WALKING DEAD Creator Weighs In On The Marvel vs. DC Debate
Art by Charlie Layton
There have been a lot of people weighing in with their thoughts on Marvel Cinematic Universe versus the DC Cinematic Universe. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it seems like the MCU is clearly winning the fight.
Marvel has The Avengers: Age of Ultron coming out this year and fanboys/fangirls around the world are foaming at the mouth for its release. In fact, Marvel's line-up for the next few years is pretty freaking amazing!
On the other hand, DC’s next big release is Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and there has been a mixed reaction from the masses. The biggest negative fan response came from the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman. That didn’t seem like that bad of a decision to me. Affleck fits perfectly into the mold that Snyder has set for his version of the DCCU. Based on what I have seen of the movie so far, which admittedly isn’t much, I don’t think we will be disappointed.
Despite my delusions of grandeur, my opinion does not matter as much as I would like to think it does. However, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is a man that has knowledge in not only the comic book world, but also in the transitions of comics to screen.
This year, Kirkman was at SXSW where he was a part of the “Creative Activism” panel. While talking about TWD companion series that is set to come out this summer, Kirkman was asked for his opinion on the MCU vs. DCCU debate, and this is what he had to say:
"I’m going to get in trouble here … Anyone would be foolish to think that Marvel hasn’t done something extremely special. I think of Iron Man ending with with a surprise cameo from Samuel L. Jackson [mentioning] The Avengers – you were like, ‘What?! How did that happen?!’ People forget that was a surprise. Everything that came out of that was very organic and very exciting. I think [DC] announcing you’re going to do a Justice League movie after a Superman movie, that was neat and had some awesome things in it, but it wasn’t like amazing or groundbreaking – I shouldn’t have said that. It was an awesome movie, I like it. [The plan] just seems derivative, so it puts them in a backseat position to Marvel. It’s not organic so there’s going to be so much scrutiny on Batman vs. Superman when it comes out. It’s got an uphill battle. If they hadn’t told anybody if the Justice League were going to appearing in that, and they were forming that, it would have been surprising and exciting and weird. People are forgetting how important the surprise is. But, you know, Aquaman looks awesome and I’m sure it will be great."
I completely agree with Kirkman, DC is trying too hard to play catch up and in that process they have shot themselves in the foot. I am not saying that they are going to fail, I just think they are making success a harder and harder thing for them to obtain. Not only are they revealing too much too soon, but I feel that they really dropped the ball as far as their TV series’ are concerned. I am a huge fan of both Arrow and The Flash. They are doing their fans a great disservice by not integrating those already-functioning worlds into the grand scheme of things. If you are not familiar with the series’ I suggest you give them both a try - totally worth it. Anyway, in my opinion, Grant Gustin is the perfect Barry Allen/The Flash. Why they recast the role of The Flash for the Justice League movie just baffles me. This disconnect they are causing with an already-existing successful franchise makes no sense.
Like I said before, my opinion doesn’t make much of a difference in grand scheme of things. Please, let me know what you think on this subject. Am I not seeing the big picture here? What have I missed? Is Kirkman off point here? Let us know.
Via: EW