Remember those cartoons you used to watch every Saturday morning? Maybe it was the Little Mermaid, or PowerPuff Girls. Well, I remember watching Batman and Robin fighting all the bad guys in Gotham City. They went up against villains like the Joker or Mr. Freeze and I used to think, “ wow, it doesn’t get better than this.” Yet, it did.
I can still recall the moment I watched The Avengers in 2012. I didn’t know what the MCU was (which I later learned is an acronym for Marvel Cinematic Universe). I fell in love the moment I saw Captain America ( played by Chris Evans) punching a punching bag at the gym. Everything was amazing, from the recurring theme song to the high-action sequences.
Now down to the basics, the MCU is a series of superhero films based on the Marvel Comics, which was created by the late Stan Lee. The movies are all broken down to different phases. Phase One started with Iron Man in 2008 (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and ends with The Avengers (2012). Phase Two starts with Iron Man 3 (2013) and concludes with Ant Man in 2015 (played by Paul Rudd). Phase Three begins with Captain AMerica: Civil War (2016) and ends with Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 (played by Tom Holland). Due to the pandemic, Phase Four was delayed, but it will begin with Black Widow later on this year, 2021.
The DC Universe (Detective Comics Universe) is one of the oldest comic book companies in America. I’m sure we’re all familiar with superheroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, or even Aquaman. They all stem from this particular series. The movies of this era are more well known for Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Dark Knight (Batman) and Zack Synder’s Man of Steel (Superman). Both of these series partake in a darker tone compared to superhero films by Marvel.
Having both been created a few years before World War II, Marvel and DC served as a comic relief in the United States. Marvel created Captain America as sort of the war hero of the series, the same with DC and Superman.
When it comes to idealistic and realistic characters, Marvel reigns. Although both contain fiction characters, Marvel does a better job in making their background and power origin realistic. The issue with DC characters is that many of them follow a God-like complex. For example, Aquaman naturally has the power of the sea, and later becomes the King of Atlantis. Along with Wonder Woman, who is the daughter of Zeus and has the power of Ares, God of War. And yet somehow, Batman ranks pretty high amongst these Gods only due to the fact that he’s rich. Many of these characters are born with phenomenal powers that makes them great, which is great, but lacks when it comes to the character’s development.
Meanwhile, Marvel features characters which can be explained partially from science. Captain America was given Super Serum, Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider, and Hulk was exposed to excessive amounts of Gamma Rays. There is the exception of Thor, who is a God himself on the planet of Asgard. Stan Lee envisioned the Marvel world to be idealistic to the real world, and wanted to implement problems that real life humans can connect to. These superheroes learn how to become great, which is more realistic than being born great. This feature is what makes Marvel more appealing to the public that watched the movies and read the comics.
To conclude, DC movies gained a reputation for being dark, serious and gritty while Marvel movies were much rather loved for being humorous, colorful and entertaining for both children and adults alike.