The DC & Marvel Fandom Disparity

Marvel Fandom Assembled!

A legitimate argument could be made that Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins kicked off the “Golden Age of Super Hero Cinema” in 2005. DC fans, did you know that there was supposed to be an eventual cross-over between Nolan’s Batman and Superman, but Nolan refused insisting that his Batman existed in his own universe? So you can start the blame with him on the lag behind Marvel.

I acknowledge X-Men came years earlier in 2000, and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man came in 2002. Both of those properties are Marvel, though they belonged, cinematically, to Fox and Sony respectively. But it was around Batman Begins that Marvel Studios was born, and with it came 2008’s surprise breakout hit Iron Man. I chuckle saying “surprise” now, because any film featuring Iron Man, or more specifically Robert Downey Jr., in the role, makes nothing less than $1 Billion at the box office. 

So why has Marvel “gotten it right”? Well they have and they haven’t. Since its inception, Marvel Studios has had one man at the helm, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, to guide the ship. It wasn’t until recently, that it was well known that even Feige had to navigate the muddled waters of “creative committees” and other studio execs getting in the way. This “creative committee” is what gave Joss Whedon so many headaches with Avengers: Age of Ultron, forced the departure of Edgar Wright from Ant-Man, and annoyed the hell out of Jon Favreau during the production of Iron Man 2. Fortunately for Feige and Marvel Studios though, Ike Perlmutter and the Marvel “creative committee” are out of the way, thanks to the muscle of Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and President of Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn. Warner Bros. has seemingly taken similar steps by naming Geoff Johns President and Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment.