Let’s take a question, if you have two books of the same subject, one with the chapters chronologically printed and another just puts everything in black and white even without any specific chapters at all, which one would you prefer to read and understand as well?
While both these comic giants have their own universes and fan followings, still one transcends the other in terms of popularity, in this case, the marvelous Marvel it is.
Marvel plans, produces, executes and markets their movies with the utmost amount of organization and structure. While DC lacks any planning at all, let alone execution and meeting the expectations of their niche audience.
Which Is Better, Marvel Or DC?
This is perhaps the most debated, controversial and unsolved question of the century. It literally depends on the fans, while Marvel fans crown Marvel as the best, DC fans would argue that they are superior, and the fight continues.
As a fan of both these sides, one can say while Marvel is well structured and excites fans with each and every release, DC approaches their audience with darker story and cinematography.
Comparing these two is like comparing two exclusive things. Certainly, what fans expect from Marvel won’t be the same DC has to offer.
Let’s just say both these productions catered the same things for their mass as well as niche audience, wouldn’t that be straight away blunt and monotonous? People want to see something different all the time, right?
The fact can’t be forgotten that both of them started as a single house of superheroes, or let’s just say both Marvel and DC had the same parent organization, but what made them one of their kind was the unfortunate yet necessary event of them parting ways eventually due to differences of opinions.
There’s a reason why we relate Bob Kane with Batman and Stan Lee with Spider-Man. Both of these heroes were a massive hit worldwide when they were released in the 40s.
Instantly both of them gathered a massive fan following. Now would that have happened if both Bob and Stan worked on the same project?
The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is just the light hearted, crime-fighting, playing cool Spider-Man. Whereas, Batman is cold, calculated, badass and with a dark past.
In conclusion, Marvel is one of a kind and DC is the one and only of its kind. The name itself is Detective Comics (DC) which suggests the audience need to have a sense of solving mysteries, and that’s the reason the fan base of DC is strictly confined to a sect of audience only.
Whereas, Marvel appeals to a mass audience, with its storyline, humor, colors and range of contents. And that’s why Marvel wins the title of being better than DC.
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Why Are Marvel Movies Better Than DC Movies?
Movies need to be precise, to the point yet fun and containing within a limited runtime to bag appreciation from the audience, and that’s where you win the game if you can do so.
There are tons of reasons why Marvel is able to create movies more appealing and with higher box office collections than DC.
1. Planning & Execution: Marvel’s planning and execution of their movies and sequels is way ahead of any other production. Kevin Fiege pitched his superiors with a fine line of production of films and web series which were, as it turns out, so well thought, that Marvel jumped up to it readily.
With the first Iron Man movie as the debut of Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel started a chain of movies that would ultimately lead to the Infinity Saga and end Phase 1.
Whereas, DC has no planning of its future films that it should release, much of which is because of Warner Bros and their lack of good execution. DC’s random film releases aren’t going to make the cut to create a proper universe for themselves and it’s high time they realize this.
2. Characters: Marvel clearly has an edge in introducing its characters. For example, in Phase 1, Marvel started with introducing its characters with their own individual movies to provide the audience with a build up and background and carefully placed all the characters necessary to lead up to the Endgame of Phase 1.
Whereas, DC didn’t care much about their individual characters and rolled out its Justice League where all the heroes were put together at once.
This is a major drawback as the audience couldn’t relate to the on-screen chemistry of all the characters without knowing where they come from.
3. Direction: DC clearly needs to patch up its “thing” with directors, like at least have a single director for a single film! The Justice League itself has two directors, Zack Snyder who created the original version and Joss Whedon who created the cut version.
Their direction styles are like opposite poles. While the Whedon cut is a colorful picturesque, the Snyder’s cut turns the movie upside down with a monochromatic touch and a dark ambience.
It seems like DC doesn’t care much about its directors which clearly has a big impact on their films which vary dynamically in terms of character development, plot and storyline.
On the other hand, Marvel casts its directors with the utmost importance. They know that a movie’s going to turn out as good as the direction and screenplay will be.
For instance, giving Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder a light hearted, humorous and comedic makeover by casting Taika Waititi as the director was a well appreciated step taken by Marvel.
While it was Sam Raimi who directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s evident how the film turned out to be thrilling and full of horrifying elements, which was indeed as intended.
4. Competitiveness: While Marvel just goes on with releasing its movies and web series in its own style, without any intention to compete with anyone. DC on the other hand, is in a constant contest with Marvel, trying to produce films with the same style as Marvel, which is like, really a bad decision.
Marvel realized the potential of their characters and how each movie “must” differ in terms of story development and style.
And as mentioned earlier, that is why Marvel chooses its directors accordingly. It’s time DC realized that their characters are equally good and full of potential to be brought out to the big screen.
It’s not the style that matters, DC’s dark approach is equally appealing, it’s just the way they need to execute their production so that the fans finally get a chance to appreciate their heroes’ story told the way they were meant to be told.
