It’s a busy season for heroic punch-ups. Superman and Batman launched a mega-brawl Friday, with Captain America, Iron Man and their Marvel cohorts in a battle royal next month. But with 35 superhero films scheduled through 2020, the biggest conflict is the battle for box office domination between Team DC and Team Marvel.
It’s a grudge match for the ages. For decades, the two comic book powerhouses have competed for ownership of print readers, TV viewers and film fans. Each has created a distinctive brand and a competitive strategy. In a reversal from their comic roots, DC films now go dark and edgy (thanks, “Dark Knight”) while Marvel asserts a progressive, hopeful tone (hello, “Guardians of the Galaxy”).
Both have made a mix of hits and stumbles and are putting big-budget bets on the spring lineup. Nowhere is that more apparent than “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — DC’s ambitious attempt at building a cohesive, interconnected universe of films. It is uniting its holy trilogy of superheroes by featuring Wonder Woman on-screen for the first time with the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader.
DC appears to be following Marvel Studios’ wildly successful blueprint. The rival company struck critical and commercial gold with 2012’s “Avengers,” the fifth highest grossing movie of all time. The solo films spawned from that super-team have all performed well, giving Marvel a hefty stake in the marketplace.
Will DC catch up? Which spandex squad will win the smackdown? In a very limited and highly informal survey I asked the experts: longtime fans who market and produce comic book memorabilia.
Mike Harmon, general manager of the Hot Comics bookstores in Minnesota, likens the battle to filling out a March Madness bracket.
“I think I’m going to have to give my vote to Marvel Studios, if for nothing other than the proven track record so far,” he said. “With each film they put out, they prove time and time again that they know their audience, they know their stuff. They seem to take great pains in doing right by the characters as they are written in the comics.”
DC seems to have abandoned the bright tone of pop culture joking established by Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Michael Keaton’s Batman, moving into gritty, dark territory. Steve Kiwus, an action toy sculptor, has created scores of realistic figurines for each studio, including Wonder Woman from the coming “Batman v Superman.”
“On the Marvel side, you have a true visionary running everything,” he said.
That would be the film division’s head, Kevin Feige, whose productions have turned promising directors into box office behemoths. Before Joss Whedon signed on for “Avengers,” James Gunn helmed “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the Russo brothers delivered the second “Captain America,” they were respected footnotes in the film world.
Now they’re stars in Marvel’s team, which has a combined box office gross of $8.3 billion, a career-defining boost that seems likely to repeat when Ryan Coogler moves up from “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed” to the upcoming “Black Panther.”
“They have a master plan,” Kiwus said. “They let the directors go out and have some freedom within the bible they created. Whereas on the DC side, they’re trying to do it their own way, and they don’t seem to know what to do — even after being shown the path.”
Of course, Marvel movies have flopped, too.
“I’ve always been a DC fan,” said Greg Ketter, owner of Minneapolis’ DreamHaven Books &Comics. He groans a bit to mention the terrible Fox-produced “Daredevil” and “Fantastic Four” films — but he presently agrees with many of his shop’s fans: DC is currently “filmmaking by committee” that lacks consistency (Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy the lone exception).
“DC, or Warner Bros., who own it, seems too sparing in developing its characters with a good story line,” he said. “‘Jonah Hex,’ which I really wanted to like, was disjointed and wrong. They ignore the story all the time and then can’t figure out why it didn’t work.
“It’s the characters that attract fans. That’s why Marvel outsells DC by quite a bit” in print and at the box office. “They have big characters in movies that can work as stand-alones, and if they want, they can tie in other characters.”
Minneapolis indie comics creator Dave Wheeler, whose kid-friendly action titles include “The Misadventures of Wonder Boy,” has felt invested in comic books his entire life. He joins the insiders’ chorus from a different angle: DC has become too rough and family-unfriendly.
“I go with the company that’s having more fun and making its characters more accessible,” he said. “Honestly, when ‘Man of Steel’ came out I wanted to take my niece and nephews but I wouldn’t take them to see that movie. It was too dark, too dirty, too violent. Whereas any of the Marvel films, I’d be OK taking those guys to. In ‘Age of Ultron,’ when Hawkeye curses, Captain America comes out and goes, ‘Language!’ That’s hilarious to me because that’s the epitome of Captain America. He is a Boy Scout.”
DC’s current formula may win back earlier fans or be a rallying point for new ones.
“Batman v Superman” is designed to beget a multi-character “Justice League” movie, coming in 2017. A “Wonder Woman” movie will hit theaters the same year, followed by individual movies starring Aquaman, the Flash, Shazam, Green Lantern (him again?) and enough co-workers to fill Smallville. In the immediate, DC’s expanding roster steps further with the upcoming “Suicide Squad” (Aug. 5), a punky cop thriller starring a new platoon of bad guys including the Joker as revived by Jared Leto.
“I think as a comic book fan and reader, it will be fun,” Harmon said. “As a film aficionado, I think there’s going to be way too much going on there. I didn’t like ‘Age of Ultron,’ because it didn’t feel like its own movie. It was a lot of setup for future movies. They forgot to tell a compelling, self-contained story, And I’m really worried that that’s what’s going to happen in the ‘Dawn of Justice’ movie.”
So will Marvel be able to continue on its filmmaking path, which is nothing short of remarkable? Or will DC’s counterstrike allow it to begin a refreshing change of pace in its own cinematic universe?
Maybe it doesn’t matter. Most comic book, TV and movie fans may favor one company over the other, but generally consume content created by both and appreciate the enduring rivalry. Watch this space for an upcoming analysis of the ultimate crossover: “Agent Coulson vs. Commissioner Gordon.”
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