The Tesla Cybertruck has always been a magnet for both innovation and intrigue, but the latest third-party modification takes its futuristic aura to another levela $10,000 solar panel wrap that adds more range. While Tesla itself teased the idea of a solar-powered Cybertruck, this bold move by California-based Sunflare Solar gives the concept a tangible form. But the question lingers: is this ambitious wrap the leap forward it claims to be, or just an expensive novelty?To understand the appeal, lets revisit Teslas early flirtations with solar integration. Back in 2017, Elon Musk floated the idea of equipping the Model 3 with solar cells, though the technology then was deemed impractical. Fast forward a few years, and solar cell efficiency has improved significantly, with Tesla channeling its expertise into products like solar roof tiles. Musk reignited excitement in 2019 by announcing the Cybertruck would feature a solar roof capable of adding up to 15 miles of range daily. However, this feature never materialized (like a lot of Musks promises), leaving enthusiasts to wonder what could have been. Enter Sunflare Solar, which decided to fill that gap with its own cutting-edge solution.Designer: Sunflare SolarShowcased at CES 2025, Sunflare Solars flexible panels adhere seamlessly to the Cybertrucks flat, angular surfaces, generating up to 1.5 kW of power. This translates into roughly the same 15-mile daily range Musk once envisioned for Teslas solar roof. The package includes a 5 kW battery inverter to channel that energy back into the truck, theoretically making off-grid adventures a bit more self-sustaining. On paper, the concept is undeniably coola rugged electric vehicle gaining autonomy with renewable energy. But lets peel back the shiny layer and assess the trade-offs.One of the Cybertrucks hallmark features is its stainless steel exterior, celebrated for its durability and carefree resistance to scratches. The solar wrap, while innovative, swaps this resilience for fragility. Solar panels, even flexible ones, arent impervious to the rigors of outdoor wear and tear. Off-road trips, harsh weather, and everyday debris could all pose risks to these expensive cells, raising doubts about their long-term viability. Practicality becomes a sticking point when you consider the original ethos of the Cybertruck: an indestructible utility vehicle.Moreover, the inherent limitations of car-mounted solar panels cant be ignored. Despite advancements, the energy yield from panels covering a vehicles surface area remains modest. The 15 miles of extra range might be enticing for niche scenarios, like remote camping or commuting in sunny regions, but its far from game-changing. For most drivers, the added utility may not justify the hefty price tagespecially when home-based solar systems provide a far more efficient alternative.And yet, theres an undeniable allure to the concept. The visual impact of a Cybertruck cloaked in solar cells is enough to turn heads, and the idea of harnessing the suns power on the go taps into our collective fascination with sustainability and innovation. After all, its a lot better than a gold Cybertruck or one with Trumps face painted on it.This leaves us in a familiar place with Tesla and its ecosystem: balancing groundbreaking ideas with real-world usability. The Cybertruck itself is no stranger to polarizing opinions, and this solar wrap continues that tradition. Whether its a fleeting trend or a glimpse into the future, one thing is clearit keeps the Cybertruck in the spotlight, sparking discussions that blend tech, design, and sustainability.For now, the $10,000 question looms: is this the dawn of a new era for solar-powered vehicles, or just a shiny experiment destined for a niche audience? Time, and miles, will tell.The post Tesla Cybertruck with a Solar Panel Wrap Gives it an Extra 15 Miles of Range first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ignore the haters, this is a refresh worth celebrating.

Huione Guarantee, a gray market researchers believe is central to the online scam ecosystem, now includes a messaging app, stablecoin, and crypto exchangewhile facilitating $24 billion in transactions.

Nintendo has made a remarkable turnaround with the Switch where third-party support is concerned, and reports continue to insist that the companys upcoming next-gen console is going to continue down that path. Allegedly, thats set to encompass not only a large number of Ubisoft titles, but also a major upcoming Konami release that many have been looking forward to for some time.Known leaker NateTheHate recently claimed in his podcast that Konami is working on a Nintendo Switch 2 version of its upcoming remake,Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.The leaker stated that he was unsure of whether the game would see a day and date on the Switch 2 alongside other platforms- as youd imagine, that would depend entirely on when the game releases.And whenwillit release? Konami hasnt said much on that front, but recently seemed to suggest that the game officially in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC will release sometime this year.As for the Nintendo Switch 2, its claimed that the console will be officially unveiled at long last later this week, so stay tuned for more details.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"The Gnomon Workshop has released World Building using Blender and Photoshop, a guide to visual development for games, animation and VFX, recorded by Concept Artist Thiago Sousa.The workshop, which is aimed at junior and intermediate-level artists, provides over two hours of video training in Blender and Photoshop.Create environment concepts suitable for games, animation or VFX projectsIn the workshop, Sousa presents his complete workflow for creating the foundation for a world, from conception of a simple story through to the final environment.The aim is not simply to create a single scene, but a base that can continue to be developed.He begins by providing tips for establishing the main elements of a story, and how to find and organize reference images, before moving on to sketching out ideas.Costa uses open-source 3D software Blender to block out the scene, demonstrating how to test your initial ideas using basic tools.He also discusses the importance of camera angles, and how to generate multiple renders to visualize the world as it comes to life.For the final steps, Costa moves to Photoshop, where he shares his techniques for painting, photobashing, and polishing a chosen scene.As well as the training videos, viewers of the workshop can download Costas Blender project file with all of the 3D assets and cameras, and a layered Photoshop file with adjustments.About the artistTiago Sousa is a Concept Artist at visual development and game asset creation studio Volta.He previously worked at at game studio Insane on the MMORPG Profane, and has contributed to projects including Spider-Man 2, Last Epoch, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Diablo Immortal.Pricing and availabilityWorld Building using Blender and Photoshop is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.Read more about World Building using Blender and PhotoshopHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.

Later in 1967, flower children of all ages gathered in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Ted Streshinsky Photographic Archive / Getty ImagesOn a sunny, unseasonably warm winter day in 1967, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people participated in what would become a preview of the Summer of Love. On January 14, hippies and other counterculture participants swarmed to the polo grounds in San Franciscos Golden Gate Park in a gathering called the Human Be-In.Timothy Leary advised attendees to Turn on, tune in, drop out. Bands including the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane played and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti made appearances. A parachuterrumored to be famous chemist Owsley Stanley IIIgave out LSD. Hells Angels acted as the events security.People sat on the grass with nothing to do, sometimes moving up near to the small platform where a poetry-reading might be going on, or where a band might be playing. There was no program; it was a happening, wrote researcher Helen Perry, who attended the event and likened it to a religious rite.The happening was an effort spearheaded by Allen Cohen and Michael Bowen, who were among the founders of the underground newspaper the San Francisco Oracle, to bring together various cultural and political groups in what they called a gathering of the tribes. In the lead-up to the event, the underground newspaper the Berkeley Barb wrote, Berkeley political activists are going to join San Franciscos hippies in a love feast that will, hopefully, wipe out the last remnants of mutual skepticism and suspicion.The Be-Ins organizers based their plans off a smaller event the previous fall called the Love Pageant Rally, which was held to mark the day California outlawed LSD. That event saw several thousand people attend in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and Golden Gate Park, but the Be-Ins organizers wanted to achieve something even bigger.There was an awakening going on, and we knew it was happening across the country, and we knew there were pockets of people out there who felt isolated and alone and scared, Martine Algier, who helped publicize the Be-In, told the San Francisco Chronicle on the events 50th anniversary. We wanted to send a signal out to them: 'Hey, it's OK to come out and spread your wings.Send a signal they did: Mass media covered the successful Be-In, showing youth all over the country that San Francisco was the epicenter of the counterculture. Retrospectively, I feel quite certain that the Be-In also marked the beginning of nationwide attention, Perry wrote.Young people began to pour into San Francisco after the event. The crowds on Haight Street got bigger and bigger and bigger, Rusty Goldman, a 1960s historian and archivist who was at the Be-In, told the Chronicle. Word spread like fire. Everybody came to San Francisco.A February article in Newsweek called what was happening a psychedelic picnic. As more people began to move to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, countercultural leaders realized they needed to organize for the influx and created a council. In April, the council held a press conference urging Americas youth to come be part of what was happening in San Francisco that summerit was time for the Summer of Love.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: California, Movement Leaders, On This Day in History, Protest, San Francisco

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreEuropes Imec.xpand is spinning out memory chip firm Vertical Compute in a seed investment round worth $20.5 million. Founded by CEO Sylvain Dubois (ex-Google) and CTO Sebastien Couet (ex-imec), today announced that it successfully closed a seed investment $20.5 million, or 20 million euros. The round was led by Imec.xpand and supported by a strong investor base including Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion and imec. The funding will support Vertical Computes ambition to develop a novel vertical integrated memory and compute technology, unlocking a new generation of AI applications.Vertical Computes technology will have a transformative impact, enabling next-generation applications with unparalleled efficiency and privacy. By minimizing data movement and bringing large data closer to computation, the innovation ensures energy savings of up to 80%, unlocks hyper-personalized AI solutions, and eliminates the need for remote data transfers, protecting user privacy.Memory technologies face limitations in both density and performance scaling, while processor performance continues to surge. The extreme data access requirements of AI workloads exacerbate this challenge, making it imperative to overcome the memory wall to enable the next wave of AI innovations. We believe going Vertical is the path to 100X gains, said Sbastien Couet, CTO of Vertical Compute, in a statement.Tackling the Memory WallThe rapid advancements in large language models and generative AI are transforming virtually all industries at an unprecedented pace. However, these large-scale AI models still heavily rely on complex cloud infrastructure and high bandwidth memories, leading to data transfer latency, high energy consumption and sending sensitive data to distant servers. Edge computing can address these issues, but inferencing large AI models on smartphones, PCs or smart home devices faces significant cost, power and scalability constraints.The big underlying problem is the memory wall. Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), integrated as caches of the CPU or GPU, is fast but very small and expensive. Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM), the main memory of compute systems, is larger but expensive and energy-consuming. The scaling of both memory technologies in density and performance is slowing down while processor speeds and market needs keep increasing, causing a significant bottleneck. This problem is rapidly escalating due to the surging demand for AI workloads, requiring vast amounts of data to be accessed quickly. Overcoming this memory wall is crucial for advancing AI inference.Innovating with Vertical Computes Chiplet TechnologyVertical Compute is spinning out of Imec.The convergence of large-scale AI models and edge computing calls for a transformative shift in the way data is processed. Vertical Compute will capture this opportunity by developing chiplet-based solutions which take a modular approach to chip design leveraging a new way to store bits in a high aspect ratio vertical structure. The concept behind Vertical Computes core patented technology has been invented by Sebastien Couet, Imecs former Magnetic Program Director. The core innovation resides in the integration of vertical data lanes on top of computation units. It has the potential to outperform DRAM in terms of density, cost and energy, by reducing data movements from centimeters to nanometers. This promising technology, coupled with an ambitious commercialization plan, has led to the creation of this new semiconductor venture.The surge in data-intensive applications like generative AI demands a drastic new approach to transferring data between computing cores and memory units. Our solution is designed to overcome the fundamental scaling limitations of memory technologies by going vertical. We are committed to unlocking the full potential of large language models on the edge without any compromise, said Sylvain Dubois, CEO of Vertical Compute, in a statement.We want to recruit the very best from all over Europe, and finally put Europe at the forefront in terms of tech, said Dubois.Driving Recruitment and GrowthVertical Compute is headquartered in Louvain-La-Neuve (BE), with its main R&D offices in Leuven (BE), Grenoble (FR) and Nice (FR). The company is recruiting an elite team of engineers to support its ambitious R&D goals and accelerate the development and commercialization of its chiplet-based technology.This seed investment round highlights the confidence in the leadership teams capabilities and the disruptive potential of this game-changing technology. We could not be more excited to collaborate with Sylvain, Sebastien and their team and to help them to achieve their ambitious goals, said Tom Vanhoutte from Imec.xpand, in a statement.We are confident that, with the ongoing support of our teams and ecosystem, Vertical Compute can become a disruptor in the semiconductor industry. The strong international investor base shows that we are not alone in this belief, said Patrick Vandenameele, co-COO at Imec, in a statement. Vertical Compute was founded in 2024 to solve the memory bottleneck in computer systems.Daily insights on business use cases with VB DailyIf you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.Read our Privacy PolicyThanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.An error occured.

Knowledge Retrieval systems have been prevalent for decades in many industries, such as healthcare, education, research, finance, etc. Their modern-day usage has integrated large language models(LLMs) that have increased their contextual capabilities, providing accurate and relevant answers to user queries. However, to better rely on these systems in cases of ambiguous queries and the latest information retrieval, which results in factually inaccurate or irrelevant answers, there is a need to integrate dynamic adaptation capabilities and increase the contextual understanding of the LLMs. Researchers from the National Taiwan University and National Chengchi University have introduced a novel methodology that combines retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with adaptive, context-sensitive mechanisms to enhance the accuracy and reliability of LLMs.Traditional retrieval systems often relied on indexing documents and prioritizing keyword matching. This leads to contextually irrelevant responses as they lack the capability to handle vague inputs. Moreover, failure to adapt to new information may produce incorrect outputs. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a more advanced approach combining retrieval and generation capabilities. Although RAG allows real-time information integration, it is unreliable and struggles to maintain factual accuracy due to its dependence on pre-trained knowledge bases. Therefore, we need a new method to seamlessly integrate generation and retrieval processes and adapt dynamically.The proposed method uses a multi-step, dynamic strategy to further improve the combination of RAG and information retrieval. The mechanism of the approach is as follows:Contextual Embedding Techniques: The input queries are converted into vector representations to capture semantic meaning. Such embeddings can understand ambiguous queries better and provide more appropriate information.Adaptive Attention Mechanisms: In order to seamlessly embed real-time information with information retrieval, this method uses an attention mechanism that can dynamically adjust itself to focus on the specific context of the user queries.Dual-Model Framework: It consists of a retrieval model and a generative model. While the former is adept at extracting information from structured and unstructured sources, the latter can assemble this information and provide cohesive responses.Fine-Tuned Training: When employed for a particular industry, the model can be fine-tuned for the specific datasets for an even more contextual understanding.This method was tested on Chinese Wikipedia and Lawbank and achieved significant retrieval precision compared to baseline RAG models. There was a substantial reduction in hallucination errors, producing outputs closely aligned with the retrieved data. Despite its two-stage retrieval, this method maintained a competitive latency suitable for real-time applications in all possible domains. Also, simulated real-world scenarios show increased user satisfaction with more accurate and contextually relevant responses from the system.The RAG-based retrieval system in the proposed methodology is a breakthrough concerning some of the significant deficiencies of traditional RAG systems. It guarantees much better accuracy and reliability across applications through dynamic adaptation of retrieval strategies and better incorporation of knowledge into generative outputs. The scalability and domain adaptability of the methodology makes it a milestone for future improvements in retrieval-augmented AI systems, providing a robust solution for information-intensive tasks in critical industries.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit.(Promoted) Afeerah Naseem+ postsAfeerah Naseem is a consulting intern at Marktechpost. She is pursuing her B.tech from the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Kharagpur. She is passionate about Data Science and fascinated by the role of artificial intelligence in solving real-world problems. She loves discovering new technologies and exploring how they can make everyday tasks easier and more efficient. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

PS5 gamers rejoice, because a popular PS5 exclusive game is on sale today. Stellar Blade is currently discounted at Best Buy for only $39.99 after a hefty 43% price drop. This is $10 lower than the best price I saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This discount is exclusively at Best Buy, although other retailers like Amazon may price match later.43% Off Stellar Blade (Save $30)PlayStation 5 ExclusiveStellar BladeStellar Blade, the first stateside non-gacha from Shift Up, is a well-reviewed game that's best known for its challenging soulslike gameplay, outstanding graphics, killer soundtrack... and, of course, its suggestive character design. In our Stellar Blade review, Mitchell Saltzman wrote that "Stellar Blade stands out as a gorgeous and well-crafted action game with very impressive strengths and very clear weaknesses. Both its story and characters lack substance, and some of its RPG elements are poorly implemented, like dull sidequests that very often require you to retrace your steps through previous levels with very little done to make the return trip feel unique or rewarding. But its action picks up most of that slack thanks to the rock solid fundamentals of its Sekiro-inspired combat system, a deep well of hideous monstrosities to sharpen your sword against, and plenty of hidden goodies that do a great job of incentivizing exploration throughout." IGN officially rated Stellar Blade a 7/10, although I personally loved this game and would have given it a higher score. It didn't make it into our list of best PS5 games of 2024, but only because it was too new (had to be out for 6 months or longer).Stellar Blade is a technically demanding game and I run it in "Performance" mode to maintain 60fps. If you own a PlayStation 5 Pro, however, you'll get the best of both worlds and play in "Enhanced" 4K mode and still get great framerates. According to the official PlayStation blog post, With PS5 Pro, players will be able to enjoy Stellar Blade in 4K resolution at 50fps or more, with smoother gameplay, and youll notice an improvement in grain and detail in the game in PSSR upscale mode. Plus, the HFR (high framerate) option is supported, allowing you to enjoy a fluid gaming experience at 80fps (120hz display support required).Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

The FlashAquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but that underwater superhero movie arrived in theaters like a sunken afterthought. Meanwhile The Flash, directed with a lot of pep and energy by filmmaker Andy Muschietti, came roaring out and swinging for the fences.With a galaxy-brained premise that spent close to a decade in production, The Flash saw Ezra Millers super-speedster cause the entire DC universe to implode after he went back in time to prevent the murder of his mom. In the end, a major reason the film finally got off the ground is that the powers-that-be at the time saw The Flash as a fresh start. It would be the movie that allowed Warner Bros. Pictures to fix the real and substantial flaws in the previous DCEU installments by hitting an in-canon reset button that would replace Ben Afflecks Batman with Michael Keaton and introduce Sasha Calle as a an underrated Supergirl. It also would service fans with cameos by Affleck, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Michael Shannon as Kryptons dastardly General Zod, and even Nicolas Cage as a long-haired Superman fighting a giant spider, an easter egg that only the most dedicated Kal-El fans (and/or Kevin Smith diehards) would get.Its safe to say The Flash screenplay attempted to do a lot. Too much. And like the DCEU as a whole, it proved to be in a huge hurry getting nowhere. Even though the then newly installed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav trumpeted the movie as the best superhero movie Ive ever seen, audiences by and large disagreed. At least those who showed up.After the movie received a mixed 63 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Flash opened to a disastrous $55 million in the U.S. and would go on to earn only $271 million globally. Its a bleak figure when compared to the films reported $200 million budget (and the number is probably larger, even before marketing and publicity costs are tallied in). So despite being intended to set up grand new things for the DCEU, The Flash traveled super-fast down a road to nowhere.Looking back on the films reception, director Muschietti has a theory about why it didnt work. Speaking with Radio Tus La Baulera del Coso Variety, Muschietti said, The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasnt a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that. When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters. The director went on to add that people generally dont seem to care about the Flash character, especially women.Ive found in private conversations that a lot of people just dont care about the Flash as a character, Muschietti said. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film Ive learned.Muschietti is not entirely wrong (though close). It is fair to say that while comic book fans might adore DC Comics fastest man alive, he does not enjoy the same widespread popularity of Batman and Superman, or Spider-Man and the X-Men across the street. However, there was also a time not that long ago where the same could be said about Iron Man. Or Captain America. Or the Guardians of the Galaxy and their talking raccoon. Yet all of them became the faces of multi-billion dollar franchises with four-quadrant appeal, and none of those characters had a hit TV series on the female-skewing CW networkSo why didnt the same thing happen for the Flash? While this is ultimately just an educated guess, we have some ideas.A Falling StarIt is difficult to diagnose how much bad PR or social media chatter influences the average moviegoers perception of a superhero movie. As recent history has shown, audiences are only too happy to show up for a new superhero movie starring an actor they have never heard of but then fail to return after that same performer becomes a star. As future Captain America Anthony Mackie succinctly put it, Anthony Mackie isnt a movie star. Falcon is a movie star.Be that as it may, the marketing push of all major Hollywood movies these days still need to pivot around a real face and personality, even if its just the guy who plays Falcon. Or the Flash for that matter. Someone who can do the interview junkets, the late night television rounds, and show up on younger skewing online programs that run the gamut from Celebs Play with Puppies to Hot Ones. It may not make them a star, but it makes them a face that reminds audiences that a big movie is coming, and they should theoretically be excited about it.Yet when it came to The Flash that proved frustratingly impossible. Or at least implausible considering the allegations and legal entanglements the Flash actor Miller found themselves in by 2023. Whether general audiences were fully aware of Millers troubles or struggle with mental health is difficult to say, but the fact of the matter is WB wisely decided The Flashs biggest lead should not promote the film, and its second biggest lead, Michael Keaton, chose not to. Newcomer Sasha Calle gave it an impressive college try, but she played a character audiences were unsure abouta Supergirl from a different universe who may not appear in another DC filmand didnt have the resume of working in previous DC films.