Here's the thing I want to mention first. I'm a pretty hardcore fan of Marvel, but there are a few heroes in DC I actually enjoy. I don't love all the characters...I don't even like some of them. But my opinion on characters is moot. This is my standpoint on why I think Marvel is putting the hurt on DC.
Marvel's Cinematic Universe
Right now, plans are in the works to make the 2012 release of The Avengers to be the biggest and best superhero movie ever created. You would think that DC's immediate answer to this news would be a Justice League of America movie. Think again.
For about the past 11 years, Marvel has been consistently putting at least one new movie out per year. Marvel is getting their properties and characters available to the world for mass consumption. This all started with the first Blade movie. For the record, I know the movies The Punisher, Howard the Duck, and the Captain America movies were made in the 80's and definitely pre-date it, but Blade really showed audiences that comics could legitimately be made into successful films.
Blade was released in 1998 and it spawned two eventual sequels in 2002 and 2004. Looking to capitalize on the success of their first big screen foray, Marvel wanted to put an even better franchise on the big screen, so they begun with X-Men. The first X-movie was a little under the radar, but audiences again responded to it and thus came two sequels in 2003 and 2006, with the eventual spin-off movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009.
2002 also put the superhero movie into high gear with the HUGE success of Spider-Man, a movie that again preceded 2 sequels, one in 2004, the second in 2007, and a reboot set for release in the next year or so. The next year, in 2003, Marvel released the Ang Lee directed Hulk and the darker toned DareDevil. Although not huge hits, Marvel again proved the more properties in the mainstream media, the better.
2004 saw the reboot of The Punisher, the sequel Spider-Man 2, and the threequel Blade: Trinity. In 2005, Marvel released Elektra, a spin-off of Jennifer Garner's character from DareDevil and a movie based off of their first family, the Fantastic Four, which was not up to par with fan expectations, but a sequel was made, and it garnered even worse reviews.
'06 was almost the end for comic book movies. X-Men: The Last Stand hit theaters and the world took a collective gasp at how awful this movie was. X3 wasn't the worst. The following year, not 1, but 3 stinkbombs left moviegoers in awe. Spider-Man 3 (which proved Peter Parker took dance lessons from Saturday Night Fever), Ghost Rider(which proved Nicolas Cage needs to keep his pointy, greasy nose out of comic movies), and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer(which proved Galactus did not work that well as a cloud) truly weren't worth the wait.
But the following year...Marvel dropped two history-making blockbusters in our laps. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk are revered as two of the best comic book movies ever created. And, not only were they extraordinary standalone films, they also existed in the same cinematic universe, thus setting up the forthcoming Avengers movie.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released in '09 and was even worse than The Last Stand. A character that is usually slicing and dicing his way through enemies had a movie that was rated PG-13 and left a horrible taste in everyone's mouth...including Barakapool's. 2010's only release was Iron Man 2, the follow-up to the hit of '08. Although it was received with mixed reviews from both fans and critics alike, it definitely furthered the Avengers process.
2011 looks to be an epic year for Marvel fans, with Thor due out in May and The First Avenger: Captain America due out in July, we get closer to seeing Earth's Mightiest Heroes on the big screen.
Say what you want about Marvel. But for the past three decades, it seems that the only characters DC want to give the audiences is Batman and Superman. Marvel, on the other hand, have been consistently putting their franchises and characters out in public. Numerous movies have been made and are being made, while Marvel's new parent company Disney is putting wheels in motion for live-action Marvel television shows. Marvel may not make a killer block buster every single time, but neither has DC. With the exception of the upcoming Green Lantern movie this year, Bats and Supes have been the only DC heroes to hit the big screen. Let's all hope that eventually it changes within the next few years.
Focker=Out!
CBMTrolls!