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This battle has been going on for as long as both this
companies have been alive. For those of you who don’t know who they are, I will
tell you. Nevertheless, you should know them. Seriously, you should! Both of
them were originally comic book publishers, and that was it. That was all they
did, and they were very good at it.
Now, they are huge entertainment companies. And when I say
huge, I mean amongst the biggest out there.
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Starting with Marvel, they are they one responsible for
Spider-Man, X-men, The Avengers and all of its related characters, Fantastic
Four, and many others. They have done a beautiful job creating these wonderful
universes, and by they, I should mean Stan Lee, the creative genius behind it
all.
Then there is DC, responsible for Superman, Batman, Wonder
Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and the Justice League.
These companies have always been competitors, and great ones
at it. And, as these companies grew, so did their competitiveness.
Now, we have more media outlets than we can count, and
customers with shorter attention spans. They are no longer just comic book
publishers, although that is still the core of what they do. Now, they have
moved into the world of movies, TV shows, video games, lots of merchandise and,
of course, still comic books.
Marvel has had some great releases in past six years,
starting with Iron Man. Since then they’ve made over 7 billion dollarsworldwide. Not bad! In my humble opinion, this happened because of two
important factors: Disney buying Marvel and Kevin Feige, president of Marvel
Entertainment and responsible for what he calls the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
DC however, made its billions across a longer period of
time. The Batman movie, all seven of them, have made over 3 billion dollarsworldwide.
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Then there is television, a very big market. DC has
dominated this market, and Marvel is just now trying to penetrate it. This is
because of their parent company, Disney, who also owns a ton of TV networks and
channels, in case you didn't notice. DC has had this benefit for a little bit longer, since Time Warner
has owned them since 1989. They’ve had long-time running shows like Smallville,
and now Arrow and The Flash, all of them on The CW network. They also have a
show called Gotham, a prequel of Batman, on FOX. Marvel currently only has
Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. Marvel has a couple more in development
for both ABC and Netflix exclusives.
A quick rundown of what I think. Marvel is winning in the
movies and comic books. DC is winning in television. It is a very tight race,
and one that DC has no plans of loosing, proven by what they’re doing with
their cinematic universe and the upcoming titles like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Justice League movie.
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Great breakdown of the differences between Marvel and DC! Personally, I'm a little surprised DC has taken this long to try to compete with Marvel on an Avengers scale, which they are relatively soon going to do with the Justice League films. While I have my doubts that the Justice League will be as popular or as easy a sell as the Avengers, I also originally thought that about Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which might be my favorite Marvel movie so far. Part of it might be attributable to the differences in tone between DC movies, whereas the Marvel films fit together a bit more easily on that front. The DC Batman films under Christopher Nolan were very dark for superhero films, and they didn't really tie-in with any other DC film franchises. Obviously, this is something they are looking to change, and while I have my mixed feelings about putting Batman and Superman in the same film (along with a host of other characters), I am very interested to see how their plan for the DC film universe going forward will pan out. I do worry a little bit about general superhero fatigue. A few years down the line, I could see audiences groaning at yet another blockbuster superhero film coming out from either Marvel or DC, which I suppose all depends on whether or not both companies can keep churning out consistently exciting films with compelling hooks to draw audiences in. Marvel's already making some interesting moves, such as their decision to include Iron Man as a main character in the next Captain America film. I don't foresee Marvel's grip on comic book superhero films loosening despite DC's efforts, but I am interested to watch DC make the attempt.
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