Anybody who grew up on superhero comic books knew the rules.
DC Comics had the better heroes (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, etc.) but Marvel had the better stories. DC’s superheroes remained, well, just superheroes.
Marvel’s heroes on the other hand had depth and plots that ranged from Spiderman’s teenage angst to Bruce Banner’s trauma at becoming the Hulk.
Just as the world was divided, in the Sixties, between people who liked the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, it was also divided between DC fans and Marvel addicts. I was always a DC fan (but then I also preferred The Beatles to the Stones in that era) on the grounds that I read superhero comics for superhero adventures. When I wanted depth, drama and angst, I would read a proper book, thank you very much.
When superheroes hit the screen, the early movies and TV shows were simple re-workings of childish adventures (The Batman and Spiderman TV shows, for example).
But then directors began to get ambitious. When Richard Donner was asked to direct the first Superman picture, he used a script by Mario Puzo (author of The Godfather) to create an ambitious and very grown up story. Much later, when Tim Burton took over Batman, he created a dark and brooding Batman who was portrayed as a disturbed character, who was not very different in his mental stability from some of the villains he fought.
The Batman movies coincided with the rise of graphic novels (such as The Dark Night Returns), which were directed at adults and took the old superheroes and placed them in very grown-up situations.
By then, the rule of thumb in Hollywood was to make the movies for adults on the assumption that the kids would watch them anyway. When directors deviated from the formula, the movies tanked. The third Superman movie was directed by Richard Lester who took a jokier approach to the material and was widely derided by the critics. The failure of that movie caused its studio to sell the franchise to a fly-by-night operation called Cannon which made Superman IV, possibly the worst movie in the superhero universe. When Tim Burton gave up on Batman and the studio made the campy Batman and Robin, the crappiness of the picture was such that even George Clooney could not save it. The film tanked and killed the franchise.
When Superman and Batman were revived, directors were properly respectful of the seriousness of the themes. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was darker than anything that Tim Burton had made and Superman Returns went back to the Richard Donner style of treating the hero as a sort of Greek God.
| "The Avengers is the most ambitious superhero movie ever planned because it teams up Captain America with Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawk Eye." |
Given that Marvel had the darker comics you would expect that movies made about its characters would be as dark. And certainly Ang Lee’s first Hulk movie was properly grown-up. But all the other Marvel movies have been adventure romps with very little darkness. I am not a fan of the Spiderman movies but I do not think that anyone could argue that they are deep and dark. Nevertheless, they make millions.
Robert Downey’s Iron Man movies are fun – mainly because of the star’s charisma – but they are hardly adult in their themes. The newer Marvel superhero movies follow the same pattern. Ken Branagh’s Thor is like a kiddie version of Clash of the Titans, which was not very grown up to begin with. Captain America, which has been a huge hit, opening stronger than the new Harry Potter movie, is also pretty comic-book like in its appeal.
This is good news for Marvel, which is planning The Avengers for release next year. The Avengers is the most ambitious superhero movie ever planned because it teams up Captain America with Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawk Eye. Word is that the movie will not be particularly grown up either.
Contrast the success of Marvel’s comic book movies with the tepid reception accorded to Green Lantern, a movie about a DC superhero that adopted a light tone, eschewing the darkness of Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan. Virtually nobody (expect perhaps for me) enjoyed Green Lantern.
So here’s the paradox. DC Comics, which had a reputation for kiddie-style superheroes, now has the deep dark movies. And Marvel, which liked the more mature themes in its comic books, now makes the kiddie movies.
Funny, isn’t it?
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