The world changed in 1978. “Superman: The Movie” premiered and nothing was ever the same. We believed a man could fly. Better yet, we believed we could have superhero movies that rose above the budget and production values of Spider-man’s made for TV movie from 1977. Actually Batman ’66 with a budget of $1.3 Million dollars was the beginning of it all. But that film was simply a vehicle to support the TV show, and no one took it seriously. Superman flew into our imaginations in ’78 and for the two big comic companies, it was on like Donkey… well you know.
I remember how enamored I was with Superman ’78. For those of us growing up watching reruns of George Reeves Superman, the film was astonishing. Superman stepped off Lois Lane’s balcony and flew off with such fluidity, we believed. My son Luke doesn’t agree. He was born just 4 years before “Unbreakable” debuted, and has never been without quality superhero movies. Watching Superman 1 & 2 with Christopher Reeve, he declared they were kind of cheesey. His wife however is the smart one of the family. She understands the significance of the Superman ’78 film. So, apparently did Marvel.
Their response? 8 years later with Howard the Duck. It’s possibly the worst superhero film ever (unless you pick Catwoman from 2004). Howard cost $37 million. That’s not a typo, $37 million, in 1986, when Terminator cost $7 million two years earlier. Howard grossed $38 million. Remember movie math? It takes 3x the budget for a movie to make a profit. George Lucas Executive produced. It was abysmal.
Marvel tried and tried with Return of the Incredible Hulk (showing us an abysmal version of Thor), Trial of the Incredible Hulk (first live action versions of Daredevil and Kingpin) and Death of the Incredible Hulk, 3 TV movies that were good, but not Superman ’78 good. DC followed up with Superman 2, and the kind of sat down on the job. Marvel put up Dolph Lundgren as the Punisher, while they lagged horribly behind. Then in 1989, DC handed Marvel their own butt again, with Batman.
Just like Superman 11 years before, Batman hit a home run so viciously powerful, it tore the cover off the ball. At first, we all hated the idea of Michael “Mr. Mom” Keaton playing our favorite dark knight, but he won us over. And Jack Nicholson as the Joker? Unmatched.
Marvel continued to be the little company that tried with Captain America in 1990 and what was supposed to be a big budget Fantastic 4 movie in 1994, produced by Roger Corman. If you know anything about the movie industry, big budget and Roger Corman do not belong in the same paragraph. If Captain America was a bomb, the Fantastic 4 was heresy, and reportedly only produced so that the company holding the rights to the property could turn around and sell the licensing to Fox for a hefty profit. The movie was never released, although several bootleg versions exist on the web, and possibly even a place where You can Tube. But DC went to sleep.
Riding high on Superman and Batman successes (4 movies each), they thought themselves untouchable. And for the most part, they were right, despite the Joel Schumacher Batman movies, DC had nothing but success to enjoy. Marvel just wasn’t able to figure out the Rubik’s cube that was big budget superhero film production, like DC had done. Then something happened, and Marvel quit chasing DC, and started doing their on thing.
In 2000, Marvel released their first X-men movie through a partnership with Fox, an enormous success. Marvel was still years away from producing film in-house, but they had teamed up with Fox (and later Sony) to give us comic fans an enormously satisfying version of Marvel’s much maligned mutants. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan owned their roles as Professor X and Magneto. That movie also introduced us to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, possibly the greatest superhero casting decision of all time. Marvel had some breathing room, and followed up with Spider-Man in 2002 (Sony), a monstrously successful decision. Comic book fans were split on X-Men 2 (2003), but consider Spider-Man 2 (2004) with Alfred Molina as Doc Ock one of best superhero films ever. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save Marvel from the onslaught that was Batman Begins (2005).
DC dealt what looked like the crushing blow. Marvel fans were sure that their favorite comic book company was always going to be the 2nd best, out of two. DC lead the way in the 70's in the 80's and now the 2000's. Both companies skipped the 90's, but thank goodness we had films like Robocop, Darkman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rocketeer and even (say what you like) Stallone as Judge Dredd. Unbreakable (2000) broke the century in with one of the best (maybe THE best) superhero film ever made. At that time, no one knew The Dark Knight (2008) was right around the corner.
If Batman Begins was the set up punch, Dark Knight was the knock out. Except that Marvel wasn't in the same fight they had been fighting. In 2004, Marvel secured a half a billion dollar loan secured with movie right to 10 properties including the Avengers. Creating Marvel Studios was a risky move. But that risk changed the world of the live action film game for a second time.
The result of the risk was Iron Man (2008), Thor (2011), Captain America (2011), The Avengers (2012), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), all their subsequent sequels, Ant-Man (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), Black Panther (2018) and more. Marvel had beaten DC at their own game, producing movies with slam bang action, but also depth of character, and seriously creative plots. DC, after Christopher Nolan's Batman series, fell apart, not producing a single film with more than paper-thin characterization until 2017's Wonder Woman, choosing to rely on grabbing their audience with stunning visual effects. Movie goers quickly found out that papaya-flavored cotton candy is only good for a short time.
The fight goes on. How will it all play out? Marvel is king right now, but DC has been there before, and knows what to do to be there again, if they have the will. Marvel, for all their dominance, needs to remember a time when they were the underdog, and not fall asleep at the wheel. The nice thing is while they fight, we win.
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