OPINION
Within the past decade, superhero movies have become major box office sell outs. Anywhere from serious, funny, dark or lighthearted, superhero movies have been successful in their own right. There are two major superhero franchises in the film and comic book industry: DC and Marvel. Overall, Marvel is far superior in every aspect in comparison to DC.
The characters that Marvel has created are easily the most recognizable heroes and villains. Iron man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Spider Man, Thanos and more are household names and widely popular within today’s pop culture. DC on the other hand has only a few recognizable characters: Batman, Superman and the Joker are amoung few heroes and villains that DC has that are remotely popular. I think that Marvel simply has more creative superheroes that are more relatable to its audience. For example, Iron man and Captain America are regular people with everyday lives much like the targeted audience. Batman is a billionaire orphan and Superman is an alien; in all honesty, that isn't very relatable nor is it creative.
Comedy and seriousness are both key factors in the success of a superhero movie. There should not be a 100 percent humorous superhero movie nor a 100 percent dark superhero movie. Marvel adds the perfect mix of both of these while DC only has one or the other. The Dark Knight trilogy was an extremely dark approach to the Batman series and had zero humor while Marvel movies like Deadpool keep things interesting by making a raunchy comedy that many can relate to along with more serious themes. Truly, a superhero movie is more fun and unpredictable with a blend of comedy and seriousness because the audience is truly on the edge of their seats yet still laughing in the pivotal moments of the conflict. In a Marvel movie you can always count on Captain America or Iron Man throwing out a funny one-liner but you can't expect that from Batman or Superman in DC movies.
There are two main factions in the superhero universe. Marvel owns The Avengers and DC owns The Justice League. The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron are both in the top ten highest grossing films of all time. Is any DC movie near that? No. It is clear that Marvel does a good job planning out future movies because The Avengers was built up for 4 years with separate films for each of the main member telling their story and making them fit into The Avengers team. DC on the other hand looks like they’re just out for money by throwing Batman and Superman together without any rhyme or reason. This will be seen again in 2017 with the first ever Justice League movie. What baffles me is how the Justice League is supposed to form when none of the team members, besides Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman have been on screen together or had their own movie. How does DC know that the characters will work well together if they haven't worked together?
Lastly, the overall cinematography and special effects in Marvel movies far surpass any DC movie. DC relies heavily on CGI while Marvel has a lot of pure shots and real action scenes. For example, The Green Lantern from 2011 was almost entirely animated, not even regular scenes with two characters talking had no CGI which is ridiculous because it makes it look cheesy and all around poorly produced. Excessive amounts of CGI can make a movie look like an animated film when it's supposed to be live action. Also, Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice had lots of unnecessary CGI making it look funny and unreal. Marvel does a great job at making things look real, just like with their characters as stated before. Of course there are some necessary things such as explosions and buildings falling down that need to be in CGI which is totally understandable for any film, even a DC film. However, in Marvel movies they don't add so much that the movie looks cheap and poorly produced; rather they only add it in pivotal moments for emphasis on destruction and special effects.
All in all, Marvel is better than DC for their emphasis on cinematography, character choice and development and tone of the movies.
We all know and love superheroes but one question is to be asked when discussing them: out of the two comic moguls, DC and Marvel, which reigns supreme? To me the choice is as if I’m using Superman’s X-Ray vision; DC is undoubtedly the better company. Sure Marvel does put up a good fight and is great in their own right but compared to DC it's mere child’s play.
The characters in the comics are undoubtedly the best. The most recognized superhero of all time is the “Big Blue Boy Scout,” Superman himself. When people think of superheroes they immediately think of Superman because he was around from the “Golden Age” of comic books, the early 30’s and the entire 40’s, cementing him as one the first commercially successful heroes ever.
But to every awesome hero is a dark side; for DC comics that hero was the “Dark Knight,” otherwise known as Batman. The Batman is a fan favorite with many comic book nerds because he is easier to connect to than any other. He has no powers and all the skills and equipment that he has can be acquired by the average person, depending on if they have the commitment to become a superhero. He provides the dark shadow to the DC comics’ stage where he doesn’t stop crashing planes or fight his battles against aliens or otherworldly beings. No, the Batman instead fights the dark side of humanity: the homicidal sociopaths, evil mob bosses and the corrupt among society.
Now DC has created many awesome heroes but they also have created the most diabolically evil villains ever to grace the comic books genre. Two of the worst are the Joker from Batman and Darkseid from Superman. The Joker is the worst human being ever seen; he has not only caused billions of dollars worth of damages to the world but has also killed innumerable amounts of innocent people. His objective in all of the madness and chaos he has caused is as heinous as his crimes: he does these evil and despicable deeds not for money or an idea, but instead is for his dark twisted sense of humor.
