At Wednesday’s Morgan Stanley MS -2.04%Technology Media & Telecom Conference, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara dismissed concerns about the superhero movie bubble bursting anytime soon (courtesy of Variety). Sure, superhero movies have been going strong since Bryan Singer’s X-Menin 2000, and sure, over 30 more superhero moviesare expected to hit theaters in the next five years, but Tsujihara said that “the key” to avoiding fatigue is making different things. “ You have to be able to take advantage of the diversity of these characters,” said Tsujihara.

So what distinguishes DC movies from other superhero movies?

The worlds of DC are very different. They’re steeped in realism, and they’re a little bit edgier than Marvel’s movies.

While Tsujihara’s point is that Warner Bros.’ and DC Entertainment offer a different product from that of Disney and Marvel, it gets at the heart of the their own superhero movie problem: They shouldn’t be making their movies “edgier” than Marvel’s, they should be making them more unique.

We’ve heard terms like “edgy,” “realistic,” and “dark” thrown around for a while now with regard to many a DC project, from Man of Steel to Arrow to the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. We’ve even heard it said that Warner Bros. has a “no jokes” policy for their superhero movies. Now, that might not be a literal policy, but it nevertheless seems evident that WB wants the DC Cinematic Universe to be the antithesis of the lighter, more humorous Marvel Cinematic Universe. Different is good, but will these movies really be different – from themselves, that is – if they’re all dark and edgy?

The gargantuan success of Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy is largely to thank (blame?) for this, though it certainly didn’t help that Green Lantern was a both a critical and box office flop. That movie was obviously Warners’ attempt at doing something more fun, funny, and lighthearted, not unlike, say, Marvel’s Iron Man. Indeed, it’s not a coincidence that Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan was more like Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark than he was his comic book counterpart.

But as a result of the film tanking, Warner Bros. doubled down on the dark and edgy stuff. After all, in their eyes, it’s the only type of superhero film they’ve made in nearly two decades that’s gotten any accolades. Unfortunately, it was the wrong lesson to take away from Christopher Nolan’s Batman films.

While the Dark Knight trilogy is not without its faults, the thing that made it so great wasn’t that it was dark, edgy, or realistic – rather, it was that it was the singular vision of an occasionally brilliant filmmaker. Love it or hate it, there was nothing like it in all of superhero film history. At least, there wasn’t untilMan of Steel came along and aped everything about it from its style on down to its pseudophilosophy.

And let’s not pretend like Man of Steel was some box office behemoth that proved the grim n’gritty approach was the right way to go. Though the movie almost certainly made its money back, $668 million against a $300+ million budget ($225 production + distribution and marketing) isn’t all that great, especially when you take into account the fact that a good chunk of ticket sales goes back to theaters. I mean, there’s a reason the sequel –Batman v Superman – has the Caped Crusader front and center. He’s their box office golden boy....