Reflecting On Comic Book Finale Destruction

Thanks to the countless runs of Man of Steel on FX in the past few years I have constantly found myself flipping to the latest Superman movie any time it happens to be on television.  Even though Marvel happens to be the big man on campus lately in regard to a cinematic universe and filmography, DC is attempting to catch up with the soon-to-be-released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  With these two titans of comic books battling things out for several decades now, it has obviously led to similar fights (but mostly with just words typed on computer keypads in the basements of lonely boys' parents' houses).

One such fight is in regard to the amount of destruction Superman and General Zod wreak on the city of Metropolis in the final act of Man of Steel.  It is a fair complaint as director Zack Snyder utterly demolishes the architecture and infrastructure of Metropolis (as well as some heavy carnage of Smallville, Superman's hometown).  What is probably not quite as fair is how Marvel (and some DC) fans have clung to the argument like the symbiotic ooze that turns Eddie Brock into Venom and completely vilified the movie.  They ignore any credible merits the film might have and immediately start complaining that Snyder ruins the mythos of Superman because he probably kills more people than he saves by fighting Zod in the middle of the city.

However, after another viewing of Marvel's The Avengers on TV the other night I realized something: Joss Whedon does the exact same thing to New York City in his movie.  When the Chitauri invade, multiple buildings, streets, and vehicles are annihilated during the battle as the Avengers attempt to save the civilians and defeat the alien race.  Now, because it is a Marvel movie, which is much more family friendly and has an up-beat tone throughout the cinematic universe, you don't see a single person die from all the destruction.  The more somber tone of DC does show buildings falling on masses of people running for their lives and leaves nothing to the imagination that death befell several thousands of people (if not tens of thousands).  So why does Marvel's ending not get the same amount of grief as DC's?

I get where you Marvel fans are coming from.  When anything remotely poor comes from the James Bond series, I either find a suitable defense that I likely don't really believe in myself or dismiss it and attempt to move the conversation along.  You have to back your heroes.  But an objective look at the finale of both films will pretty much show that the cities in each film series gets hit pretty hard (although Metropolis' destruction likely would win if you stacked up the construction costs it is going to take to rebuild).