PROLOUGE: This is my first article on CBM, don't be too cruel, but I'd love healthy discussion.
I want to preface this with, I LOVE DC. I always have and always will. I grew up on Superman (Chris Reeves), Lois and Clark, repeats of Batman and Robin (Adam West), original Batman Gen 1 cartoon. I would also like to say that I own almost every comicbook movie (DC, Marvel and even Spawn) made since my birth, 1981. I also still have the original pilot episode of Flash (Dawson’s Dad) on VHS. I followed the death of superman religiously and to have Superman #75 debut on my birthday was heartbreaking and then 15 years later for Superman/Doomsday DVD to be released again, heartbreaking. I don’t think I took off my black armband for weeks. Why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to understand how truly loyal I am to DC. I loved Superman Returns, I loved Green Lantern. I still think that Brandon Routh and Ryan Reynolds were symbolic and legendary in their portrayal of some of the earth’s mightiest. Furthermore, I love all versions of Batman (including George Clooney). There have been things in all these incarnations that make you go “WTF,” albeit, the flip side is that we wouldn’t have any comic movies at all, so I am grateful.
So why am I writing this?
I am writing this because as I was surfing CBM and various spoiler sites for Avengers updates, something occurred to me. I believe that the Marvel Universe will be more successful on the big screen than the DC Universe. Is it because of content? Absolutely not! Is it because of CGI/graphics? NOPE. It’s not even because of the actual story! In my humble opinion, it’s because of the fact that Marvel Universe looked at the whole timeline and integrated the stories with a “big picture.” Where DC has struggled is they have 8 different directors that are on 8 different pages, with 8 different views on the subject. (Think of the dichotomy between Chris Nolan and Bryan Singer). What was the single thing that was consistent between Iron Man 1/2, Captain America, Hulk (all of them, well maybe not the Eric Bana version), and Thor? Easy: The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (SHIELD, we’re working it). While Agent Caulson’s fate is rumored, he was a comic stable throughout all the movies. His goal in the movie was also to remind us what SHIELD was and what they were doing. Albeit, in almost all of the movies, save Iron Man 2 and Thor they played a very small part. That being said, we have Gotham haphazardly mentioned in Superman Returns and Metropolis half heartily mentioned in TDK. With even less linkages between the two seemingly important cities in the DC Mythos. I don’t even want to start with the Coast City/Star City etc from Green Lantern.
I’m betting the Marvel powers that be sat down and actually had a legit vision for the Avengers movie 6 or 7 years ago. For the sake of the argument, let’s say that they didn’t have a strategic plan and that they were just “lucky” that the continuity and re-shoots or secret Easter eggs, end credit scenes just worked. Well good for them! What did DC do? Sinestro putting on the yellow ring? Ehhh…What was there in TDK? (Exception: the playing card at the end of Batman Begins); more rumors about a JLA movie when they couldn’t even get more than one franchise to take off, and Warner Brothers actually considering making a movie where the JLA characters are NOT the characters we’ve seen before. Even that has it’s failures what happened to Katie Holmes? Oh yea she changes to Maggie Gyllenhal (no one noticed…..right). The Marvel powers that be KNEW that they would need to invest to make these movies and that they would have to have somewhat continuity to be successful. The DC powers that be were so stressed to get a movie out that they sacrificed what I believe to be MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of dollars to push a movie out. So tell me compare just the CAST of the Avengers (each having had their own movie already or cameos in their own movies, except Hawkeye) versus Christian Bale’s Batman and Henry Cavil’s Superman, Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, and a failed Wonder Woman pilot with a no name playing the Amazon? I don’t think so.
Marvel Success/DC Failures
Let’s look at the X-Men Franchise, one could argue that they butchered the story line because, Professor X was made out to be a wimp, Jean Grey/Phoenix killed Scott (Cyclops), Sabertooth had two different iterations and neither really made sense or were in cannon, the latter of which more closely touched the story but just barely. Then there was the “prequel” X-Men first class because they realized that they sacrificed plot for story. What I mean by that, is we got so worked up about Jean Grey and everyone dying etc that we were left with Magento pushing a chess piece, professor x waking up and most of the X-Men crew dead. Let’s be honest, where were they supposed to take the movie? So we jump back to the prequel was good, but what’s next? And an origin film of Wolverine, which again had endless possibilities to have a sequel, but Hugh Jackman went on to teach a robot how to box and find his long lost son, instead of traveling to Japan and becoming more of badass.
