Three Reasons Why Marvel Have Nothing To Worry About From DC
3) Newer Is Not Always Better
While there’s no debating that some things are better when they’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before, like Iron Man or The Avengers, sometimes the first movie is just a decent movie that becomes a stepping stone to a kickass sequel. Or sometimes it’s just Superman Returns. I mean seriously, remember when everyone was excited for the first Superman movie in twenty years? Let’s go through the recent examples: Batman Begins was solid, but The Dark Knight eclipsed it in nearly every way. Captain America The First Avenger was so-so, but The Winter Soldier zipped to the top of nearly everyone’s favourite MCU movie. Spider-Man 2, X-Men 2, or Days of Future Past. Hell, even Fantastic Four Rise Of The Silver Surfer was better than the “new” original. Guardians of the Galaxy may have set the box office on fire because it was new and original, but you know what else was new? Green Lantern. Ghost Rider. Daredevil.
Iron Man and Guardians didn’t succeed because they were unheard of, they succeeded because they were brilliantly made movies. same as how being “new” didn’t save the bad movies. Avengers 2 may not have yet beaten the original at the box office, but every single other sequel in the MCU has outgrossed it’s predecessor: Iron Man 2 & 3, Thor 2, Cap 2, each had more buzz and made more money than it’s original. If we define Avengers 2 as a failure because it failed to beat the original at the box office, a movie that shot up to become the third highest grossing movie in the history of movies, what’s that saying about us? That money and buzz is all that counts? If so we may as well hand the keys over to Michael Bay.
Justice League could totally be a huge success, if it’s a good movie. As for ‘new and exciting’, that’s coming in on both sides. Marvel currently has 5 superhero movies lined up based on characters who’ve never been in movies before. Wonder Woman *should* have the edge on a Captain Marvel movie based on name recognition, but as Superman Returns proved, it’s that name recognition can’t save a bad movie.
2) Kevin Feige IS In Charge For Now
The problem WB is having in desperately trying to wrangle up a DC Cinematic Universe out of thin air is that there’s no helmsman, it’s a ship without a captain. Even the insiders are admitting it’s complete chaos in DC HQ, with many writers competing with scripts. Kevin Feige is almost entirely the man responsible for the MCU, because he’s the one who makes sure every film is consistent with one another, keeping track of characters and plot points spanning several films. It’s literally his job to keep things in check, and WB doesn’t have that. Back when Man Of Steel was in need of buzz, WB waxed lyrical about how Christopher Nolan was going to godfather the whole thing. A claim which… didn’t really turn out to be true.
Sure, Zack Snyder is the best (only) example, but he’s busy making Batman V Superman to be able to keep tabs on what the other movies are doing and give them notes on what they should be doing. And after that he’ll be making Justice League, parts 1 and 2! At the moment we have Man of Steel which took the “washed out colours, dark and gritty” approach, with BvS looking to take the same route, but look at Suicide Squad, with it’s pulpy colours and characters. In a world where Superman has to wear really muted colours because the studio is se emingly embarrassed that he’s Superman, The Joker is suiting up with full on purple tuxedo while driving a purple car? That’s like shoving Bane from Batman & Robin into The Dark Knight Rises. There’s no consistency already, and the universe is just getting started. WB need to put someone in charge of making sure all the separate movies can co-exist and it’s not weird. It may not be forever, but Marvel owes it’s success to Kevin Feige.
1) They Don't Know What To Do With Their Iconic Heroes
In modern times, the “big guns” of modern superheroes in movies are the likes of Superman, Batman, Iron Man, The Hulk and Captain America. But audiences tend to forget that ten years ago it wasn’t the case: Wolverine and Spider-Man were the big guns. Marvel sold all their profitable licenses to keep themselves out of bankruptcy in the late 90s, meaning when they decided to get themselves into the moviemaking game, they were forced to take lesser characters like Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy, and made them into household names.
Warner Brothers bought DC Comics back in 1967, and have had all the rights to DC’s bulging roster of superheroes, they just haven’t really figured out what to do with them. While in the last year Marvel has made a successful movie about a talking racoon and Fox made a movie about X-Men travelling through time to unite both the original cast and the cast of the reboot, Warner Brothers said "Um, maybe we'll think about making a Wonder Woman movie now?". If other studios can make big rewards on risky ventures, and Warner Brothers still has no idea how to make a movie about Wonder Woman, arguably their third biggest character, something's wrong.
Warner Brothers has occasionally ventured out of their “It’s Got To Be Superman Or Batman” rule, to varying degrees of success, it’s not been great. Green Lantern was probably better known than Thor was at the time of their debut movies, and look how that turned out. It’s no longer about how well audiences know the name of your superhero, it’s about making a movie that audiences want to see. Spider-Man is technically the most profitable superhero in the world right now (based on toy sales), but that means jack squat when there hasn’t been a good Spider-Man movie in 10 years, forcing Sony to cancel their planned Spidey Universe and agree to let Marvel take over. To put a fine point on it: a bad movie is a bad movie, and it doesn’t matter how well known your character’s name is.