When provided two titans of merchandising, the masses
usually force us to pick a side, whether that’s Coke or Pepsi (I’m a Dr. Pepper
man myself), Miracle Whip or mayonnaise (whatever), or Ford or Chevy (the
Japanese know what’s up). Rivalries are
even found in the brand of comic books you read. Diehards refuse to be admirers of both Marvel
and DC.
That gap of opposition has become a cavern since Marvel hit
the ground running in 2008 with its cinematic universe. The merits of Marvel versus DC in the mediums
of comic book and film/television aren’t what I really want to focus on
today. Both have their pros and
cons. Instead, what I want to reflect on
is how much has changed in the past decade.
I don’t think anyone could argue with the success Marvel has
had with their cinematic universe. Even
DC fans have to concede that the box office numbers and critical acceptance of
Marvel’s films in the past decade have been better than anyone could have
expected. And now DC is dipping their
toes in a similar pool with an extended universe that includes its cast of
characters Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. But those toes are finding that the waters
are more tepid than Marvel’s oasis.
This time 10 years ago, the only valuable character DC had
at the box office was Batman after Christopher Nolan rebooted the character in
2005 with Batman Begins. Although Nolan’s Batman was all DC really had
going for itself at the time, it was the beginning of a cultural phenomenon in
regard to what a comic book movie could be.
A semi-reboot/sequel to Richard Donner’s Superman series had been
attempted with Superman Returns,
oddly enough directed by Bryan Singer who had huge success with Marvel’s X-men franchise,
but audience reaction wasn’t quite what Warner Bros. had hoped for and the
series died again, only to be completely overhauled in 2013.
In the mid-2000s, Marvel had more properties in theaters
than DC, yet, they were mostly under different production companies. Spider-man was with Sony and the X-men and
Fantastic Four were controlled by Fox.
Despite previous success with X-Men,
X2, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2,
Marvel would soon realize that quantity is not the same as quality. Some of the box office flops and/or critical
bombs included Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,
X-Men: The Last Stand, Ghost Rider, and Spider-Man 3.
So at the beginning of 2007, DC is feeling really good with
Nolan’s follow-up film The Dark Knight
a year away and Marvel is working on an experiment to make numerous films with
multiple comic book characters in order to have crossover events that resemble
the comic book universe. This is a huge
gamble for Marvel and could be financial suicide.
So what happens in the following 10 years? Well, Marvel’s gamble pays off and DC decides
to implement the highest form of flattery by imitating what Marvel did. And after last night’s viewing of Suicide Squad, it is my opinion that
they are doing a poor job of it. Even
Marvel has had some disappointing movies in its series of 14 films, but for the
most part they have done a great job of providing superior entertainment and
bringing to life the characters who have lived mostly in hand-drawn pages for
so long. DC is taking a different
approach with its properties and not having the same kind of early success that
Marvel did.
My issues with Suicide
Squad were that the plot is convoluted, the pacing erratic (which one explanation
is that, like with Batman v. Superman:
Dawn of Justice, there was a much longer story told and after heavy editing
it discredited the film more than it helped), Will Smith plays the same
character Will Smith plays in all Will Smith movies, Jared Leto’s incarnation
of the Joker isn’t as menacing as Heath Ledger’s turn in the Nolan trilogy
(despite trying desperately to be more terrifying but ending up in the realm of
silliness that even Cesar Romero’s role in the Batman television series didn’t
quite produce), the villain’s motivation and scheme are nonsensical, and all
the best/funniest parts of the movie are in the plethora of trailers. The only real high point is Margot Robbie’s
portrayal of Harley Quinn (but I could be a little bias).
If you were to go back 10 years and forecast the potential
of DC and Marvel-based movies for the future, it would have seemed that DC
would be the company on the rise and Marvel having to scramble to catch
up. Yet, DC has only had three official
films in its extended universe, and all three have been met with critical and
fan backlash. The average Rotten
Tomatoes and Metacritic scores for the DC films have been 36 and 46.3,
respectively. The averages for Marvel
are 81.6 and 66.3, respectively.
DC still has time to right the ship with Wonder Woman coming out this summer and Justice League in the fall, but they are
far behind Marvel, who is in the midst of Phase Three with solo films for new
characters like Spider-man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel between now and
2019 along with sequels to already established hits.
Who knows how things will look in another decade? DC might overtake Marvel in storytelling and
box office hits. Or, what is still
incredibly likely, the comic book movie phenomenon could be in an unstoppable
pitfall due to oversaturation of the genre.
Only time will tell.