5. Universe: The MCU is very well structured, the way their chronology goes and the way they OWN their characters says it all. One may argue about the Spider-Man franchise that went through a series of issues with ownership rights between Marvel and Sony.
But as evident in Spider-Man No Way Home, Marvel cleverly showed the three variants of Peter Parker as an effect of the multiverse, which solved fans’ year-old question of which is the real Spider-Man of the big screen.
Though it was already shown in the comics, still erasing the dilemma on screen was taken by Kevin Fiege as a duty towards the fans.
But, if you look at DC, their plan of creating an extended universe didn’t really work out that well. To this day DC can’t claim how many Jokers and Batmans are there. Warner Bros just went on producing every script they found interesting, which ultimately created a mess. DC’s production style is what makes them strike out from the long game whereas Marvel survives.
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6. Cast: Marvel is very specific about whom they cast. Like none can imagine the role of Tony Stark being played by anyone else than Robert Downey Jr, or Chris Evans as Steve Rogers.
It can be noted that this happens due to Marvel’s long-term plans that make the actors contractual whereas, DC witnesses a tremendous workload to just hold its actors, forget about making them sign up for upcoming films, if there’s any.
7. Fans: If there’s one thing that makes Marvel soar high in the leaderboard, is their interest in taking the wishes of their fans into account. Marvel understood long ago what their fans actually want, and that helped them to gather a base for trying out their experiments.
If Marvel witnesses any disagreement to any of their movies among the fans, they either discontinue it or scrutinize it for errors and how to make it better.
While DC has this bogus notion of fans just eating up whatever they produce. After everything, DC should realize their contents are not any less than Marvel, they have the potential that they themselves are ignorant about
Marvel Cinematic Universe And DC Extended Universe
1. Marvel Cinematic Universe
Started as a comic publishing hub by Stan Lee, Marvel gathered a lot of fans following on its way to what it is now. It is Stan Lee whom we crown as the God to all our childhood superheroes and Kevin Fiege and the Russo Brothers who made our adulthood awesome.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is full of stuff, and it doesn’t seem to end soon. Marvel Studios have planned centuries of work beforehand and are executing them perfectly.
The movies never let the fans down and the fans always have something to wait and get excited for. Hands down, in recent years, Marvel movies are the best in having cameos that make the theaters scream. It’s quite amazing how they know what to look for in each of their movies and series.
Take Marvel’s Moon Knight for example, the fact that the story is set in Egypt and relates to Egyptian mythology and so Marvel went with a middle eastern director Mohammad Diab for directing the series is quite a nice step in itself.
And it’s out there, you know, everyone knows how the series turned out to be, factually accurate and with a local touch. Marvel can’t be beaten in terms of creating masterpieces.
Although Marvel should carefully test its experiments, in order to not to create any disappointment.
They could have introduced the Eternals and Celestial in some other ways rather than in a movie called the Eternals that turned out to be not up to the mark and straight away hated by fans.
The storyline and the cast didn’t quite fit it seems, and that might be the reason why the movie seemed off.
2. DC Extended Universe
In one word DC is DARK. Perhaps that’s DC’s most unique quality that makes it the only one of its kind. Almost all the comic giants have their heroes’ past full of sorrows but what makes them stand out is how they put it on the big screen.
While the same thing can be shown lightly with soft scores in the background, DC likes to put it as it is, with low saturation, dark scores and amazing build-up of character.
The DC Extended Universe houses those classic heroes and villains we grew up watching. The main reason they call it extended is because they don’t count it as another universe apart from the comic universe, as Marvel does, which is a tremendously good and efficient decision in order to introduce new characters.
If executed correctly DC has the potential to take out anyone that comes near.
But, the DCEU faces an issue in production. The thing with DCEU and its directors and casts is that they don’t stick for long. DCEU is in a dire need of fixing its universe and that could come only if they stick with an individual or a fixed group of directors.
Even Marvel fans can’t disagree with the fact that Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy is the best Batman Trilogy ever! That was an era of blissful darkness on screen. Nolan and Christian Bale’s duo is till date the best thing that could ever happen.
From a fan’s point of view, if directors like Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan were given the task of fixing the DCEU, there would be no more fingers to point on DC.
At the end of the day, DC vs Marvel is not a topic of discussion, as both of them are equally brilliant.
Kevin Fiege’s frequent visits to the DC studios and having lunch with their producers and DC releasing a tribute to Stan Lee and his life after he passed away, are gestures that show that at the end we are one and the same thing.
It’s just about reliving the childhood that Bob and Stan gave us.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Difference between Marvel Movies Vs DC Movies
The Main difference between Marvel and DC movies is, Marvel takes a lighter approach towards its characters and movie looks while DC was, is and will always be darker.
2. Is the DC movie better than Marvel?
Both of them are incomparable, but if we go by surveys and fan notions then, Marvel movies are better than DC.
3. Why is it important to know about Marvel and DC?
Dude! If there are any places on earth that creates superheroes whose list doesn’t end, are either Marvel or DC.
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