Marvel & DC: A Decade Reflection

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.