Everyone recognizes the names Batman, Superman, Spiderman or Iron Man. We are all aware of the men under the suits: Bruce Wayne as Batman, Tony Stark as Iron Man, Clark Kent as Superman, and Peter Parker as Spiderman. However, which universe is proclaimed better? DC or Marvel?
The debate has been happening since the creation of these two masterful universes; DC was created in 1938 by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Marvel in 1939 by Stan Lee. Screen Rant said that the rivalry has been the “heart” of the comics industry for roughly a century, with both DC and Marvel dishing out incredible villains and heroes with powerful abilities. While DC came out a year before Marvel, Stan Lee became a person close to people’s hearts since his first comic, “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” in 1941. He took the superhero world by storm in 1991, publishing “X-Men,” which has sold over 8.2 million copies.
People can agree that when it comes to a cinematic universe, Marvel has excelled at combining worlds, creating characters and compelling storylines for people to enjoy. My personal favorite character has been Natasha Romanoff, or the Black Widow because she is a talented human being who just so happens to be a killer assassin. Marvel has developed a successful universe with characters and storylines that blend together well, with little to no confusion as to how two characters from two completely different worlds met. DC has tried to replicate this success, specifically with the Justice League, involving characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. However, the universe they’ve created has just led to confusion because the movies were done sloppily.
Stan Lee would even state in an interview written by Kelly Kinas that his characters are “relatable” and have genuine backstories viewers can empathize with. I’ve only seen a couple of the DC movies and “Wonder Woman” is the only one I feel like was done incredibly well. The movie was action-packed, sprinkled with love and fantastic magic. However, the Marvel movies I’ve watched don’t compare, simply because there are more of them, and they have been done better. There wasn’t much character development in “Wonder Woman” or even “Batman” (that I can remember), but with “Iron Man” I can clearly tell you Tony Stark was an arrogant playboy who had a harsh reality check and gained humility.
DC simply hasn’t gotten to that point of immortality that Marvel has. Sure, DC has memorable names and faces, but Marvel has the better plots, storylines and characters viewers can actually relate to.
