dc vs. marvel: an analysis of an implicit war that goes beyond the comic books

8/13/2019 DC vs. MARVEL: An Analysis of an Implicit War that Goes Beyond the Comic Books

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Running head: DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 1

DC vs. MARVEL: An Analysis of an Implicit War that Goes Beyond the Comic Books

Alan Ortiz Pimentel

Pontificia Universidad Catlica Madre y Maestra

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 2DC vs. MARVEL: An Analysis of an Implicit War that Goes Beyond the Comic Books

Nowadays, it is very strange to find a person that never have has about Superman,

Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, Spider-Man, among other greatest comic books

superheroes, that have inspired an entire generations of readers. Through time, many critics

have labeled the comic book superheroes as nothing more than kid stuff, but when we see

behind the mask and below their capes, we will see an even deeper and complicated story.

Ever since the time of the Great Depression, superheroes have had to deal with deep

political and social difficulties. And in every age, the forces that have shaken our world,

have transformed them (Goldin, 2003).

Comic book companies as DC, Image, Dark Horse, and Marvel Comics, have been

publishing these comic books since the 30s, being DC and Marvel Comics, the biggest

ones. It was in June, 1938 when the first and greatest superhero among them all, Superman,

was published on the pages of Action Comics No. 1 and it entered in the imagination of

thousands of children everywhere (Goldin, 2003). Since this date, both of these companies

have been providing to all of the children, teenagers, and adults of different decades, with

lot of superheroes of different tastes.

Although many people think of DC Comics and Marvel as similar companies trying

to bring their respective universes to the big screen, they are actually quite different, as

much in comics as in movies. This will become more apparent as we explore their diversity

of characters in the movies, their trajectory stability, and their popularity in the world.

As Uncle Ben, a character of Spider-Mans comic, said in the Spider-Man movie

Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility (Lee & Ditko, 2002). This

phrase is in my opinion, the best way to describe the relationship between Marvel and DC

with their readers and audience. Both companies have in their power, more than 2,000


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 3superhero characters, also including those characters of comics that not necessarily are a

superhero, and not all of them have been brought to the big screen. It was in the year 1944,

when Marvel, before known as Timely Comics, was the first comic company to bring their

more iconic character to the big screen: Captain America, with an estimated budget of US

$222,906, was a very popular movie in its time. After all, that was the time when World

War II was still in course, and basically, all the comics characters were focusing on anti -

Nazi propaganda. Captain America was the greatest anti-Nazi of them all. This movie, in

our days, has a rating of 6.2 of 10 according to IMDb, whose letters stand for: Internet

Movie Database (Captain America). As Mr. Jim Steranko said: Captain America threw a

smashing right cross to the jaw of Adolf Hitler (Goldin, 2003). Then in 1951, DC brings,

their most famous superhero in that time, to the big screen, but it did not obtain a great

rating, it was a 5.8 of 10 according to IMDb (Superman and the Mole-Men).

However, knowing that DC Comics and Marvel have so many superheroes

characters in their hands, and not all of their superhero characters have their own movie or

movies, the question that we might be asking ourselves is: how many movies have these

companies release? Well, this a great question, and to be able to answer it we need to see

table 1 and table 2, where all the information related to live-action films with the characters

of both companies are gathered.

As we can see in table 1 and 2, both DC Comics and Marvel have provided us with

lots of movies of their superheroes, but it is also a fact, to affirm that Marvel is the one with

more movies of diverse characters, while DC Comics has produced more movies about

their two most famous superheroes: Superman & Batman. Through time both superheroes

have been done in different ways. According to the decade these productions have been

produced, and that is what has kept them alive in their spectatorseyes.


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 4Year Title Production Studio(s) Notes

1951 Superman and the Mole Men Lippert Pictures

1954 Stamps Day for Superman United States

Department of the

Treasury

1966 Batman: The Movie 20t Century Fox

1978 Superman Warner Bros. Won 1 Special Oscar, nominate

for 3 more

1980 Superman II Warner Bros.

1982 Swamp Thing Embassy Pictures

1983 Superman III Warner Bros.

1984 Supergirl Warner Bros.

1987 Superman IV: The Quest for

Peace

Golan-Globus/Cannon

Films/Warner Bros.

1989 The Return of Swamp Thing Millimeter Films

1989 Batman Warner Bros. Won 1 Oscar

1992 Batman Returns Warner Bros. Nominated for 2 Oscars

1995 Batman Forever Warner Bros. Nominated for 3 Oscars

1997 Batman & Robin Warner Bros.

1997 Steel Warner Bros.

2004 Catwoman Warner Bros.

2005 Batman Begins Warner Bros./Legendary

Pictures/Syncopy Films

Reboot; nominated for 1 Oscar


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 52006 Superman Returns Warner Bros./Legendary

Pictures/

Related to Superman and Superma

II; nominated for 1 Oscar

2008 The Dark Knight Warner Bros./Legendary


Won 2 Oscars, nominated for

more

2009 Watchmen Warner Bros./Legendary

Pictures

2010 Jonah Hex Warner Bros./Legendary

Pictures

2011 Green Lantern Warner Bros.

2012 The Dark Knight Rises Warner Bros./Legendary


2013 Man of Steel Warner Bros./Legendary


Reboot

Table 1 DC Comics: Live-action films

Year Title Production Studio(s) Notes

1944 Captain America Republic Pictures

1986 Howard the Duck Universal Pictures Co-produced by Lucasfilm

1994 The Fantastic Four New Horizons Unreleased

1998 Blade New Line Cinema

2000 X-Men 20t Century Fox

2002 Blade II New Line Cinema

2002 Spider-Man Columbia Pictures Nominated for 2 Oscars


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 62003 Daredevil 20t Century Fox Co-produced by Regency Enterprises

2003 X2 20t Century Fox

2003 Hulk Universal Pictures

2004 The Punisher Artisan

Entertainment

2004 Spider-Man 2 Columbia Pictures Won 1 Oscar, nominated for 2 more

2004 Blade: Trinity New Line Cinema

2005 Elektra 20t Century Fox Co-produced by Regency Enterprises

2005 Fantastic Four 20t

Century Fox

2006 X-Men: The Last Stand 20t Century Fox

2007 Ghost Rider Columbia Pictures

2007 Spider-Man 3 Columbia Pictures

2007 Fantastic Four: Rise of the

Silver Surfer

20t Century Fox

2008 Iron Man Marvel Studios Distributed by Paramount Picture

Nominated for 2 Oscars

2008 The Incredible Hulk Marvel Studios Distributed by Universal Pictures

2008 Punisher: War Zone Lionsgate

Entertainment

2009 X-men Origins: Wolverine 20t

Century Fox

2010 Iron Man 2 Marvel Studios Distributed by Paramount Picture

Nominated for 1 Oscar

2011 Thor Marvel Studios Distributed by Paramount Pictures.


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 72011 X-Men: First Class 20t Century Fox

2011 Captain America: The

First Avenger

Marvel Studios Distributed by Paramount Pictures.

2012 Ghost Rider: Spirit of

Vengeance

Columbia Pictures

2012 Marvels The Avengers Marvel Studios Distributed by Walt Disney Studio

Motion Pictures. Nominated for 1 Oscar

2012 The Amazing Spider-Man Columbia Pictures

2013 Iron Man 3 Marvel Studios Distributed by Walt Disney Studio

Motion Pictures.

2013 The Wolverine 20t Century Fox

2013 Thor: The Dark World Marvel Studios Distributed by Walt Disney Studi

Motion Pictures.

Table 2 Marvel: Live-action films

Different flavors for different tastes! It is the way that Marvel likes it, and thanks to

animated series and blockbuster films, their characters are much more well-known now

than in recent decades. Each companys characters have settled into their place in history

and our hearts. Marvel characters are more down-to-earth, in the sense that they can be

more identified with people and their problems through life, while these characters defend

justice and their beliefs. However, DC Comics differ with Marvel, by providing to the

youngsters a very deep message between justice and injustice. These elements provoke that

DCs characters become more iconic than those from Marvel, in the ideology aspect, of

course.


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 8Ideology is after all, a system of ideas and ideals that support peoplesbeliefs and

principles through time. And for a nation like the United States of America, that was

succumbing into different problems between decades such as: the Great Depression, World

War II, the Cold War, drugs consumption, among other problems; comic books become a

great support for all the youngsters in each period of time, but it was in the DC films where

those ideologies were better represented, and at the same time, provided DC a great

trajectory stability and the dominance over Marvel in almost the entire 20thcentury.

It is better to wait than surrender on the road! For a long time, with only Superman

and Batman, DCs biggest icons, was enough to maintain Marvel far from the big screen,

but all this changed when the 20thcentury was ending and Hollywood started to have more

technology to make special effects on films. The release of Blade in 1998 had a huge

impact on the pop-culture of the time, obtaining rating 7 of 10 according to IMDb (Blade).

This was the movie that literally said to Marvel, your time has finally come!

The 21st

century has become Marvels playground where all their most famous

comic book characters have started to being brought to the big screen, and making them

blockbuster films. Being Marvels The Avengers whom heads the leadership in earnings of

US $623,357,910 (Mojo, Marvel Comics, 2013). It is without a doubt that we can certainly

say that the start of this century has defined Marvels trajectory stability with the continued

productions of films year after year, while DC has been put in a slow pace to produce their

movies; in tables 1 and 2, this can be clearly perceived with the difference between a movie

release and the next one.


