[KiwiTek]

Ok all you superhero fans. Which universe is the best and why? Vote int he poll and then tell us your thoughts below.


DC or Marvel.... choose!

[denizen]

When I was younger, I used to be an avid comic book collector and loved reading them for many years.

Started off with Marvel & slowly went to DC. Strangely though, my loyalty over the years has moved back to Marvel. Why, you ask? I don't know. I loved Iron Man & Ghost Rider when I was a kid and Iron Man has, in my opinion, been done right. DC always had a sense of changing origin stories or concepts that were far from the comic. Marvel were always faithful.

Nowadays, DC have become more faithful but seem to lack a sense of charm that Marvel seem to offer. Guardians of the Galaxy last year made it for me. And I am a huge fan of Captain America & Thor. So Avengers is on my list this year.

I gave Man of Steel a try but hated the forwards / backwards story arc and the lack of chemistry between Lois & Clark made it seem transparent. Dark Knight was spot on but DC seem to be on an on / off ratio.

Arrow got annoying for me simply because it was not like the comic book Oliver Queen. It was a fixed up version of the Smallville Oliver and felt it was far from where they needed to be. Unless DC are planning on integrating the TV shows into movies with the same stars, they are wasting their time. And so far, it already sounds like a new star will helm the Flash movie.

[KiwiTek]

Yeah I hated that backwards and forwards thing in man of steel too. In fact I thought the whole movie was rubbish. Superman Returns was much better.

The only Marvel heroes I've ever followed or been interested in are Spiderman and Hulk.

Ironman was cool as a movie but I've never read any comics on it.

But from the DC universe I've pretty much followed all the big names... Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Women, Aquaman.

I would agree that DC has quite a way to go to catch up with Marvel in terms of unifying the movies together into the same recognizable universe. So far the only unifying that's happened has been with Arrow and Flash through the TV shows.

[Jediferret]

Oh, why do you have to make me choose!? I'm not really an avid comic book reader/collector. But, I love X-Men, and Wonder Women. Rogue is a personal favorite. So, I guess it'll have to be Marvel for me.

[MacGyverGod]

I've always had a problem with comic book adaptations. I just don't know why. For some reason it never appeals to me. There are exceptions though but I never get into it for some reason. It took me years to like Tobey Maguire as Spiderman and now that I come to like it, they already rebooted it after only ten years. The Amazing Spiderman movies simply suck. I liked Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, James Franco & Kirsten Dunst in it.

But Chris Nolan's Batman movies hit indeed the bulls eye from the start. It's like he knows how to do it. I like Batman's dark tone in it and I liked Tim Burton's approach as well. Joel Schumacher on the other hand. I mean nipples on their suits. Why? The Dark Knight movies are simply finished. It has everything, they scored.

Superman Returns I liked it immediately. Another exception. Man of Steel, might give it a chance, I've seen it at the movies though and I got the feeling Russell Crowe was abled to carry the movie on it's own.

Thor was also nice.

I liked Marvel The Avengers movie and I was hoping it would get me more into it but when I saw Captain America, I didn't like it. Still I think it would be interesting to see the comic world combined with World War II. Marvel The Avengers was a great ensemble movie and I'm looking forward to the next one though.

Iron Man I also came to accept. That was mostly through The Avengers. In The Avengers I like the chemistry between Tony Stark and the Hulk or should I say Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo? Robert Downey Jr's, arrogance fits Tony Stark so well, it's just delightful to see him on screen. He fits the role perfectly.

As a kid I've seen the Hulk's television movies with Bill Bixby and remember the television show vaguely. I've seen Ang Lee's adaptation which sucked. I know there is a sequel to it with Liv Tyler. But Hulk's presence in The Avengers was widely welcomed.

Now indeed X-Men and most of all Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman is more or less my personal favourite. Though The Dark Knight is just so solid as rock. It has made his stamp as I think the best comic book adaptation ever. But Wolverine is something else. It's how I got to know Hugh Jackman even though I had seen Van Helsing and Swordfish.

I think my two most favourite characters are actually Bruce Wayne and Wolverine. Batman doesn't have any super powers at all. He inherited everything of his parents and has been fully trained in several martial arts skills as possible and besides he's not to be taken for a fool. Wolverine is cool because technically he's immortal. These two characters carry a trauma with them which gives them this dark tone that kinda attracts me.

[MacFan092985]

I've never been a big comic book reader. As a kid my exposure to the characters in DC and Marvel was mainly through the cartoons. I always thought the DC characters were presented too clean, too childlike as opposed to darker, edgier look of Marvel characters.

Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman set in WWII was great, but lost something when the series changed networks and was set in modern day 1970s.

Michael Keaton's Batman and Christian Bale's Dark Knight are the only DC characters that appeal to me. The first two Christopher Reeves Superman movies and Brandon Routh's version were enjoyable. The new series "Gotham" looks good too.

However, overall Marvel is such a deeper, more creative, more involved franchise.

MARVEL BABY!

[Duckt tape]

Well I only like Spider-Man so gonna have to say Marvel

[denizen]

I know that this does not really have much to do with this topic but I heard about this yesterday:



Before Marvel Studios was part of Disney, Marvel established a method of developing and packaging its own films in order to retain some control over the characters. Now Valiant Entertainment seems to be trying to do the same thing, by scoring a huge amount of investment capital from DMG Entertainment to develop a Valiant comics movie universe.

DMG has put eight figures worth of funding into Valiant “to further its efforts in international publishing, film, television, licensing and beyond.” But that’s not all. The press release announcing the deal also trumpets an additional nine-figure investment towards development of film and TV projects featuring Valiant characters such as Bloodshot, Shadowman, and Archer & Armstrong. The goal of the partnership between Valiant and DMG is significant, and they’re not hiding it, as the announcement proclaims the creation of the “largest independent superhero universe.”



Some of these have already been in development, as the press release notes:
BLOODSHOT from Sony Pictures in partnership with Original Film
SHADOWMAN in partnership with the Sean Daniel Company from a script by J. Michael Straczynski
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, also with the Sean Daniel Company from a script by BenDavid Grabinski

In addition to all this development funding and an upcoming push for Valiant characters in the US, DMG, which is based in China, plans a huge Valiant-based licensing push in China to develop the market there for these characters.

Granted, we know nothing about how this will all work out — it depends in the end on the scripts, and the other creatives brought on board to help turn them into movies and TV. But money helps with that, and Valiant has a lot of it right now. The fact that these projects could end up at different studios might be an issue, but if Sony already has Bloodshot, perhaps it wants all of Valiant’s stable.