not outright derision. Hoechlin’s Superman has a sterling image among the public: He’s not a series regular, but when he does show up, fans go gaga for him, much as they salivate over the well-reviewed show, in general. The other is Henry Cavill, a statuesque Brit who plays him in DC’s big-screen outings like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and this fall’s mega-tentpole Justice League. One of them is Tyler Hoechlin, a dreamy American who portrays the Man of Steel on the small screen as part of the TV show Supergirl. There’s a paradox at DC Entertainment, and it can be summed up by looking at two men who wear Superman’s tights.

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