Now Darkseid is another story altogether; he is an evil god from the planet Apokolips and is one of the greatest threats to the DC universe. He is an equal to Superman in every single way and if it wasn’t for Superman, the Earth would have been destroyed long ago. Darkseid’s objective is to acquire the Anti-Life Equation so he can destroy the Fourth Dimension. He has been only marginally defeated every time by either Superman or the Justice League.
DC comics have also created one of the best and longest lasting superhero teams created: the Justice League. Membership of the League has varied throughout the years but remains as a staple of superhero lore. But to those who know about it the Justice League has an older brother: the Justice Society of America. The JSA is known officially as the first team of superhero ever in comic book history, something that Marvel can’t hold a candle to.
However, like every good superhero needs a supervillian, every superhero organization needs a supervillian organization to combat it. For the Justice League that takes form in the Injustice League and the Legion of Doom. Sadly the Legion is really only seen in the earlier DC comic T.V. shows. Both teams were created to destroy the Justice League and rule the world.
DC comics have been around since the beginning of comic books. They have also spawned multitudes of different video games, movies and cartoons based on the DC universe. All have become pop culture icons; whether for good or ill is up to personal decision. Both Batman and Superman have multitudes of different merchandise devoted to them and many more for the rest of the DC universe.
DC comics have created and molded the comic book genre from its infancy and have been an integral part in the superhero genre. Without their blockbuster heroes, comic books and the universes and fandoms that follow them would never have been created. So even though Marvel may be able to crank out great movies almost every year they still would never have gotten to where they are now if it wasn’t for the ground work laid down by DC comics.
Point-Counterpoint
Marvel
By: Alec Middleton
Staff Writer
DC
By: Jonathan DeClaire
Staff Writer
Monday, April 11, 2016
Friday, April 22, 2016
On a clear April day, I was driving home from school while trying to avoid the pothole maze that stretches from Warren to Ford on Canton Center and trying to keep my eye on my rear-view mirror at the guy tailgating me. Then, per my normal route, I turned right onto Ford Road from Canton Center and hit a pothole so large that it felt like it had swallowed my car. It just popped up out of nowhere, and the guy tailgating me was getting really close, so I got jittery. The pothole was right inside the lines of the crosswalk; almost as wide and super deep.
I apologized to my car, Arty, like I usually do, but then felt my car pulling to the left. It was not until I got back to my house that I realized I had a flat tire. Sure I had complained about the roads before, after that I was furious enough to try to do something about it; write this. I had a great set of tires on my car, but Belle Tire couldn’t fix the one tire because it was punctured on the side. According to Belle Tire, I would have to get a whole new set because my car is an all-wheel drive, which would cost on Tire Rack $117 a tire to replace with a similar make and model as the previous tires. So even to just get a new pair of tires, that is $234 for potholes that shouldn’t have been so bad in the first place.
These road conditions can be harsh on many cars, because, besides just damage to tires, potholes can cause premature wear to shocks and struts/suspension damage, which controls how your vehicle drives and handles. According to Repair Pal, the national average for replacing shocks and struts is between $315 and $510.
Especially considering Michigan has barely any public transportation for an alternative to driving, it causes many drivers to get stuck in a hole: with both their car and their money.
According to a Detroit News article, Wayne County is going to spend $30 million capital plan to fund 16 road improvement and reconstruction projects this year. Some of these projects include reconstruction in Northville, patching in Livonia, and resurfacing in Detroit. However, the only projects in Canton include widening the Denton and Geddes intersection and grading Lotz between Cherry Hill and Ford. That might be nice, but what about Canton Center? Joy? Warren? The intersection at Beck and Ford? All these roads have so many potholes, and maybe they patch them up every once in a while, but that isn’t enough. The potholes just come right back, or the patching up makes it even worse because then it just makes it even more uneven like on Canton Center, A.K.A Pothole Center.
Also, it takes a really long time for them to even patch up the roads: the Ford-Beck intersection had a pothole that could not be avoided because it was so wide that it took up the whole lane and it wasn’t filled in for over three weeks. So every day, I drove up to school and hit that giant pothole in a car that is 11 years old and can’t withstand that beating for very long.
In a Twitter poll, 36 percent of 36 voters have a car that is more than 10 years old. That is more than a third of the sample driving old cars. Shocks and struts get worn out over time, so when the factors of time and potholes combining, it can mean the loss of control of your car because of these parts getting worse.
So if Wayne County is spending millions of dollars on the roads, the Plymouth-Canton area could use a bit more than just getting Denton and Geddes widened and smoothing out Lotz. The roads in Plymouth-Canton have to be resurfaced, like what is happening in other projects in other cities like Detroit. Even if there has to be construction, that is a price I am willing to pay. Filling in the holes will not help; it will only hold off the problem for a while. So repave the roads to actually solve the pothole problem, for the sake of cars everywhere like Arty.
My Story: Canton Center or Pothole Center?