The Hollywood Reporter’s deep dive into Suicide Squad’s troubled production sums up the panicky creative approach that led to the film, which is a jumbled mess. Clocking in at just over two hours (relatively trim for a superhero movie), it rushes through the job of introducing its massive ensemble of antiheroes, and it is far too reliant on clunky music cues and hasty voice-over exposition. Some characters show up out of nowhere and are introduced with a single line of dialogue; others disappear from the plot without ever being addressed. The film’s tone swings wildly between brutal, dark action and whimsical comedy throughout, which is apparently partly thanks to an early, comedy-heavy trailer.

A previous cut of the film, which is written and directed by David Ayer (a purveyor of grim action dramas like End of Watch and Fury), apparently disappointed the studio. “So while Ayer pursued his original vision, Warners set about working on a different cut, with an assist from Trailer Park, the company that had made the teaser,” reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters. Having a trailer company prepare a feature-length film would be an unprecedented move for a blockbuster, but according to Masters, the studio tested both its cut and Ayer’s with audiences (its cut won out) before ordering extensive reshoots.

It’s already a bad sign that, even before its release, Suicide Squad has been the subject of a lengthy article investigating what went wrong. Even worse, these reports recall the same uncertainty that plagued Warner Bros. after the release of Batman v Superman, which prompted extensive managerial shake-ups. The DC Extended Universe is at risk of being defined by its most rabid fans, who harass critics online for writing negative reviews and rally for the closure of Rotten Tomatoes (a website that is, ironically, partly owned by Warner Bros.). The whole endeavor seems caught in a feedback loop of reshoots, behind-the-scenes tumult, and negative press, with huge expectations being placed on the next DC project—first Suicide Squad, and now Wonder Woman, due for release in June 2017.

The irony is that all of these problems have haunted Marvel Studios in the past. One of its earliest efforts, Iron Man 2, was a poorly received mess that reeked of studio meddling, sacrificing a coherent plot to lay groundwork for an upcoming slate of new heroes who would eventually form The Avengers. The studio has picked exciting directors like Edgar Wright (originally slated to make Ant-Man), only to part ways with them over “creative differences” at the last minute. Actors have been recast, films have performed tepidly with critics, and creative giants like Joss Whedon have called Marvel’s filmmaking process “really unpleasant.”

But Marvel has ultimately been successful because the studio has something the DC films so far have seemingly lacked—a honcho who oversees each work every step of the way, in producer Kevin Feige. Though directors are in charge of their own projects, Feige has shaped the whole franchise’s storytelling direction from the very beginning, lending an air of stability to the endeavor. It helps that the entire roll-out of films was meticulously planned out of necessity: When Marvel took out a $525 million loan in 2005 to launch its first slate of superhero movies, it was risking its entire financial future. Feige and directors like Jon Favreau, James Gunn, and Whedon helped turn B-list comics characters like Iron Man, Thor, and the Guardians of the Galaxy into stars. Now, it’s on secure enough ground to launch new titles like Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange.