I was having this discussion with my 21 year old son who is back for spring break. When I was a kid, we all loved comic books which are basically graphic novels and graphic novel are basically movie story boards. We only read Marvel comic books. I do not remember a single DC comic book in the entire neighborhood as a kid. The Walt Disney Company acquired most of Marvels characters right after they bought the Star Wars characters from George Lucas so you can pretty much expect comic book based movies and theme park rides until the end of time on those characters.
To me, it wasn’t even close.
DC had Batman and Superman. As far as villains DC has the Joker. I admit that Batman and the Joker are cool but Superman is boring except for the whole Clark Kent thing.
I don’t think the Joker has any real super powers but he makes up for it by being a really pissed off psychopath. Batman was cool because his parents were killed and he had that whole brooding thing going for him. OTOH, most of the Marvel characters I read about as a kid were cool and complex Spiderman being the best because he was a conflicted teenager with secrets and girl problems. Who couldn’t relate to that?
Despite Marvels advantages, my son things the DC movies are better because they have a “darker tone” and less wisecracking during the action. What do you guys and gals think?
Have you seen the Daredevil and Jessica Jones series on Netflix? Second season of Daredevil is out March 18th!! Darker for sure. Agents of Shield and Agent Peggy Carter are not exactly upbeat. But Howard Stark is great to watch, great character. Not really campy anymore.
No, I haven’t, thanks for the heads up. It seems there is no end to the market demand for superheroes on TV or on the big screen. Hollywood is mining that gold since the characters are pre-built. Hollywood also loves taking characters from popular and YA novels for the same reason.
Marvel series and movies are all tied to each other. Easter eggs in all! DC on the other hand…We do watch the Arrow series and the Flash and the new DC Legends of Tomorrow. Those all have crossovers as do Supergirl to Flash. We shall see. Constantine also made an appearance from another station on Arrow.
I did not think I would be able to get through Ant-man. But I was pleasantly surprised. Having Michael Douglas really saved it for me since I am NOT a Paul Rudd fan. At all.
I was a Rocket fan since FOREVER so GOTG is my fav. Besides Cap, of course. I have the soundtrack on all the time from guardians. Can’t wait for Mix 2!!!
My son made this comment about Batman vs Superman which I don’t think is even out yet. But, apparently, he saw the trailer. Anyway, his comment was that they “ruined” the B vs S movie by bringing Wonder Women in for no reason. That would throw me out of the story too. Its great for demographics but it ruins the story so ultimately it sucks IMHO.
I think Marvel has done a better job, especially recently, in turning its characters into movies. I think they’ve done this by paying attention to the source material, and figuring out what makes it appealing. They’ve also had the benefit of really excellent casting for a lot of the characters–especially Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and now Deadpool.
DC, on the other hand, has had weaker casting (in a number of the Batman movies), and has often ignored elements of the source material to the detriment of the movies. For example, I liked Christopher Reeve as Superman, but the treatment of Luthor and the appearance of non-canonical powers for Superman annoyed me. I confess I haven’t even seen the more recent Superman movies, which says something. The Batman movies with Christian Bale were OK–Heath Ledger as the Joker was pretty much perfect. I never really bought Bale as Batman, though. (Of course, I didn’t buy Keaton, Kilmer, or Clooney, either. Am I remembering correctly? Was Val Kilmer really Batman?) I’ve enjoyed the trailers for the new SvB movie–I think the portrayal of Luthor may be good.
Back in the former golden age of comics and comic-based films and TV, DC was far more successful than Marvel. Marvel was really a minor league of not-ready-for-prime-time superheros. And DC kind of kicked off the current even more golden age of comics by letting Frank Miller give Batman an adult treatment in The Dark Knight Returns (the graphic novel, not the movie).
But Marvel . . . Marvel has made one brilliant move after another, under a succession of owners. X-Men was THE great comic of the 70s and 80s. Frank Miller got his start at Marvel, drawing Daredevil. Marvel jumped on the idea of flawed superheroes and psychological complexity, and vastly expanded the shared alternate reality of its many properties into the Marvelverse. (And Hayley Atwell . . . she looks like Ingrid Bergman in her prime, with a gym membership. Shazam!)
Not every Marvel idea is a success. Jessica Jones was too dark for me, and I like dark. There are some bad X-Men movies. I don’t know about Ant-Man. But there’s no question that Marvel is running circles around DC these days. The very idea of Superman vs. Batman sounds tired to me.
Hayley Atwell not only looks great, but she’s smart. I love watching her and so does dh. I was happy to watch the X-Men movies, but more for the old guys than the young-uns. I’m not crazy about Agents of Shield, but dh likes it. I feel like the universe is broken if everyone can live forever and do pretty much anything.
I prefer the Marvel characters - Ironman, Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers are favorites.
Deadpool was a big disappointment. The thought of walking out of the movie crossed my mind.
As a kid I preferred DC, but sincentives Disney teamed up with Marvel, they have been so much better.
Nolan’s Batman was brilliant. But the last Superman was tedious and I’m not optimistic about Batman vs Superman.
Meanwhile, Marvel has given us RDJ as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Cap, and the hilarious Guardians of the Galaxy. If you want dark, Jessica Jones was amazing. David Tennant was especially well cast. Now if they could get Black Widow her own film, that would be great.
Honestly, since Disney did so well with Marvel, I knew that Star Wars would be in good hands. I wasn’t wrong.
I think you also have to give Marvel credit for putting out movies that exist in the same universe, but don’t all have the same tone. You don’t have to like Deadpool (although I did) to like Ant-Man.
I’ll give Marvel the nod too. I still have boxes (and boxes and boxes) from both and pull them out from time to time, but never seem to re-read the DC other than Detective Comics, and maybe the death of superman. At risk of being too much of a comic book nerd, I’d love to seem some of the stuff from First or the early Dark Horse stuff make it to the screen.
Marvel made the smart move years ago when it created it’s own movie studio, because results from the initial licensing of Spider Man, Daredevil and Fantastic Four did not keep up with expectations. Spider Man movies did well initially but petered out. Disney saw the success of Marvel Studios (Iron Man) and made the decision to purchase it…and LEAVE IT ALONE. Good move.
For some reason DC/Warner has no imagination when transferring its characters to the silver screen. Prime example, IMO, is Green Lantern. The whole George Lucas Jedi Knight thing is essentially a different take on The Green Lantern Corps. Yet it took ages for DC/Warner to try to capitalize on the shared themes…and then they hit us with a really flimsy movie (and I am a Ryan Reynolds fan!). I thought Henry Cavill was wooden in Man of Steel. I have hopes for Affleck as a dark an angry Bats. The whole point of introducing Wonder Woman in Supes vs Bats is to lay the foundation for her solo adventure. Judging from the trailers, I think DC/Warner will get it right with ‘The Suicide Squad;’ Good casting with real actors, with the exception of Will Smith and Common, neither of whom can act. I predict that Viola Davis will be a very good ‘Amanda Waller.’
It’s frustrating with DC, liking the actors who play the characters now on the TV series and then supposedly new ones for the movies. UGH. The suicide squad was on earlier in Arrow and the cross overs with Arrow and Flash I really enjoy. Ollie I think is in season 4 already. And the bad guys and extras are interesting on Legends of Tomorrow. Don’t know if I like the Rip actor though. The same actor playing the Atom is of course a previous Superman. It just gets so weird.
Thanks all. There are some interesting comments on this thread about what makes a movie work and what doesn’t. I completely agree that Marvel’s decision to create its own movie studio was much smarter and more profitable than licensing the characters to others who just didn’t get them. And I agree it is a win-win for Disney to buy Marvel and GL out and essentially pay for the characters. GL can’t take Hans Solo to the grave. Buy selling to Disney his characters live forever. Jim Henson had a chance to sell his characters to Disney but he held out for more money and that was a mistake. I could be wrong, not sure about that.
But when Disney gets your characters they will be taken care of. They will be stars in theme parks and on lunch boxes. You can’t turn that down arguing about another million or two.
What is really interesting is a few other companies are getting in on the Disney model with theme parks and the whoel deal. Smart. Very smart.
This just in … apparently Captain America and Iron Man do not like each other. Civil War. Out in May 2016. There really is no end to the cross connections you can do with all these rich and complex characters.