There's always been a healthy rivalry between the Marvel and DC fanboys. Regardless of whether it's arguments over which characters are better or more powerful, or disputes over who produces the better comic books, it's a feud which is unlikely to end anytime soon. However, it seems that the upcoming release of
The Avengers and
The Dark Knight Rises has really stirred up this age old battle. It's understandable that fans will have a favorite company, and while most are seemingly happy to enjoy both, there does seem to be a hardcore group who are either ALL Marvel or ALL DC. And it's the release of the two huge movies from the rival companies which has the two sides at each others throats like never before.
Why?! Does it really matter which of them ends up being the best? Can we not enjoy both regardless of which universe the characters belong to? Apparently not. It seems that some people are just too fanatical about either Marvel or DC to allow themselves to look forward to the movies from the side they care less about. Recently, I've seen
The Avengers called "kids stuff" compared to
The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan has been called a "hack" (among other things) whose Batman movies "suck". Wait, what? Neither of these statements make any real sense, and while it is of course understandable that the latter's work hasn't been to everyone's liking, it's these random and childish insults that Marvel and DC fanboys seem happy to keep spewing out.
Petty and inflammatory insults aside, I'm again forced to ask why it is we all can't just get along. Now, there's no doubting the fact that I'm a Marvel fanboy. I happen to think that they have so far produced the better movies (forgetting Nolan's work, do either
Superman Returns or
Green Lantern match up to the likes of
Iron Man and
THOR?) and enjoy most of their comic books quite a bit more. And on that note, I also happen to think their characters are better too...yes, I'm sounding exactly like the people I'm criticizing, right? Wrong.
Despite my bias, there are plenty of DC comics I happen to find better than what Marvel produce. And even those that don't, I still enjoy. The same goes for the movies. I'm looking forward to
The Dark Knight Rises just as much as
The Amazing Spider-Man, regardless of the fact that he's been my favorite comic book character for as long as I can remember. There's room in my fanboy mind for all of these characters to coexist. Even if I wasn't a huge fan of Geoff Johns' 'Green Lantern', I'd still be upset over the fact the movie failed at the box office, because at the end of the day, it's failure effects the chances of us ever seeing characters like the Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman making their way to the big screen. And even if you couldn't give a damn about any of them, there's no way you won't be there on opening day to see yet another superhero come to life.
2011 saw the release of four BIG superhero movies. We're lucky enough to be living in the golden age of CBM's! As I've said, we all have our favorites, but that's no reason to want to see the failure of the characters you don't particularly care for. Not a fan of Superman? Who cares! Instead of bitching about it, why not just go and check out what's sure to be at least a fun movie? Think The Avengers are lame compared to the brooding Caped Crusader? That's nice, but it doesn't mean you can't get a buzz out of seeing them assemble come 2012. It's time to give the rivalry a rest, and be grateful that we're getting to see both Marvel and DC up on the big screen. When they're bad, feel free to complain, but damning something before it's even released simply because you like one comic book publisher more than the other? That's just stupid.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with a little healthy debate, so feel free to share your thoughts with the following poll as well as in the usual place!