David Pierdomenico
As the decades long rivalry between Marvel and DC entered the 21st Century, something unprecedented occurred: the dawn of the cinematic universe. It’s true that Marvel was the first to try this unique idea, and in many ways the DCEU failed in their attempts to mimic the concept. No one is denying that DC and Warner Brothers have made huge mistakes. However, we can very well deny that everything Marvel did was perfect, and everything DC did was awful. So let’s take a look at 5 different aspects that the DCEU pulled off better than their more successful rival.
(Note: We are only considering films from the DC Extended Universe and Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anything from Burton and Nolan’s Batman films to Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy to Fox’s X-Men franchise will not be considered.)
1. Stunning Visuals
When telling epic stories of superheroes, visuals are extremely important. These are larger than life characters, so the production design and cinematography need to match this. Not to suggest that Marvel’s films don’t look good at all, but they don’t hold a candle to DC. Say what you want about Zack Snyder’s storytelling abilities, but his shots often look like beautiful paintings, and this can be seen firsthand in Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League. Plus, the DC films (except for Aquaman) were all shot on film versus digital (which Marvel prefers) and there’s a real difference. Digital makes it easier to do things like add color grading or CGI, but film has a natural and organic grain to it that simply looks more cinematic.
2. Iconic Musical Scores
To be fair, Thor and Captain America have decent musical themes to go along with their characters. However, the problem is that both of these themes haven’t really been utilized since their original films back in 2011. On the other hand, DC has had the advantage of employing one of the most brilliant composers of our time: Hans Zimmer. His “Ideal of Hope” theme from Man of Steel is bold, inspiring, and a far better piece of music than anything Marvel has ever done. Along with the badass Wonder Woman theme featuring electric guitar, music is something that DC clearly knows how to pull off.
3. Less Repetitive Storytelling
One of the most common criticisms of the MCU is that many of its films feel very similar. And there’s a definite pattern, particularly with their origin stories. It’s the reason that Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange all feel like they’re following the same plot points. While Man of Steel wasn’t exactly the most original film in the world, each DCEU installment feels completely unique from the others. And the fact that Warner Brothers and DC have given their directors more creative control has allowed for a larger difference in tone. Marvel and Disney were clearly forcing Joss Whedon to shoehorn references to the Infinity Stones in Age of Ultron, and tried to micromanage Edgar Wright to the point that he quit Ant-Man.
4. Capturing the Real World
The entire first phase of the MCU was filled with world-changing events including: the emergence of Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk “breaking Harlem”, a Norse god showing up in New Mexico, and a full scale alien invasion in New York City. Any one of these would be enough to change the world forever, let alone all of them in succession. However, the MCU never really shows how the world reacted to all these radical changes. In the films that follow, everything is pretty much business as usual.
One would think that things would never be the same again, and the closest we get is Stan Lee’s single line of dialogue from Infinity War, “What’s the matter? Never seen a spaceship before?” On the contrary, a good chunk of Batman v. Superman is devoted to showing just how the existence of Superman rocked the planet to its very core. Some see him as a god, others as a demon. Many even hold him personally accountable for the destruction of Metropolis in Man of Steel. The DCEU may have more fictional locations like Gotham, Metropolis, or Atlantis, but it feels more like these heroes exist in our real world. They also tend to get much deeper and philosophical with their themes as well, as both Wonder Woman and Batman v. Superman pose the question of whether or not humanity is worth saving.
5. On the Right Side of History
Currently Marvel is claiming that they want more diversity in their future films, but for a studio that professes to be progressive, they sure haven’t been in the past. Despite being one of the most popular characters, Black Widow has yet to get her own standalone film, one which fans have been craving for years. To be fair, Captain Marvel will mark the first of their films with a solo female lead (Ant-Man and The Wasp was the first to include a female lead at all), but it’s taken 11 years and 20 previous films just to get to that point!
DC succeeded at showing up their rival when they released Wonder Woman to both critical and financial acclaim. It was only the 4th film in their series and is considered by many to be the best. Part of this stems from brilliant direction by Patty Jenkins, who Marvel once let go for “creative differences” when she was supposed to direct Thor: The Dark World. Marvel even backed out of letting Rebecca Hall play the villain in Iron Man 3, specifically because they feared that a female villain wouldn’t sell enough toys. They of course remedied this with Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, but why did it take so long for this to happen?
None of these facts change anything about what Marvel has done right or DC has done wrong. And to be fair, it seems that Marvel is finally learning from their mistakes of the past. At the same time, as DC has made many storytelling mistakes, the success of Aquaman will hopefully lead them into the right direction. For many fans, this rivalry is an intense bitter one, but honestly, there’s no reason we all can’t enjoy both franchises and wish the best for them both as well!