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!In other words, Millers absence createda black hole in the marketing campaign around The Flash that nobody was able to fill. That is a pretty major problem right there, but its not the biggestWB Already Signaled This Was the End of the LineIn January 2023, new DC Studios co-head James Gunn boldly announced the first slate of what he dubbed the new DC Universe. There would be a new Superman movie with a new actor and timeline, then tentatively titled Superman: Legacy; there would be TV shows in live-action and animation; there would even be a new Batman unrelated to either Ben Afflecks character in the DCEU or the one played by Robert Pattinson in The Batman; and there would be a new SupergirlSupergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.When asked whether Calle might play that Supergirl, Gunn at the time was vague and perhaps evasive. It left room for fan speculation, as well as intense skepticism. And that was in regard to The Flashs biggest new addition to the DC Extended Universe. Meanwhile it was already confirmed by then that Henry Cavill was done as Superman, Gal Gadot seemed unlikely to play Wonder Woman again as she seemingly said goodbye to the character on social media, and Affleck had spent the past half-decade with one foot out the door.The entire lineup of the DCEUs once glistening Justice League was going, going, gone, and whatever promises The Flash made about the next era of the onscreen DC universe seemed illusory at best. And so they were. House of the Dragons Milly Alcock is now Supergirl, Gunn and Muschietti are both allegedly creating a new Batman for The Brave and the Bold, and David Corenswets Superman presumably hails from a far sunnier Krypton than the bleak hellscape Michael Shannon represented in The Flash.Like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman 2, and the rest of the 2023 DC slate, The Flash arrived two years ago as a lame duck, a new phenomenon in cinema created by the industrial scale at which superhero flicks are now churned out. Admittedly, a movie should be enjoyable unto itself as a complete experience. And whatever else you might think of The Flash, we do concede it is a self-contained story with a beginning, middle, and end. However, it is also a piece of a studios grander marketing strategy, and for the last 20 years Marvel, Disney, and sure enough the DCEU have trained media-savvy fans to anticipate each film as a pseudo-commercial for the next two or three in the pipeline.The brilliance (or cynicism) of Marvels success is that each product acts as a commercial for the next one, and the fans cheer all the louder when they can piece together what the advertisement means like a child deciphering their Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring. But when you publicly and forcefully announce the next four films will be advertising things that will never comelike Calle as Supergirl or a world where Millers Flash will have a key role opposite George Clooney(?!)it turns into the equivalent of false advertising.And no one wants that. And Then Theres the Rest of the DCEUOf course there is a reason WB brought in James Gunn and Peter Safran to ultimately reboot and remake the DC Universe in their own image: the DCEU brand had become hopelessly toxic even before Gunn publicly pulled the plug.While fandom worlds were rocked about a decade earlier when Zack Snyder announced that Batman would appear in the sequel to Man of Steel, which in turn would lead into Justice League, the castle he promised turned out to be made of sand. Snyders Batman v Superman: Dawn of JusticeBvS from earning $874 million in 2023. Consider instead the massive drop off between that film and the following years Justice League, which despite being the big one opened to about $94 million (down 44 percent from BvS debut) and wound up grossing only $661 million worldwide. Thats a far cry from Avengers billion-dollar expectations.The DCEU had critical and financial successes outside of that trajectory, too. Patty Jenkins Wonder WomanWonder Woman 1984The Suicide SquadBefore The Flash and the other DCEU movies of 2023 were abandoned, the previous three theatrically released DCEU movies (not counting WW84) either underperformed or outright flopped, including 2022s much maligned Black Adam, which was unsuccessfully marketed by its star Dwayne Johnson around the idea that the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is changed.Ultimately, audiences came to the conclusion long before WB that the DCEU brand was unsustainable, and viewed new trailers not with the excitement of the Marvel Studios joint in the 2010s, but with the kind of derision and incredulity that was greeting late-era Fox X-Men movies (think Dark Phoenix and New Mutants). The DCEUs brand perception was in free-fall by the time The Flash came along, and this was not the movie to turn things around.Read more Superhero FatigueStill, at the end of the day, The Flash did not die alone. In fact, 2023 marked not only the end of the DCEU but the first year where Marvel Studios experienced its first unmitigated flop. The Disney studio had seen underperformers before, including the then-recent Eternals (2021). They also experienced another at the beginning of the year when Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaAll that turned out to be small potatoes when compared to The Marvels earning a bleak $206 million worldwide, and less than $85 million in the U.S. For context, the first Captain Marvel grossed nearly double that latter figure in its opening weekend.Audiences increasingly show a higher degree of burnout and weariness when it comes to the superhero genre. But that might just be another way of saying theyre better at parsing out capestuff that is of dubious quality. Now mediocre superhero movies will not become runaway box office hits by virtue of their genre and/or universe. The Flash was just one casualty in a growing battlefields worth of bland, fallen superhero fodder.Luckily, does not mean the genre is dead or the future dimmed. Last years Deadpool & WolverineSuperhero movie fatigue is real. But a movie that delivers whats on the box can still beat it. Unfortunately, The Flash didnt deliver for much of anyone.