Marvel and DC. Two of the greatest companies ever created. Since the release of Superman in 1978, Comic Book Movies have become a regular Hollywood trend. All through the 80's and 90's, Batman and Superman were the only CBM's being produced, until Marvel sold off the rights to some of their characters to get them out of Bankrupcy. New Line Cinema's Blade was released in 1998 to critical acclaim from critics and fans alike, and the future looked bright for Comic Book Movies.
After the critical and commercial failure Batman and Robin was released, it looked like the Batman franchise had been killed for good. DC were struggling to get new movies off the ground with many Batman and Superman movies in development but eventually scrapped. Meanwhile, Marvel were doing great with Sony making hit Spider-Man movies, Fox making X-Men and Fantastic Four movies and many other projects in development with the different studios. Then Christopher Nolan was hired to direct a new Batman movie titled Batman Begins. When it was released in 2005, things changed. People saw CBM's differently. DC finally had something to rival Marvel. It was a critical and commercial success and a sequel was soon in production going by the name of The Dark Knight.
We all know the story of TDK, Heath Ledger was cast as The Joker much to the bashing and dismay of basically everybody, he died of a drug overdose 6 months before the movie's release, he delivered a brilliant performance, the movie went on to win Oscars, it grossed a billion dollars and it changed CBM's forever. This is when Nolan became more well-known in Hollywood and was soon on producers Director wishlist everywhere. Around the same time, Marvel released the acclaimed Iron Man and the not-so-well-recieved The Incredible Hulk. To geeks delight, Marvel had found a way to connect all of their upcoming movies in the lead-up to a big superhero team up movie, based on the comic of the same name: The Avengers. And it all started in Iron Man, with a post-credits-scene featuring a certain Director of S.H.I.E.L.D talking to Tony Stark about a project called The Avengers Initiative.
To some fans, The Avengers is Marvel's chance to produce something similar to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. All of Marvel Studios movies have generally been classed as 'cookie-cutter' or average. And they are probably right, but The Avengers is their chance to change that and make their movies more successful and slash doubts that some fans have. Also released next year is the conclusion to Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. Many people have voiced their concerns about the movie, mainly about the costumes of the two villains: Bane and Catwoman. Because of the release of both these movies, the members of Comic Book Movie have been split into two groups: Marvel and DC. Or better known as, Nolanites and Marvel Fanboys. There has been a war between the two sides for months on end and there seems to be no clear winner. A recent poll conducted by RorMachine about what the 'Best CBM of all time' was indicated that there were more Marvel fans than Nolanites on the website, but there still isn't a clear winner.
The whole point of these polls was to determine which Comics company had the largest amount of followers on the site. In the comics section on the previous article, many people expressed distaste that I hadn't included an 'I like both companies' option. The reason for this is because it wouldn't be very helpful if the winning side was the 'I like both companies' option. The first poll, 'Marvel VS DC' included which company made the best Comics, movies, animated movies etc and the winner was as you know, Marvel! It is basically a fact that Marvel are winning on the movie side of things, the only thing DC have that went right is Nolan's Batman movies!
Next up, the 'TDKR VS Avengers' poll,
The Dark Knight Rises was a clear winner. Obviously Marvel seems to have the largest following at this point in the article but it is obvious that more people are interested in watching the sequel to the biggest CBM of all time,
The Dark Knight. Many people have expressed there concern over
The Avengers, stating that they think Marvel will want to keep their current formula, referred to as the cookie cutter formula, in fear of the movie being a critical and financial failure because they ventured away from their current formula.
Finally, 'Did Nolan Revitalise the CBM Genre?'. This poll caused a bit of controversy in the comments section because they said that the CBM genre wasn't dead and was still thriving and popular. I admit the poll question was badly worded. What it meant was, did Nolan make the public take CBMs more seriously? And you guys all voted yes!
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight have both proved to be amazing movies and CBMs and nearly all directors are following the Nolan route, e.g Realism, Dark and Gritty etc.
Taking in all the results, which side has the most followers? The answer is....
Both! Yeah, I get what you're thinking, 'WTF!?'. Well, yeah you should be thinking that. Even though Marvel won the first poll and technically DC should have won, the last poll wasn't about either side, a trick poll if you will. It was to determine a different thing: Does this site really hate Christopher Nolan? Many people have said yes, while others have said no. The reason for
that poll is because of the recent backlash towards who some would describe as Comic Book Movies's saving grace. Obviously most of the site still love Nolan, but some are still angry at his realistic take on things.
Thanks for voting and bothering to read the last post!