DC vs Marvel

What is it that gives the Marvel Universe an edge that the DC universe doesnt have or is yet to grasp.

Marvel and DC have been going head to head with their comics and subsequently their movies for over 80 years now, but Marvel has always seemed to hold the most impact (and money) between the two, what is it that gives Marvel the edge over DC to make it reign supreme in the land of superheros and comics.

One of the major differences between the two is the figures their movies make at the box office. The Marvel films never fail to be a big hit with audiences, currently within the Top 10 grossing superhero movies, Marvel holds 6 of the spots, with DC holding 4 and Pixar holding 1 with their animated movie, The Incredibles 2. (As of 01/2019). Both of the studios top 3 grossing movies also makes the difference between the two clear, finacially at least,

Marvel - DC -

Avengers Infinity War: $2,048,711,378 Aquaman: $943,224,160

Marvel's The Avengers: $1,518,812,988 Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice

Avengers: Age of Ultron: $1,405,403,694 $873,634,919

Wonder Woman: $821,847,012

(As of January 2019/Worldwide Gross)

The sheer amount of money that Marvel brings in is hugely different to what DC brings in, their highest grossing film not quite brushing Marvels top 5 grossing films, although Aquaman looks as though it is getting close. Marvel films bring in audiences is the main fact of the matter but why?

Marvel and DC both take a unique approach to the way they tell the stories they tell, DC has always taken a 'fantasy' like take, their superheros are gods amongst men, with the abilities to do things no human could. Aquaman is the son of the Queen of Atlantis, Wonder Woman hails from a Paradise island with immortal Amazons and Superman comes from another planet altogether. Even their human characters have experienced events that have resulted in them having superhuman abilities.

Marvel on the other hand have a larger amount of more 'human' characters. Although their characters do have superhuman abilities they come from much more subtle backgrounds, for example, Spiderman and Ant-Man are a student and a former convict. The two have blurred the lines though, DC giving their characters more human emotions, making them more relatable to fans and Marvel have brought in more out there characters, especially with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

DC's films tend to be set in fantasy locations. Whilst Marvel tends to set their films in recognizable locations, like NYC.

Marvel also has more accessibility than DC, it can make fun and charming movies, but also more serious ones that are about more than they originally present themselves as. Films like, Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok are both fun, family movies, both have a great balance of action and humour. Whereas Black Panther looks at more serious issues amongst all of the action, specfically the experience of the black community. DC doesnt tend to focus on larger issues in its movies, but also their films dont tend to lean in the direction of Guardians of the Galaxy, they float somewhere in the middle of these two types of movies (although they have made steps towards making more socially aware films with, Wonder Woman and Aquaman). This isnt necessarily a bad thing, story wise, it makes them unique to their competitor, but it seems audiences lean more towards Marvels way of filmmaking more than DC.

DC do have something above Marvel, and that is their intensive world of villians. They have continued to make movies focused primarily on their villians including, Suicide Squad, the upcoming Joker movie also their TV show, Gotham. Their villian The Joker is arguably the most popular and iconic villians in the history of film itself. Jack Nicholson, Joaquin Pheonix, Jared Leto and of course Heath Ledger are just some of the actors that have played the character. This success with its villians isnt something that Marvel has ever got close to, its villians like Loki and Thanos may be popular, but their ability to carry their own films (although it hasnt been tried yet), would be unlikely to live up to the DC villians.

Suicide Squad, DC'd 6th most successful film in the worldwide box office

DC has also recently made significant progress in the representation of minorities on screen, with Wonder Woman being an iconic moment for women in film, becoming at the time, one of the highest grossing DC films, and being the first major superhero film helmed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. Aquaman also took steps forward in giving space in films to minority ethnicities and looked at the issue with oceon pollution. Marvel of course had a similar effect on the industry with Black Panther and surely Captain Marvel will take huge steps forward too. Marvels representation of female characters thus far has been problematic, they possess interesting and multi-dimensional characters like Black Widow, Gamora and Scarlet Witch, all of which could take more significant roles in their films but also be able to carry their own films, but their movies cotinue to be primarily lead by white cis-gender males.

Wonder Woman was a hugely succesful film for DC. Black Widow could easily helm her own film, but Marvel leaves the character on the side lines.

Overall, DC does have qualities unique to those of Marvel, but Marvel continues to be the more successful of the two studios. I think DC needs to develop the aspects of their films that make them more unique and capitalize on that, rather than try to directly compete with what Marvel is clearly amazing at. The two studios have spent decades competing with each other and surely will continue to for many decades more, only time will tell if DC can become equal or even surpass Marvels success, but in the meantime, audiences can relish in the fruits of the two studios labour.

At the links below find the list of upcoming DC and Marvel films:

http://collider.com/upcoming-dc-movies/#suicide-squad-2

https://screenrant.com/marvel-upcoming-movies-list-release-dates/