d21lewis said:
Dante9 said:
I actually think that the DC universe could *not* be cooler than the Marvel universe, and that's part of their problem. Batman is cool, I'll give them that, but the other ones.. Not so much. I mean there's always some cheesiness when it comes to superheroes, but Marvel gets around that by making it so that the superpowers tend to be also a curse or a downside for the characters and they have real life issues that kind of ground them in a way, making them more like one of us. Relatable. DC on the other hand has Super-Duper Man, an invincible being from another world and a beacon of righteousness for us all! Wonder Woman, with her magic bracelets that can stop bullets! Green lantern, with his magic ring and the beautiful power of imagination! Aquaman, the prince of the depths, who talks to fish! Now with cooler looks because of casting the manliest man there is to offset the silliness! Do you see what I mean? DC characters tend to be like these prototype heroes from an age that doesn't really click with the contemporary world. Give Warner Brothers a break, this is what they're trying to work with. | That's not true. It's a common misconception used to discredit DC characters. There movies could be better written but the actual characters on written page are pretty similar. For decades, Marvel characters were supposed to be relateable everyman characters while DC was full of billionaires and gods and aliens with special abilities. Tony Stark? Thor? Silver Surfer? Marvel Characters were written with real world problems but DC characters have been written the same since at least the 70s. Hell, half the time the people who created the characters or wrote for Marvel also wrote for DC! The only major difference is that a lot (not all of the time) of the time, DC characters are loved by the public while Marvel characters are feared. And even then there's tons of examples that contradict even that.
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Many of the DC core characters came about in the 30s or 40s, it was a different time where superheroes were about ideals and they were presented as virtuous and wondrous and something to look up to and admire. Like you say, perhaps they were given more relatable problems in the 70s but maybe it just doesn't work so well because their original starting points are so far removed from the human experience. (Compare to, say, a student dweeb who gets bitten by a radioactive spider, but still has to be a student dweeb as well as a hero in secret.)
Let's take your examples.
Tony Stark doesn't have superpowers, he's just a genius with technology. He builds his suit out of necessity to keep himself from dying. He has an ego and troubles in his relationships, plus he goes through bouts of alcoholism and whatnot. Not exactly an example of a shining paragon among men, but a lovable jerk.
Thor is a god, yes, but he's hardly a living statue to be adored like Superman. He has to go through ordeals to redeem himself and grow as a person, because he starts off as an arrogant ass. He needs to be worthy at all times in order to wield his weapon. There's a major arc of developing his character. He also struggles with complicated family tensions and his position among the powerful in his world.
Silver Surfer? Now here we go into trouble territory. Very galactic and powerful, no real human characteristics or problems and due to these things, he is already much more difficult to relate to. That's why I don't think Marvel is going to bank on him too much, unless they somehow manage to pull off a successful reboot of the Fantastic Four, which haven't been too hot either in previous attempts. Actually, this seems to be an argument in your favor, because it's baffling to me how bad the FF movies have been. I could easily see Marvel doing a much better job with them. So maybe it's more to do with execution after all?
I'm not trying to discredit anything. I just think that there might be something inherent in many DC characters that explains why - with the exception of Batman - they haven't really taken off on the big screen in the contemporary world. Could be I'm just biased and totally off the mark, or maybe there's something to this.
Sorry about the layout, the quoting is broken again.
