Batman aside, Marvel have the lion's share of success in the movie business. Of course, this hasn't always been the case, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that the comics-on-film era didn't REALLY kick off until X-Men was released in 2000 and the only major comic based films of any success were the Batman films.
But then X-Men came out and the game changed. Fortunately for Marvel, it changed for the better.
Here are the lists. Since the year 2000 right up until 2014.
By the way, I'm including movie rights owned by other companies in these lists, as I am mainly pointing out the differences in the big two comic book companies and I'm only including summer blockbuster types. Man-Thing doesn't count...
2000
X-Men
Nada.
2001
Nada for both.
2002
Blade 2Spider-Man
Road to Perdition
2003
Daredevil
X-Men 2
Hulk
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
2004
The Punisher
Spider-Man 2
Blade: Trinity
Catwoman
2005
Elektra
Fantastic Four
Batman Begins
Constantine
V for Vendetta
A History of Violence
2006
X-Men: The Last Stand
Superman Returns
2007
Ghost Rider
Spider-Man 3
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Stardust
2008
Ironman
The Incredible Hulk
Punisher: Warzone
The Dark Knight
The Spirit
2009
X-men Origins: Wolverine
Watchmen
2010
Ironman 2
Kick-Ass
The Losers
Red
Jonah Hex
2011
Thor
X-Men: First Class
Captain America
Green Lantern
2012
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The Avengers
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Dark Knight Rises
2013
Ironman 3
The Wolverine
Thor: The Dark World
Man of Steel
2014
Captain America: The Winter SoldierThe Amazing Spider-Man 2
Guardians of the Galaxy
Nada.
Totals
33
18
Yeah. The Fucking Avengers.
Easily the best movie of the year, if not the decade. But also a major problem for DC. Why? Well, they're in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. See, everyone wants a Justice League movie but if they make one, then everyone else is just going to say it's a cheap knock-off of The Avengers.
So what's a DC to do?
Compete.
Look at Marvel's 'movieverse', mightily disappointed and say "is that the best you could do?"
Because while The Avengers kicked all sorts of ass, the build up was far from perfect.
Ironman was great, a perfect introduction to a larger world.
The Incredible Hulk was good in comparison to the Eric Bana film but a lot of that was down to Ed Norton. Looking back, it felt like obligatory chapter in the build up to The Avengers, there was no real character development. I think Hulk's niche was then found in the team environment.
Ironman 2 was its predecessor but with more Avengers build up. Again, little to no character development and the villain was essentially the same. It's pretty, but not great.
Thor, I thought, was the best of the lot. It's build up to The Avengers was very subtle, allowing perfect character development without losing it's blockbuster feel.
Captain America was OK. That's all. They wasted a good 5 minutes on that stupid song and tried to cram a character defining friendship and romance along with a series of other cameos and homages into one film. The story really would have benefited from spreading it out along two movies.
The build up is where DC can surpass Marvel in the race for cinematic superiority.
If they take what they've learned from the success of The Dark Knight Trilogy, the failures of Superman Returns and Green Lantern and the take on the willingness to experiment like Marvel's treatment of Thor, they will create the perfect film franchise.
First thing first. The villain of the piece...
It's my opinion that there is only one villain capable of making modern viewers believe that seven of the worlds finest heroes must come together to defeat him.
Darkseid.
He's big, bad, has a whole world's worth of army to bring to Earth to conquer it. He also has some mainstream exposure through Smallville and the Justice League cartoon.
The only gripe is this: isn't he just a little too similar to Thanos? What with the Boomtubes and the like?
The original roster of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Barry Allen as The Flash, Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter is near perfect. Aquaman, however, could be too much of a joke to the mainstream to be considered for a project of this nature. Though the idea of Darkseid's effect on several different civilizations is intriguing.
The Justice League cartoon roster is no doubt the most known to the mainstream, swapping out Aquaman for Hawkgirl, Barry Allen for Wally West as The Flash and Hal Jordan for John Stewart as Green Lantern.
Hawkgirl is one alien too many for what the story would entail, so she's gotta go also, I think it's too soon for other Green Lanterns to be involved in movies just yet. So this roster too proves imperfect.
While this is the current roster and potentially the most relatable to our old friend AMG, it's probably the worst for the story that needs to be told. Cyborg is too unknown and the aforementioned gripes with Aquaman have to be acknowledged.
So who do we go with?
Obviously the 'Big Three.' Their inclusion was never in doubt.
Hal Jordan's Green Lantern. Purely because it's too much to be explaining different Green Lanterns and what-not while trying to orchestrate a story about global invasion and domination. Also, an established Green Lantern would be able to provide the back story to Darkseid by briefing the team.
Wally West as The Flash. No matter which incarnation of The Flash, he is always the heart and conscience of The Justice League, but while Barry Allen is a down-to-earth honest nice guy, Wally West has a quick wit, perfect for the occasional bout of comic relief.
Aquaman. While I really wanted to put Green Arrow here, it would be too Avenger-y to have an archer in the team. Aquaman, specifically an amalgamation of Arther Curry and Orin depictions, would be a daring move for DC. But with the right stewardship, it would really give Darkseid's invasion a global threat.
The Martian Manhunter. The one with the wisdom to bring the team together. He would, in a round-about fashion, represent us. An outsider, witnessing the peril in this world and recognizing the need for heroes to do something about it.
So we have the roster, we have the villain, how does DC compete with The Avengers?
Eight films. In this order.
A Flash origin film, with Barry Allen and Wally West both gaining their powers in the same incident, but with Barry Allen becoming The Flash and holding Wally West back on account of him being a teenager.
A Batman film. A reboot with a pre-established bat-family of Nightwing, Batgirl and introducing Tim Drake as Robin.
A Green Lantern sequel pitting the corps against Darkseid and losing, resulting in Hal Jordan needing to beat Darkseid to Earth.
A Wonder Woman film. Both an origin and a tie in to the Justice League film. Her villains would be the Female Furies. She would drive the Furies away from Themyscira and follow them, recognizing the world of man needs her help.
A Flash sequel depicting Barry Allen going against Darksied's minions with Wally West forcing himself into the frame as Kid Flash. Barry Allen would be killed at the end with Wally being captured.
A Batman sequel pitting the Bat-family against Desaad and Darkseid's army. The battle forces the family into hiding as Darkseid takes over the world.
A Superman film, a sequel to Man of Steel. Superman vs Darkseid. With Superman losing both physically and spiritually. At the end a mysterious green figure arrives on the conquered Earth.
The Justice League. The green figure is the Martian Manhunter. He seeks out Batman and explains that he's been watching from Mars, another victim of Darkseid's army, revealed to be the white martians. He says that individually, they can't defeat Darkseid but together, they can be the most powerful force in the universe. Manhunter and Batman find Wally, captured, holding Barry Allen's uniform. Manhunter tells him he must take up the mantle. Wally asks why. Batman says "vengeance."
Manhunter says he and Flash will locate the rest, but tells Batman he must find the Kryptonian.
Batman finds Superman. There's no action. It's like De Niro and Pacino in Heat. Batman convinces Kal-El to come back into the world to fight Darkside.
They then meet up on a bridge with Flash and Manhunter who have met up with Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Manhunter says there's one more. Aquaman turns up and they go to fight Darkseid.
Or you know, something to that effect.
But the point is it must be character driven, like The Dark Knight Trilogy but without losing focus of the action.
DC can't compete with Marvel in terms of originality and pioneering in the movie business. They've already lost that battle. The best they can hope for is to one-up everything Marvel does.
'Til next time!
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