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 9Moreover, the fact that the trajectory of DC, in our recent years, has been put to a

slow pace, it cannot be considered as damage to their movies popularity in the world.

Batman, the dark crusade detective of DC, has been facing the challenge of almost all

Marvel films for quite some time now. The reboot that this character received in 2005 with

the release of Batman Begins was a necessary change to the perception of this big icon;

then, followed by the sequel The Dark Knight in 2008 that conquered 2 Oscars and get

earnings of US $533,345,358, provoked an immediately reaction on Marvel and the fans

(Mojo, DC Comics, 2013). Also, DC has started to reboot movies from Superman; the most

recent was Man of Steel in this year, and producing other character movies such as: Green

Lantern, Jonah Hex, among others. However, to measure the popularity in the world of

these two companies is quite difficult, because each one every year brought something

different to the big screen. If we take, for example table 3 and 4, we will see how their

blockbuster earnings vary year by year. It is such as a race between them, in a year your

movie or movies can be on top, next one are mine, and so the following year.

Now, if we look for the ratings of 10 of their best blockbuster movies in base of 1 to

10, and then we make a graph to represent ratings against years, we can have a better

comparison of popularity of both companies. In figure 1, that is what I have done, and

thanks to this figure, I can see that DC slightly surpasses Marvel by a few points, but it also

tell me that in recent years Marvel has been improving themselves to the point of almost

reaching DC, and who knows, maybe surpassing them in the following years.

Rank Title Gross (US $) Date

1 Marvels The Avengers 623,357,910 05/04/2012


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 102 Iron Man 3 409,013,994 05/03/2013

3 Spider-Man 403,706,375 05/03/2002

4 Spider-Man 2 373,585,825 06/30/2004

5 Spider-Man 3 336,530,303 05/04/2007

6 Iron Man 318,412,101 05/02/2008

7 Iron Man 2 312,433,331 05/07/2010

8 The Amazing Spider-Man 262,030,663 07/03/2012

9 X-Men: The Last Stand 234,362,462 05/26/2006

10 X2: X-Men United 214,949,694 05/02/2003

Table 3 Marvel: Blockbuster Films

Rank Title Gross (US $) Date

1 The Dark Knight 533,345,358 07/18/2009

2 The Dark Knight Rises 448,139,099 07/20/2012

3 Man of Steel 291,045,518 06/14/2013

4 Batman 251,188,924 06/23/1989

5 Batman Begins 205,343,774 06/15/2005

6 Superman Returns 200,081,192 06/28/2006

7 Batman Forever 184,031,112 06/16/1995

8 Batman Returns 162,831,698 06/19/1992

9 Superman 134,218,018 12/15/1978

10 Green Lantern 116,601,172 06/17/2011

Table 4 DC Comics: Blockbuster Films


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 11

Superheroes endure because they represent basic American beliefs: that there are choices

to make between good and evil; that individuals can make a difference in society and

history (Goldin, 2003). In accordance with this, the ideals that DC Comics and Marvel

have been trying to provide us, time through time, will not disappear that easily and at the

same time, I cannot say which one of those companies is the best. They not only innovate

on movies, they also go to TV and animated series, animated movies, new styles of

drawings comic books, and new stories for all their characters. I am very lucky to be part of

this implicit war that goes between DC Comics and Marvel with their diversity of

characters, not only in comics, but also in the movies, their trajectory stability, and their

popularity in the world, is what astonish my eyes and my belief. So now I leave this

question open for you, which one will you choose?

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

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1978 1989 1992 1995 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 2010 2011 2012 2012

Rating

DC vs Marvel: Ratings

DC Comics

Marvel

Figure 1 DC vs. Marvel: Rating of Their Most Blockbuster Films


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DC VS. MARVEL: A War Beyond Comic Books 12References

Blade.(n.d.). Retrieved from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120611/?ref_=nv_sr_5

Captain America.(n.d.). Retrieved from IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036697/?ref_=nv_sr_5

Goldin, J. G. (Writer), & Kroopnick, S. (Director). (2003). Comic Book Superheroes

Unmasked[Motion Picture]. The United States of America.

Lee, S., Ditko, S. (Writers), & Raimi, S. (Director). (2002). Spider-Man[Motion Picture].

The United States of America.

Mojo, B. O. (2013, November 24).DC Comics.Retrieved from Box Office Mojo:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=dccomics.htm

Mojo, B. O. (2013, November 24).Marvel Comics.Retrieved from Box Office Mojo:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=marvelcomics.htm

Superman and the Mole-Men.(n.d.). Retrieved from IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044091/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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