Fantastic Four, a truly underutilized franchise that could’ve been SO SO much more. The first one was good at setting up the characters and had a pretty good plot and kept with the cannon right? (for the record I love Julian McMahon as Dr. Von Doom). The second one fell short! WAY SHORT! Silver Surfer, who I hope based on the rumor mill might make an upcoming appearance, was just not the center of the movie as he should’ve been. He was second tier to Dr. Doom trying to steal his board and the Fantastic Four coming to terms with them being “heroes”. Ok, fine it moves the movie along, but if you’re going to bring in Silver Surfer make more a mention of Galactus, rather than a giant cloud and saying “he’s coming” and then SORT OF mentioning him or showing him in the final moments.
That brings me to Daredevil. A great movie in my opinion; I liked Ben Affleck as the man with no fear. Although Kingpin mysteriously changed races and Elektra was able to kick DD’s butt, but get hers handed to her. Such is life. I didn’t really think there was much wrong other than the above, it would’ve fit perfectly in for tie in and there wasn’t really a needed sequel or there didn’t need to be one. Why they are rebooting, I’ll never know. Maybe and just maybe it was a little campy, but all in all I thought it was a pretty good adaption of Daredevil to screen.
I want to tie the next two together League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Watchmen, because just like their paper versions they stand alone. Do I think they are particularly good? NO. Do I own both? Yes. Have I watched both? Absolutely. I don’t really want to talk too much on them because they wouldn’t really fit into tie ins like the other movies did/do/does, but you get my point. They were stand alone, plus watchmen had the first actually boobie shot/actual sex scene of ANY comicbook movie. Think about it.
This brings me to my last point on Marvel; Spiderman, three different iterations of the character, by the same actor and following the same mythos. But I think most would agree that it declined dramatically from being the amazing Spiderman fighting in a wrestling ring to fighting himself as an EMO Spiderman who wanted cookies with milk. Perhaps the first two iterations would have been a great tie for X-men/Wolverine/Fantastic Four/Hulk but the third although Venom was awesome and would’ve loved to see Carnage I don’t really see a great connection but it left the opportunity for a tie in, within the Marvel universe.
Captain America, god bless him, I’m a veteran so anything doing with America is pretty much AWESOME. For the record, the cameos by big time actors in this movie was PERFECT. A lot like Star Trek: TNG having big time actors come on for one episode. Again, the directors and writers did it brilliantly, because they worked in SHIELD into the equation, KNOWING what was coming. They even ended brilliantly making SURE there was a way that they could tie in the Avengers movie. Which they did excellently, in my humble opinion.
Thor, was all around SHIELD and really laid the foundation for the setup of the Avengers. I don’t think that’s a SPOILER but if it is, I’m sorry. I really like the way they did the entire Thor plot. Although Thor making easy work of the Rock Monsters (I forgot the name) was rather silly. But Loki’s trickery was quite the scandal! Nonetheless, you can see a theme here……get there……..
So I went through as many movies as I could off the top of my head, as I’m writing this fairly quickly to pass some time, but again what is the common denominator? That all of the Marvel Movies at one point could have had or left room for a linkage to another one, and one if I’m not mistaken we will see in the upcoming years, as long as the epic comic movie bubble doesn’t burst, but I doubt we will as our nation and our world is still struggling to find itself and as a people we need something greater than ourselves to believe in.
Now let’s look at Superman Returns, Batman Begins, TDK, and Green Lantern, as it relates to doing something similar to what Paramount is doing with the Avengers. I’ll even for the purposes of this essay take into account the Man of Steel which has “yet” to be released. Let me ask you a real question, do you think just Christian Bale’s Batman alone could pair up or “meet” any of the current personifications of our heroes? He barely talks to commissioner Gordon which works for the movie but would FAIL in a joint movie. Even Henry Cavil and Christian Bale talking is awkward, let alone them being their most trust allies and friends. The director of the Avengers recently said in an interview “The DC Universe characters are larger than life and very difficult to adapt to the movie screen and be believable, whereas the Marvel Universe heroes are more down to earth and easier to adapt to the silver screen”
Ok so somewhere in my mindless diatribe I hope I made my point, while I think that the stories and timeline of the DC universe is 10 million times more interesting and more appealing to me than the Marvel universe, save the core infinity gauntlet story line, I don’t foresee even the Man of Steel beating any of the Marvel Universe stories that get adapted to the big screen. I could be wrong and hopefully I am, but given the continuity, I don’t see it happening.
At the end of the day, I am HAPPY for Joss Whedon and team, and I’m willing to bet that they did a superstar job and this movie really will be EPIC and probably set the stage for the summer, and I’ll be honest I don’t think TDKR will come close, now don’t get me wrong TDKR will be fan-frickin-tastic but will it be as “epic” as Avengers….I doubt it….